13 December 2021, Calgary – For having been selected as Calgary’s Citizen of the Year for 2020, Filipino-Canadian Marichu Antonio became the first recipient of the Distinguished Filipino Award of the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) in Calgary.

Ms. Antonio received the award from Philippine Ambassador Rodolfo Robles and Consul General Zaldy Patron during the Pasko ng Pasasalamat Christmas celebration that the PCG hosted for the Filipino community in Calgary on 7 December 2021 at the Filipino-owned Pacific Hut Restaurant.

On 21 June 2021, Ms. Antonio was named by the City of Calgary as the Recipient of the 2020 Calgary Award: Citizen of the Year Award.

The City of Calgary gives the Citizen of the Year Award to an outstanding individual Calgarian who, within the last five years, has made extraordinary contributions to the community, as a volunteer and/or professional, that improved the quality of life in Calgary or brought recognition to Calgary.

 

Ms. Antonio was the first Filipino-Canadian to receive the Calgary’s Citizen of the Year Award since its establishment in 1994.

Arriving in Canada from the Philippines in 1994, Ms. Antonio worked as Community Development Manager at the Centre for Newcomers for 13 years. At the time she received the Citizen of the Year Award, she was the Executive Director of ActionDignity, a community-based organization that promotes full civic participation and integration of ethnocultural communities in Alberta.  

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Antonio quickly shifted ActionDignity’s focus to emergency support to Calgarians including essential workers in Cargill and JBS meat plants. She co-founded the Multilingual Emergency Response Centre (MERC) Hotline in response to COVID-19 and became a key player in the Calgary East Zone Newcomers Collaborative (CENC). Offering support in 24 languages, CENC served 12,400 COVID-impacted Calgarians with food, financial and mental health support as they healed with dignity

Consul General Patron said, “Ms. Antonio’s selection as Calgary’s Citizen of the Year for 2020 is an inspiration to the estimated 75,000-strong Filipino community in Calgary. Through the Distinguished Filipino Award, the PCG is pleased to also recognize her life of dedicated service not only for the Filipino community, but also for the whole Calgary community.”

In accepting the Distinguished Filipino Award, Ms. Antonio remarked, “This is an honor that I share with Filipino-Canadians especially those who are making our communities better everyday as essential workers and volunteers without any expectation of recognition. I hope that this award will inspire many more especially our youth to work for the change they want to see for a better future.”