Being honoured for more than 50 years of service to his community is nice - but the service is reward enough for Dr. Laverne Kindree.
Kindree has been awarded with a 2005 British Columbia Community Achievement Award.
"It's a great honour to be recognized for fifty years of service," Kindree said. "It's been a great honour for me to have had the opportunity to practice here.
"That is the bigger reward in itselfThe fact that I had the opportunity to be here and serve the community."
Kindree was one of the first doctors to come to Squamish 55 years ago, and he was alone in his practice for eight years. He arrived before the Squamish General Hospital did. In fact, establishing a hospital was one of Kindree's first tasks.
Practising medicine without a hospital proved to be complicated.
"It was difficult because at that time there was no road or railroad," he said. He would have to sit for hours with critically ill patients if the weather was bad and they could not be transported by boat or plane into the city. Babies were delivered at home.
He also had the responsibility of making weekly trips to Mount Currie and working with the First Nations people.
"That was an area I really enjoyed. I missed it when I stopped it."
Since then he has served on the Squamish Board of Trade, the predecessor to the Squamish Chamber of Commerce, when it was responsible for having Garibaldi Park become a B.C. Provincial Park, spent 23 years on squamish council, eight years on the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District board and several years with the Community Futures Development Corporation of Howe Sound.
Even now, though he retired from practising medicine four years ago, he serves as chair of the Squamish Healthcare Foundation, which raises money for the hospital.
Kindree has seen the hospital grow and change since the time he was the only doctor here. Now, there are a variety of doctors, surgeons and specialists who practice out of the hospital including orthopedics specialists, ear, nose and throat doctors, gynecologists, plastic surgeons, neurologists, respirologists, ophthalmologists, and 13 resident or regular physicians.
"This has been a great joy for me to see the hospital grow as the community grows," Kindree said.
Premier Gordon Campbell and Keith Mitchell, the chair of the B.C. Achievement Foundation announced 38 winners of the awards, designed to honour the spirit, dedication, imagination and contribution of British Columbians to their communities.
"I've always loved Squamish as a community," Kindree said.
Kindree will be recognized at a ceremony in Victoria on March 15 at Government House.
Each community achievement award winner will be presented with a certificate and a medallion.
