Winnipeg has lost "one of the good ones."
Byrdye Beckel, one of the city's most well-liked and recognizable community volunteers, died Monday in Winnipeg.
Byrdye Beckel: died Monday
She was 80.
Beckel spent 21 years as executive director of the Christmas Cheer Board of Greater Winnipeg. Before that, she was co-ordinator of volunteers for Meals on Wheels.
"She dedicated her life to helping people," Kai Madsen, the current executive director of the Cheer Board, said Tuesday night. "She had a huge heart.
"Byrdye had a strong feeling for the right thing to do at Christmas time. She felt no family should go without. So many of the programs she implemented we still use today."
Beckel worked at the Cheer Board from 1974 through 1994. Ironically, it was Madsen -- then the organization's president -- who hired her.
"We had just one more interview to do and it was Byrdye. One of the ladies I worked with said Byrdye was the only one for the job," Madsen said with a chuckle. "She was such a neat lady.
"It's sad news and I'll miss her terribly."
Maggie Maxwell, who has volunteered at the Cheer Board for 30 years, said Beckel meant everything to the city of Winnipeg.
"All she thought about was helping people," said Maxwell. "That was her whole life. She was one of the good ones. She'll be missed."
Beckel was presented with the prestigious Premier's Volunteer Service Award by then-premier Gary Filmon in 1996 and was later inducted into the Order of the Buffalo Hunt later that year.
"For 21 years, as executive director of the Christmas Cheer Board, next to Santa Claus, Byrdye Beckel probably had the most recognized name in Winnipeg during the holiday season," Filmon said during the induction ceremony in 1996.
Beckel, who was widowed, is survived by a daughter, Janice Burnett, and two sons, Alan and Glen Beckel. She also had four grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca
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