When Balbina Fernandez de la Cruz walked up to receive her Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal from Lt.-Gov. Donald Ethell Tuesday, she stood tall and proud among the 52 other distinguished guests who each received their own medals.
There were people who had put in decades of service to the community through their churches, their businesses, their charitable organizations or simply their own will to serve humanity.
Fernandez de la Cruz stood out not just for her poise, but also for her very young age.
“I was really excited and nervous at first,” the 13-year-old Vincent J. Maloney Junior High student stated during the post-ceremony reception at Government House. She said that it’s the highest honour that she’s ever received, besting even her Honours Proficiency standing at school.
The medal was created in 2012 to mark the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne, while paying tribute to those Canadians who have made significant contributions to their communities and their country.
Many MLAs were in attendance, including Doug Horner and Stephen Khan who described her as “a remarkable young person” and later added that she comes from a great family.
He was referring to Balbina’s father, local firefighter and internationally renowned humanitarian Victor Fernandez. He started the charity Canadian Aid for Fire Services Abroad 13 years ago as a large-scale recycling effort of sorts.
He takes decommissioned but still useful firefighting equipment – including fire trucks – and refurbishes them. He then sends them off as immense donations in shipping containers to impoverished communities in Central and South America that don’t have their own gear. He said that the value of these donations has topped $5 million, a compelling reason why he received his own Diamond Jubilee medal only a few weeks ago.
Of course the value of the lives that he has saved is immeasurable. The same could be said for Balbina’s work. Taking a page out of her dad’s book, she has secured four neonatal incubators from Alberta Paramedical Services that will be transported to Bolivia in the fall.
She stated that she got into this kind of work by watching the results of her father’s efforts, and seeing that there is still a greater need for help in the world.
“They’re very poor; they live in a third world country. They only get one dollar a day [for salary]. I really want to help them because we have a lot of these items and we take them for granted. They don’t have it and I want to give back.”
Until the incubators get sent over to Bolivia, she is hoping to raise money to donate to the community hospital that receives them, as well as gather some shoes and clothing plus school supplies to donate as well.
