The Red Deer Sport Award Committee in conjunction with Alberta Sport Development Centre- Central have honoured Tom and Lisa Marr Laing with the 2022 Lifetime Sport Achievement Award, sponsored by the City of Red Deer.

Tom and Lisa Marr-Laing have played an integral role in developing and growing the cross country ski community in Red Deer for over a decade. They started with the jack rabbit program with the Red Deer Nordic Ski And Parkland Cross Country Ski Clubs and have done whatever job was needed with both groups since then.

Tom says he's very excited to receive the award.

 "I'm honoured by the honour. It's not why we do this stuff. We just have a passion for it and we enjoy doing it and want to contribute to building the Red Deer community. And our focus happens to be cross country skiing," Tom said. "It's wonderful to see the progress that has been made the last number of years... This is about creating opportunities, particularly for youth."

They played a huge part in helping upgrade the trails at River Bend Recreation Area so they met international standards, including the biathlon range. They helped bring lighting to the trails, which can be controlled by citizen skiers and is a great asset to the adult lesson program that the Parkland ski club supports. Both played a huge role during the Canada Winter Games and the legacy of those games is in part due to the tremendous dedication and work of Tom and Lisa.

Past winners of this award include Lyn Radford, Dwayne Lalor, Heather Roberts and Shawna Pearman .It was initiated in 1959 with Dr. J. B. Long, a local dentist, being the first recipient - The award was reinstated in 2018 after a four-year hiatus under the auspices of the Alberta Sport Development Centre Central and the Red Deer Sport Award Committee

Gary Seher, a  Member, Red Deer Sport Award Committee talks about this year's nominees.

 "We were extremely impressed with all the nominees this year and it just goes to show the longstanding commitment to sport in the community and we only wish to keep highlighting and encouraging those individuals year after year. Long-term volunteer commitments of excellence to sport development have significant impacts on healthy community development; all nominees for the 2022 award modelled this so well."