[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/shawnaawardpic.jpg” caption=”Frank Prospero presents the award to Shawna Druchok.”]Third-year kinesiology student Shawna Druchok was presented the 2005 Power of Inclusion Volunteer Award this week by the Ontario branch of the Active Living Alliance (ALA) for Canadians with a Disability.

This province-wide award was introduced to recognize the efforts of an individual who volunteers their time to promote and provide opportunities for Ontarians with a disability to be physically active.

For the past three years, while being a full-time undergraduate student in kinesiology, Druchok has volunteered with the MacWheelers exercise program in the Centre for Health Promotion and Rehabilitation.

“She is a very giving and friendly individual, and her concern and interest in the well-being of people with spinal cord injuries is very genuine,” said ALA general manager Frank Prospero, who presented the award.

According to Audrey Hicks, professor and director of the MacWheelers Exercise Program: “the friendships she has forged with the participants has not gone unnoticed. She is, without a doubt, my most dependable volunteer. She works well with all of the other volunteers and is a true role model to her peers.”

Druchok has volunteered more than 50 hours of time to the MacWheelers in the past year, and over the past two and a half years has contributed more than 500 hours to the MacWheelers program.

The MacWheelers Exercise Program is a community-based fitness and wellness program for people with spinal cord injury. Participants visit the centre twice-weekly for individualized exercise in a supervised and supportive environment. Due the highly specific needs of the SCI population, the MacWheelers is dependent on volunteers to fulfill the human resource requirements of the program. Volunteers typically act as personal training assistants, as well as getting involved in various fundraising and educational initiatives. In addition, the centre is active in researching the effects of body-weight supported treadmill training for people with SCI, and Druchok has donated a significant portion of her time to help out as a treadmill trainer.

“MacWheelers is a program that is dedicated to the promotion of active living for people with SCI, but without the commitment of volunteers like Shawna Druchok it would not be able to sustain itself,” Hicks said.