In a neighbourhood like Park Extension, where life is packed into every street and every storefront window, it is rarely the loudest voices that keep things moving. It is the volunteer who organizes food boxes quietly behind a curtain on Bloomfield. The grandmother who watches over the children at Parc Athéna while their parents finish a second shift. The newcomer who translates a medical form because nobody else can. These are the threads that hold Park Extension together, even when the official spotlight rarely reaches this end of the city.
This week, the Arrondissement de Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension announced that nominations are now open for the 2026 Prix de reconnaissance des bénévoles de VSP, an annual celebration of the people who make our borough work not with budgets or headlines, but with uncounted hours of service. The awards have existed since 2012, but every edition feels newly urgent in a district that depends on volunteers more than most.
Local organizations operating in Park Extension are invited to submit the names of individuals whose contributions have shaped the community in real, tangible ways. It could be the volunteer who runs the after-school homework club that keeps teenagers on track during the hardest months of the year. It could be the person who stays late to help seniors navigate forms at the community centre on Hutchison, or the coach who insists every child gets a chance to play even when equipment is scarce. What matters is the impact, not the publicity.
Nominations must come from recognized non-profit organizations within the borough, and the work must have taken place right here in VSP. The deadline is January 31, 2026, a date that gives local groups time to look around and identify the neighbour whose name deserves to be spoken out loud. The winners will be announced during the borough’s annual “Fête des bénévoles de VSP” in April, a celebration that often marks the first warm gathering of the season, just as the city shakes off winter. In previous years, recipients received a handcrafted glass artwork by Québec artisan Bruno Andrus, a symbolic recognition of the fragility and beauty of community work.
For Park Extension, the awards are more than a formality. They serve as a counterweight to a neighbourhood that is too often defined by its challenges rather than its strengths. Behind every youth program, food basket, cultural association, seniors’ activity, or arts initiative in Parc-Ex is a volunteer who made it possible. These initiatives keep families afloat, connect newcomers to their new home, and create stability in a district where the population turns over faster than almost anywhere else in Montréal.
By opening this call, the borough is effectively asking Park Extension organizations to pause for a moment and take stock of the people who shoulder the work no one else sees. The ones who arrive early, stay late, and never ask for recognition, even though their contribution ripples through hundreds of lives.
In a neighbourhood built on resilience, migration, and community interdependence, the stories that will emerge from this year’s nominations will almost certainly reflect what Park Extension truly is: a place held together, day after day, by ordinary people doing extraordinary things simply because they care.
