By Chris Adams
The Students’ Union Club Awards ceremony was held in MacEwan Hall on Wednesday April 2. Of the 300 clubs on campus, 13 received awards. SU vice-president student life elect Jonah Ardiel was the master of ceremonies for the event in place of current vice-president student life Ben Cannon.
Club of the Year, announced by Cannon over video message, was awarded to the Distress Centre. Distress Centre president and founder Amy Li accepted the award alongside club executives.
“We are so excited. We’re a brand new club so we really wanted to put all our effort into doing a good job and to really make this club stand out and spread the word about mental health stigma,” Li said.
In a speech before Cannon’s announcement, Ardiel said the club of the year “has been successful in most, if not all of the other award categories. This club is a cut above all the rest and has displayed some crowning achievements that prove they deserve this award.”
Oxfam Calgary received the Best New Club award. Oxfam works to reduce poverty and injustice. They advocate for equal rights to education and health care around the world. Oxfam Calgary president Hayeong Rho said she was happy to win among stiff competition.
“We’re very glad that we won. We’re just really happy about this award,” Rho said.
The Engineering Students’ Society received the Student Life award. ESS recently raised over $5,000 for charity during their Pi Week campaign. The Muslim Students’ Association received one of its two honourable mentions in this category.
The Quality of Education award was given to Easy Ace Tutoring, while the Harry Potter Quidditch club received the Innovation award.
Other winners include the Calgary Health Care Improvement Network who won the Leadership award and the Eco Club for the Sustainability award. The European Council nabbed the Collaboration award.
After receiving an honourable mention for best new club, the Consent Awareness and Sexual Education club took the Advocacy award. While Amnesty International got an honourable mention in this category, they did win the Community Leadership award.
The Alumni Engagement award went to the Rundle Group of Geology.
The Kinesiology Students’ Society received the First-Year Engagement award and the Campus Pride award was won by the U of C Cheer team.
Ten club members received an Eric Lahoda SU Memorial Scholarship. Each scholarship is valued at $1,000. Current SU arts representative Zainab Malik and incoming arts representative Kirsty McGowan were among the 10 winners.