Ace Burpee’s top 100 most fascinating Manitobans of 2025 By: Ace Burpee Posted: 3:37 AM CST Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

I really enjoy making this list. People are just out there being absolutely incredible, and I love sharing a few of their stories here.

Enjoy, and all the best in 2026.

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The Bekios family: For over 40 years, the family-run Maxime’s restaurant on St. Mary’s has hosted countless special occasions for literally thousands of Manitobans.

November marked the end of an incredible run for the absolutely iconic spot.

 

 

Sara and Kate Manness: The Manness sisters, from La Salle, captured gold with Team Canada at the women’s U18 world hockey championships.

In doing so, they became the first twins in Canadian history to do so with the same team. Tremendous.

 

Josh Hildebrandt, Andrew Hildebrandt, Kayden Grattan and Cody Dueck: This is so cool. The four make up the Morris School Advanced Robotics team, Blue Bombur. Their dedication and all-out commitment to building better robots earned them a trip to the Vex Robotics World Championships, the largest robotics competition on the planet.

The team of Grade 9-11 students racked up countless other robotics titles along the way. Big shout out to J.P. Jamieson, the school’s technology teacher and their coach.

Ernest Monias: One of the most important and influential artists in Canadian music history, Monias, often dubbed “Elvis of the North,” released his first album in 1979.

Since then, some 21 albums later, Monias has been honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Indigenous Music Awards and is a member of the Manitoba Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame.

At this year’s Western Canadian Music Awards, Monias received the WCMA Heritage Award for his significant contributions to the music industry.

Kenneth Paupanekis: A proud Elder of Kinosao Sipi Cree Nation (Norway House), Paupanekis is an absolute legend and champion in the preservation and revitalization of Indigenous languages.

Fluent in Cree, Anishinaabemowin, French and English, his contributions assure future generations’ access to culturally relevant learning materials through development and advocacy of language programs are available at Manitoba universities. This year, Paupanekis was recognized with the Order of Manitoba.

Samantha Powderhorn and Luther Alexander: The pair completed an 800-kilometre journey from Thompson to Winnipeg on foot.

The undertaking was part of their HOPE (Healing Overcomes Past Experiences) Walk-Run Movement to highlight gaps in addictions and mental-health services in remote northern First Nations.

Nancy Arnold and Lindsay Miller: After a rescued black bear cub succumbed to devastating burns incurred at the height of the Lac Du Bonnet wildfires, the pair made it their goal to help wildlife displaced or injured by the record-setting blazes.

They founded Wild Ones Manitoba, selling merch in support of Black Bear Rescue Manitoba and Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre. They absolutely crushed it.

The stuff they conceptualized and created was beautiful, and the public responded. Big time. They donated 100 per cent of all proceeds, and they raised tens of thousands of dollars. Just the best.

Fabiola Della Pria: Della Pria is a cheesemaker and owner of Unique Brazilian Dairy. She entered the prestigious American Cheese Society Conference competition and returned with multiple awards, including her cheese being declared the best Spanish/Portuguese fresh cheese in all of North America.

Wanda Guenette: One of the best to ever do it. Her volleyball career consisted of a national title at the University of Winnipeg, and multiple Pan Am Games.

She represented Canada at the Olympics in Atlanta and had a long professional career. Already a member of Manitoba’s Sports Hall of Fame, this year she was rightly inducted into the Canadian Volleyball Hall of Fame.

Justin Plourde: There of course were many, many individuals who stepped up in a big way when the wildfires took over the province this past year.

Plourde, a member of the RM of Taché fire department, went above and beyond. His tireless efforts providing asset protection in the area did not go unnoticed.

Darcy Furber: He’s already won multiple provincial blind golf championships, he’s earned national titles at the Canadian Blind Golf Championships and is a member of the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame.

This year, Furber, who lives with retinitis pigmentosa, was crowned world champion at the International Blind Golf Association B1 World Championship.

Kyle Edwards: Edwards, an author from Ebb and Flow First Nation, is the 2025 recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.

His debut novel, Small Ceremonies, tells the story of two Indigenous teens in Winnipeg’s North End and their struggling hockey team. An incredible debut.

Dr. Samar Safi-Harb and Nathan Steinle: The pair of University of Manitoba researchers made a historic and significant discovery towards understanding the universe.

As part of a team using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, they recently detected a massive collision between two black holes. The collision was the largest of its kind ever observed and documented, and their work moved science significantly closer to figuring out our cosmic origins.

Peter and Seth Scriver: The half-brothers made one of 2025’s best films, but it took a minute. For almost a decade, the pair worked on Endless Cookie, which centres on their experiences as half-siblings.

The Scrivers’ unique relationship, which includes a 16-year age gap and the fact Seth’s mother was white and Peter’s mom was a Cree member of Shamattawa First Nation, equalled movie gold.

Upon finally finishing and releasing Endless Cookie, it became obvious that it was worth the wait. It debuted at Sundance 2025 to rave reviews, then the awards followed.

It won the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival’s Audience Award, was named best feature film at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, earned acclaim from the Director’s Guild of Canada and garnered many, many more accolades.

Yashan Wu: Wu, an incredibly talented sneaker artist, launched a collaboration with The Dream Factory called “Happy Feet.”

Fifty children, each battling a life-threatening illness, were gifted a custom pair of one-of-a-kind sneakers reflecting their interests and personalities. Her business, Unboxedcustoms, does the same, designing and painting unique kicks for customers all over the world.

In addition to making dreams come true for kids via The Dream Factory, Wu has also volunteered her time with Asian Women of Winnipeg, Harvest Manitoba, the Salvation Army and the Rady Jewish Community Centre.

Madi Bootsman: Bootsman is an active volunteer with the Brandon Humane Society, secretary of the Brandon University Psychology Club, founder of the Lend a Paw charity, and a champion for leadership, mental health, women and LGBTTQ+ rights.

She does all this while working toward a psychology degree at BU, and this year was named Young Woman of Distinction by the YWCA of Westman.

Jennifer Botterill: One of the most decorated athletes in Manitoba history, Botterill’s hockey career included five Olympic appearances (four gold medals, one silver), and a staggering eight IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championship medals.

She does a tremendous job on the panel of Hockey Night in Canada, and this year became the first Manitoba woman inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Dana Solomon: It’s a massive accomplishment to have one film selected for the Toronto International Film Festival, and extremely rare to have two.

Solomon, from Selkirk and a member of Sagkeeng First Nation, pulled off the almost-never-seen double at the 2025 TIFF. She starred in a feature film called Blood Lines, and walked the red carpet again for Niimi, a short film she wrote, directed and appeared in. Incredible.

Kyle Sierens, Denis Devigne and Jeff Laxson: Coming up with an app idea is fun in theory, but the reality of said app becoming a global success is far less exciting.

However, when your idea truly connects with people and makes their life better, you may be on to something. Sierens, Devigne and Laxson recently celebrated 10 years of the app they created right here in Manitoba: VidDay.

VidDay is an online tool that lets users create custom videos for special occasions with over eight million users in almost 200 countries. I’ve both used it and been on the receiving end, and it’s tremendously well thought out.

They’ve continued to improve their product, adding functions like CineGreet, to create special messages that play on movie-theatre screens, VideoGreet, a custom-song feature, and lots more.

They’re still headquartered in this province and they’ve also planted hundreds of thousands of trees as part of their commitment to giving back. For creating positive and meaningful moments for over a decade, congratulations VidDay.

Dr. Rhonda Hinther: Hinther is a professor of history at Brandon University, co-founder of the BU public history program, author, exhibit researcher for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and much more.

For her innovative and impactful approach to engaging students studying history, Hinther was the 2025 recipient of the Canadian Historical Association’s Excellence in Teaching award.

Era Roulette: Her dad Cody bought her a Pokémon gift set when she was nine years old, and she was hooked.

Roulette started competing in weekly Pokémon tournaments at Galaxy Comics and Collectibles on Henderson Highway and soon became one of the top-ranked players on the continent in her division.

This year, at only 12 years of age, she became the first Manitoba girl to compete in the prestigious Pokémon World Championships.

Jeremy Matuszewski: Matuszewski is founder and CEO of Thunderstruck Ag Equipment, a farming innovation company based in Winkler.

He invented the Thunderstruck Razor Edge concave, a combine part that separates grain from chaff helping minimize harvest loss and maximizing machine efficiency while simplifying operations across multiple crops.

His Razor Edge invention earned a place on Time Magazine’s list of best inventions of 2025, which spotlighted 300 innovations from all over the world, picked from literally hundreds of thousands of submissions.

Rafaella Rosenberg: Less than a decade ago, Rosenberg was producing her first plays at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.

Fast-forward to 2025: she was nominated for a Tony award, the highest honour in North American theatre. Rosenberg co-produced Oh, Mary!, which enjoyed a wildly successful run on Broadway in New York City.

Robyn Stewart and Rebecca Szymkow: Stewart and Szymkow are, respectively, the executive director and operations manager of Women in Music Canada, which is headquartered in Manitoba. WIMC advocates for, supports and champions girls, women and gender-diverse folks within the Canadian music industry.

This year they dropped an incredibly cool project in Her (204): Stories of One Great City Revisited. Artists like Andrina Turenne, Boniface and Kelly Bado reworked and covered a collection of songs written by Manitobans over the years, including tunes by Sebastian Gaskin, the Weakerthans, Eagle & Hawk, Chantal Kreviazuk. It’s just a tremendous album and a super-cool initiative.

Dr. Melina Jobbins: This is the coolest. Not only are we still discovering new species of fish in 2025, but it’s happening here. A previously unknown fish — one of the oldest ever discovered — was identified by Dr. Jobbins in Lake Manitoba near Lundar.

The Elmosteus lundarensis lived some 400 million years ago and is kind of half-shark and half-lake-trout in appearance.

Stacey Soldier: A lawyer with Cochrane Sinclair LLP, Soldier has served in many key roles. She acted as co-counsel for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs at the National Inquiry on MMIWG, and was recently named president of the Manitoba Bar Association. Soldier became the first Anishinaabe woman to hold that title.

Olivia Steadman: Her family and friends knew she could sing, as did her friends at the Movement Centre. This past January at a Jets game, we all got to witness her greatness.

Born blind at birth as the result of a stroke suffered in the womb, Steadman also lives with cerebral palsy and other intellectual challenges.

Her singing is an absolute triumph, and she put on an absolute master class for all to enjoy and be moved by. She’s just awesome.

 

Maxine Lavitt: A Team Manitoba para swimming legend, Lavitt put on a clinic at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland. She returned from the games with five medals, including two golds.

One of the golds came in the 50-metre freestyle, which she swam in 28.28 seconds, a scorching time and a new Canada Games record. An incredible career.

Haley Matiation, Hailey Hunter and Hailey Legary: Together, the three are the Haileys, one of the best things to happen to pure rock ’n’ roll music in Manitoba. As good a live band as there is, the Haileys dropped an amazing EP in 2025, and shared the stage with the likes of the Beaches.

They torched the stage at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, absolutely crushed their showcase performance at the Western Canadian Music Awards BreakOut West festival, and they’re just getting started. Love them.

Benedicte LeMaitre and Stephan Kosowski: The pair were married this past summer, and honeymooned in Rome. They heard Pope Leo XIV was holding a general audience, and scored a pair of tickets to be seated in the “newlywed” section.

During his address, the pope singled out Benedicte and Stephan specifically, and delivered a personal blessing to the couple, the only individuals to receive the honour.

Cordella Friesen: President and CEO of the YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg, Friesen’s leadership has ushered in a vital new era for the Y.

Responding directly to the needs of the community and determining how the Y can meet those needs requires vision and all-out commitment. This is what Friesen delivers, every single day.

With a new capital campaign for the downtown Y, which will better serve Winnipeg’s core, the future under her guidance is extremely exciting.

Andrew Langelaar: He is our province’s strongest man, literally. In fact, he’s now won the title in back-to-back years at the Manitoba’s Strongest Man championships.

Langelaar also set a new Manitoba strongman record this year with an astounding 400-pound jerk, which is absolutely world-class.

Cynthia Burke: Burke is the Manitoba film industry’s first certified environmental manager. Reducing the carbon footprint and overall environmental impact of films made here is a relatively new consideration, and Burke is a trailblazer.

Her work includes diverting materials for future use by Habitat for Humanity and ensuring prop food heads the way of Harvest Manitoba, among many other initiatives.

Last year, her work as an eco-specialist on Key Hu Quan’s Love Hurts earned the film the title of most-sustainable film production at the 2025 Global Production Awards in Cannes, France.

Angelina Zhang: She received the top prize at both the Manitoba and Western Canadian science symposiums, then made her way to the Canada-Wide Science Fair to pit her work against 500 of the brightest minds in the country.

The Grade 9 student from Brandon received the medal of excellence for her groundbreaking findings on alternative acne treatments.

Noah Palansky, Jordan Davis and Avi Stoller: They are the founders of Taiv Inc., a simple but brilliant device that allows bars and restaurants to control commercial advertising on their in-house screens.

Already featured on literally thousands and thousands of screens in the U.S., Taiv has now launched in Manitoba, and will do so soon in the rest of the country.

They’re on to something big. With millions in new funding, the technology already employs 60 people, with the majority located in this province.

Taylor Brewster: Brewster is the 2025 Skills Canada national champion in esthetics. Since enrolling at the Louis Riel School Division Arts and Technology Centre last year, Brewster has found the perfect outlet for her work ethic and creativity.

As provincial and Canadian champion in esthetics, she’ll wear Team Canada colours and represent our nation next year at WorldSkills Shanghai in China.

Justine Proulx: Proulx created the stunning and enormous new mural that debuted on the outer walls of the RBC Convention Centre this year. At 62 metres in width, the four sprawling designs, dubbed Returning to Our Roots, span nearly a full block of St. Mary Avenue.

Lorraine Maciboric: I could fill pages with the impacts Lorraine has had on this province. Kind, brilliant and tireless in support of individuals or causes that need a champion, Maciboric simply makes us better.

Along with countless other projects, it was her idea for Bison on the Boulevard, an incredible resilience-meets-public-art initiative partnering the Toba Centre and Graffiti Art Programming.

Joshua Gandier: A proud member of Peguis First Nation, Gandier has consistently given back to the province of Manitoba.

He coached and mentored Indigenous youth through Anishinaabe Pride basketball, after his own tremendous career with the University of Winnipeg Wesmen basketball team wrapped up.

He represented the Southern Chiefs Organization as Youth Chief, and his leadership took him to international stages, including the United Nations. Somehow he finds time to practise law, and this year received the One to Watch Distinguished Alumni Award from the U of W.

E. Oliver Owen: The entrepreneur and founder of Amik Aviation Ltd. was honoured this year at the 19th annual Visionary Indigenous Business Excellence Awards.

Growing up fascinated with aviation, and witnessing firsthand the difficulty of maintaining air travel to and from Indigenous communities in the province, he earned his pilot licence in 1978 (fun fact: before he even had a driver’s licence).

Amik Aviation has been a lifeline for the North since the early 2000s. Owen has previously received national honours from the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association and is a recipient of the Manitoba Aviation Council’s Pioneer of Flight Award.

Ashley Moore: Recognizing a gap in opportunities for women to confidently explore the outdoors and build community, Moore founded Backcountry Women in 2017.

Listen, the mental and physical benefits of the outdoors are not to be disputed, so anything that gets more people out is a huge win. I love it. Community, connection and the outdoors can literally save lives.

Prashana Hadkar, Annie Chipman, Adam Krueger, Cameron Penney, Luke Vink, Tyler Esquivel, Jamie Thomas, Hunter Hiebert, Carter Normand, Mitchell Clinton, Paul Edmonds and Sara Orlesky: Together, they are the Winnipeg Jets digital team.

During the 2024-25 NHL season they managed more than 10,000 posts across all platforms, racking up half a billion impressions and 30 million engagements.

It was the highest level of engagement in the entire league, and the group was named Social Media Team of the Year at the NHL’s annual business meeting.

Deborah Seguin and Edward Carriere: The pair have owned and run the iconic Edward Carriere Salon in West Broadway for almost 50 years. They’re first-class in their craft, and have given so much back to their neighbourhood.

From funding school lunch programs and Art City, to sending kids to summer camp and helping the West Broadway Bear Clan do their important work, Seguin and Carriere have quietly looked out for their community for almost half a century.

Lt.-Col. Kim Wilton: Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Wilton led an incredible crew of helicopter pilots tasked with getting 300 people out of northern Manitoba during the devastating wildfires earlier this year — with 24 harrowing flights over four days in sometimes next-to-zero visibility.

The walls of smoke, the fear on the ground, shifting winds… Wilton and her team powered through and got everyone from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation to safety.

Tannis and Rayel Smoke: The Smoke sisters, from Dakota Plains First Nation, are the founders of Nina Waste Events. They were successful in their pitch in the Dragon’s Quest Business Plan Competition at the Vision Quest Conference and Trade Show, and also at the Manito Ahbee Pow Wow Pitch competition. They do events, games and speaking engagements, all while helping uplift Indigenous voices.

They’re about more than simply business — they’re about community. They collect and distribute much needed items for the vulnerable, in the form of Blessing Bags and (I feel like this is very new news) are soon to be producing their own signature board game. I love the hustle.

Trudy Lavallee: Lavallee was the child and family advocate for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs when her journey with Jordan River Anderson began.

Jordan was born with a rare medical condition, and while his family lobbied for funding for home care so he could be with his family, the process was tied up in a dispute between federal and provincial agencies.

Jordan never made it home, and Lavallee expertly outlined the problems with the system in an essay.

The piece became the basis of Jordan’s Principle, which ensures First Nations children have equal and timely access to publicly-funded government services. Lavallee is a 2025 recipient of the Order of Manitoba.

Royal School’s Space Club: The Space Club, which is made up of students in grades 3-5, designed a hyper-specific stuffed animal that could be headed to space.

Adhering to strict NASA criteria, they submitted Luna the Space Polar Bear for consideration to tag along on the Artemis II mission. They were shortlisted in the top 20 out of some 3,000 entries from all over the world.

Tessa Potter: Potter graduated from RRC Polytech’s electronic engineering program in 2000 and has put together a hall-of-fame career since.

She’s been a broadcast technician for FIFA World Cups, the NHL, European Championship soccer and the Olympics. Thanks to her incredible work behind the camera at the Beijing and Paris Olympics, she is the proud recipient of two sports Emmy awards.

Carol Barrott: One of the true MVPs of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Football Club. Barrott exhibits patience in the pocket, never quits on a play, intercepts problems and is on the receiving end of plenty of audibles.

As manager of ticketing and fan services, Barrott treats everyone — from longtime season-ticket holders to those attending their first game — as family. She’s a legend.

Salena Starling: She’s the CEO of the social enterprise Community of Big Hearts and co-chair of the Indigenous Women’s Circle with Women and Gender Equality Canada. Starling is one of those enormously valuable people who are always on it, whatever “it” may be.

She’s represented our country at the UN level, and she’s contributed in meaningful ways to both the Indigenous and Winnipeg chambers of commerce. A tremendous leader and advocate.

Kathryn McBurney: A true pro and an absolute pleasure to work with in her role as VP of marketing and communications at the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba. She leads with empathy and inclusion.

McBurney has been a leader in her field in ensuring First Nations, BIPOC, LGBTTQ+ and families of children with disabilities feel seen and have their stories heard.

She’s one of the best in the biz, and was recognized nationally this year for her exceptional contributions by the Children’s Miracle Network.

Dylan Collins: This is one of the most underrated sports stories of the year. Collins competed for Team Canada at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Italy.

He returned with a gold and silver medal from skiing events. The thing is, he’s from Selkirk, home to exactly zero mountains.

Undeterred, he trained at Spring Hill Winter Park and is now a world champion in the giant slalom and super-G downhill. What an absolute beauty.

Raya Surinx: Surinx is a star with the University of Manitoba women’s volleyball team and competes with Volleyball Canada’s NextGen national team.

This year she became a member of a very exclusive group of women to be named U Sports women’s volleyball player of the year in back-to-back years.

Lorraine Manson: We all know the important role volunteers play in our province. Every undertaking, event, celebration or movement of any kind requires incredible volunteers to achieve anything.

Manson is one of the best of the best. The backbone of the enormously successful Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Run, she also runs point for the equally massive Run Your Lungs Out event. So you’ll find her there and she’ll be hustling. Hard.

Hashim Farooq: Like many Canadians, Farooq was watching as the U.S. imposed new tariffs on Canada earlier this year and wanted to do something about it. So he created the CanMade app, which for weeks dominated the Canadian top 10 apps list.

With CanMade, he devised a means for people to simply scan items to find out where they come from and who manufactured them. Respect.

Ethel Fernandez: Fernandez is a trailblazer for both women and Manitoba’s Filipino community. She’s the first woman to lead the Filipino Members Chapter of Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba and the first Filipina engineer at the Royal Canadian Mint.

She’s been a force for inclusion and diversity in the engineering field, with her leadership paving the way for future generations.

Humaira Jaleel: Jaleel is the founder of Healthy Muslim Families, an organization serving immigrant and refugee families.

HMF offers help with translation, mental-health services, tax and employment guidance, and a ton more. Jaleel also developed the Access to Justice Project, which provides legal clinics for women facing domestic violence.

Kayla Dickin: BSE Global basically is Brooklyn, N.Y. They own and operate the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA, the WNBA’s New York Liberty and the arena they play in, along with roughly 217 other ventures.

Dickin handles their countless collaborations and strategic alliances as BSE’s VP of global partnerships.

Alex Tahimic: There’s going on a McDonald’s run, and then there’s this. The McMarathon. Alex mobilized a bunch of running buddies to hit the streets for a full 26.2-mile marathon — stopping to fuel along the way at different McDonald’s franchises all over Winnipeg.

There was a point to it besides just being a ridiculously cool way to spend a summer day — he raised thousands of dollars for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Manitoba.

Olivia Michalczuk and Brendan Berg: The couple, prominent and beloved members of Manitoba’s incredible music scene, tragically lost their lives on Canada Day.

The grief and the sadness was felt deeply across countless communities. Everyone is entitled to mourn and process loss in their own way, and sometimes what comes of it ends up saving thousands of lives.

Berg’s band, Royal Canoe, and Michalczuk’s incredible family have mobilized those who were fortunate enough to know the two to donate blood. The result has been literally hundreds and hundreds of new donors, an accomplishment that cannot be understated.

Nationally, roughly only three per cent of eligible Canadians donate blood. We need everyone we can get. You are literally saving lives or giving families a chance to find some peace in life’s final moments. Olivia and Brendan’s legacy lives on, and forever will.

Nisha J. Tuli: An international and USA Today best-selling author, with one of her novels moving over a million copies. With two romantasy series and a rom-com already published, Tuli has also received enormous praise among the highly influential BookTok community.

Al Gowriluk: As great a champion as there has ever been for the incredible sport of ringette. Al’s passion and hustle — always delivered with positivity — has provided incredible opportunities and moments for thousands of women and girls in Manitoba.

From the Winnipeg Ringette League, to all-star and skills competitions, Gowriluk’s commitment to the sport is very rarely matched.

Jackie Wild: Wild added a King Charles III Coronation Medal for outstanding community service to her already incredible resumé. She’s given hours upon hours of her time to the United Way, Evergreen, CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, the Loran Scholars Foundation and many, many others.

Wild was the first female president of the Manitoba Filipino Business Council, is a tireless entrepreneur and in general just makes Manitoba better.

Sam Doucet: I do the weekend Free Press crossword puzzles and am very proud of myself when I finish them. Doucet also does crossword puzzles, but we’re not in the same league. At all.

He can complete a week’s worth of New York Times puzzles in about half an hour. He completes 15 or so legit crossword puzzles every day. This year he headed to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and absolutely crushed, winning the rookie C Division outright.

Ravi Ramberran: Ramberran has a stake in several iconic spots in Winnipeg — St. James Burger & Chip Co., Four Crowns Restaurant & Bar, and Dreamland Diner among them. He’s connected with his communities and people, and he fosters relationships alongside running exceptional businesses.

Ramberran has been active and in the trenches for multiple organizations in our province including the Rainbow Resource Centre, Harvest Manitoba, Sleep in Heavenly Peace and more. When and where there is a need, he’ll meet you there.

Paige Procter: A CBC Manitoba Future 40 finalist, nurse, Manitoba Philanthropy Award honouree and proud Grosse Isle’r. Procter humbly started the Coffee House to End Cancer event when she was a teen, and has since raised some $300,000 for the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation.

Alongside her countless achievements, Procter is a recipient of the Governor General of Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal.

Teagan Purvis: Training out of Selkirk with the Dolphins Swim Club, Purvis has put together an incredible career in the pool.

She returned from the Canada Summer Games this year not only with multiple gold medals, but she also smashed a 20 year-old record in the Special Olympics 50-metre backstroke.

Suzi Friesen: As the director of educational programs at the True North Youth Foundation, Friesen and her incredible team have introduced the Project 11 youth mental wellness program to tens of thousands of kids.

From teacher training and school visits, to large-scale wellness summits, the program’s reach is absolutely incredible. Her commitment to helping students navigate life and cope with pressure in healthy ways is literally saving lives.

Amber Saleem and Chrissy Troy: They will forever be linked to one of the single greatest moments in Winnipeg sports history. Cole Perfetti, 1.6 seconds showing on the clock, Jets and Blues, Game 7, down one… cue the “We Believe” sign.

The sign of the year. Just freaking epic.

“We Believe” merch soon followed, and generated thousands of dollars for the YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg, Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute, The Dream Factory, Klinic Community Health, Rainbow Resource Centre and CancerCare Manitoba Foundation.

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Ace Burpee is the host of The Ace Burpee Show on 103.1 Virgin Radio and proudly hails from Cooks Creek.

Widely recognized for his tireless dedication to community causes, Ace has spent years championing countless charitable initiatives across the province.

From galas and walks to school events, workshops and community discussions, he has hosted thousands of events, lending his voice and energy to organizations large and small. Few groups in Manitoba have not felt the impact of his work.