Tina Reimer has been named the Winkler Community Foundation’s 2022 Make it a Reality Award recipient.

The Make it A Reality Award is the most significant scholarship awarded from the Gordon Wiebe Education Fund. It is meant to be a game-changing award of $20,000 over 4 years, equipping young people from the Winkler area to reach for their career dreams.

"To have the financial burden lifted off is just such a great feeling. I remember when I heard the news, I got to go through my calendar and I got to delete all of the things that I had planned to apply for. It just felt so good," said Reimer. "But more than that, it's such an honour to feel like the Winkler Community Foundation sees the potential in me and wants to support me. It just feels like I have another group of people that are backing me throughout this journey."

How did Reimer discover her passion for working with students?

"I volunteered in the GVC (Garden Valley Collegiate) Life Skills Department in my last year of high school and I just fell in love with it. I loved it so much and I didn't always think that I would ever be able to become a teacher. That was something that I just thought I didn't have XYZ resources - mental resources - to do it. Through the support of everyone around me and the people that surround me at GVC I've just had so much growth and I feel like I can do it now."

For the past six years, Reimer has been working as an Education Assistant (EA) at Garden Valley Collegiate (GVC). 

"I love to watch them grow," noted Reimer. "I love seeing them come in at grade nine and seeing them blossom into these amazing people, watching them make connections and helping them reach their goals."

On top of her work as an EA, Reimer also gives her time on the fundraising committee at Pembina Valley Humane Society and is also a former Salem Home volunteer.

Reimer is currently enrolled in the Faculty of Arts program at the U of M working on her first degree with the goal of getting accepted into the school's education program in the future.

In 2015, the estate of former Winkler pharmacist, Gordon Wiebe, gifted the Winkler Community Foundation with $2.2 million to establish the Gordon Wiebe Education Fund, enabling the Foundation to grant scholarships through three streams to a minimum of 20 recipients per year.