The province of Saskatchewan's illustrious literacy award selected by the premier was recently given to a local woman.

Gravelbourg's Renae Lech was chosen for the 2020 Council of the Federation Literacy Award in September, an award that commemorates outstanding achievement, innovative practice, and excellence in literacy.

"It was an honour to be recognized for something I love to do," she said. "I've been helping others lifelong in other volunteering situations and I just feel very fortunate that I'm able to volunteer with such great people... To win this award, I wasn't expecting it at all."

Lech has been volunteering with Great Plains College's English Language Training since 2015 and found out she was the winner of the award in a typical Saskatchewan fashion.

"I was shocked, I was sitting in the semi with my husband and we were trucking, it was harvest time," she recalled. "I'm not a very big emailer or techy-kind of person, so I'm going through my emails... I was almost ready to delete it because it was an email I wasn't familiar with from the ministry of education. I was like oh I don't know maybe I shouldn't delete this, so when I read it I said to my husband, David, I won."

Deputy Premier and the Minister of Education Gordon Wyant said Lech's impact on the Gravelbourg ESL program has been tremendous.

"She's positively impacted the lives of many newcomers and their families," he said in a government of Saskatchewan video on Twitter. "Since she began volunteering attendance has improved due to her sincere interest in the lives of her clients. Co-workers and students alike have expressed enthusiasm for the compassionate and generous manner in which she helps students inside and outside of the classroom."

English Language Training Coordinator Bula Ghosh was the one who nominated Lech for the award that was chosen on September 8 - International Literacy Day.

"We had a lovely little gathering of just Bula, an assistant from Great Plains College came down with her, and Christine Blair who's the instructor (in Gravelbourg), and one of the students that wrote a letter on my behalf when Bula had nominated me," she said. "So we had a little outdoor patio luncheon and Bula presented the award last Friday (September 25)."

Lech was an educational assistant at the time she began volunteering with the ESL program and according to her has developed a lot of friendships through the course since.

The 2020 Council of the Federation Literacy Award is given to one person each year in every province and territory in Canada and this was the 16th year the award has been given out.