Shawn Rice is glad baseball season is now upon us.
The chance to see the Blue Jays play the Kansas City Royals at Skydome just gives him one more reason to get excited about his upcoming trip to Toronto. But that's the not the primary reason he'll be there April 20-24.
The 43-year-old native of Newfoundland has been nominated for the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA) community service award for his work in promoting the 2009 Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines World Baseball Challenge (WBC).
Rice also earned recognition for his work as vice-president of the Prince George Minor Hockey Association (where he heads the discipline committee) and as an off-ice volunteer for the Prince George Cougars and Prince George Spruce Kings junior hockey teams.
"For me, this is a great honour, I was pretty surprised when I got that call from the committee," said Rice. "I don't do this for an awards but to be honoured for something like this it makes you feel great about what you're doing, and you know you're being appreciated for what you're doing.
The great thing is my wife (Lisa) is coming with me. Given that I hardly see her because of all my volunteer work, it's only right she comes with me. If not for her being supportive of what I do, I definitely wouldn't be up for this award."
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