The spirit and memory of the late Bridget Moran were honoured Wednesday at the presentation of an annual award in her name for excellence in social work.
The Bridget Moran Advancement of Social Work in Northern Communities Award is awarded to social workers who represent the values demonstrated by Bridget Moran and all the best in this work, said Dawn Hemingway, a UNBC professor of social work.
For the first time, the annual winner of the Bridget Moran Award for social workers in the North has been given to a male.
Jeff Dinsdale of Quesnel said he was both humbled and honoured to receive the award, and in particular, to have his name linked to the late Bridget Moran who is known provincewide for her unyielding stand against injustice of marginalized people.
Dinsdale, who is almost retired, has a private practice in Quesnel where he's lived since the mid '70s.
He was among the first class of graduating social workers at Carleton University in Ottawa from where he went on to work in Montreal and the territories before moving to Quesnel.
"We should all be proud to be social workers," he told his 75 colleagues attending the award ceremony Wednesday in Prince George.
"And, like Bridget Moran, stand tall in the face of social injustice."
The award, given annually during Social Work Week, was established in 2000 to commemorate Moran, a tireless social work activist in Prince George. From 1951 to 1964, Moran was a social worker with the B.C. government, and in the early 1960s she made headlines when she was suspended by the government for publicly criticizing welfare services for children, the elderly and the poor.
She fought the government, and eventually won the battle and was reinstated. But she rejected the offer, choosing instead to do social work for the local hospital and school district.
Moran, also known for her books like Stoney Creek Woman and A Little Rebellion, died in 1999 at age 75. A life-size sculpture of her was unveiled at Third Avenue and Quebec Street in downtown Prince George in 2004.
