2017 Lifetime Achievement Award©
David Ferguson- Recipient of the 2017 Canadian Volunteer Fire Services Lifetime Achievement Award©
The 2017 recipient of this prestigious award is David (Dave) Ferguson, from Cowichan Bay, British Columbia. Dave originally joined the Cowichan Bay Fire Department in 1981, he rose through the ranks and became Chief in 1999. During his time as Chief, David attended a total of 2153 Emergency Calls, and an uncountable number of “Duty Officer” calls. David’s guidance of the Cowichan Bay Fire Department not only helped to develop the department in to a top notch emergency response organization but also a highly respected community oriented department.
David’s leadership has fostered a great deal of respect for the fire service as a whole in the department members and the department has continued to send two members across the country to Ottawa each year to pay respect to Canada’s fallen firefighters at the Canadian Firefighters Memorial.
David has been an avid volunteer for Muscular Dystrophy Canada, first as a Firefighter Advisor for Central Vancouver Island, he has also served on the National Firefighter Relations Committee for Muscular Dystrophy Canada. Dave is currently the Treasurer of Muscular Dystrophy Canada. David was involved with Kinsman for a number of years, and sits as a board member of the Cowichan Bay Foundation now. David is still involved in the political entity that oversees the Fire Department, entitlted the Cowichan Bay Improvement District, as their administrative assistant, striving to assist in any way he can with the paperwork.
The most important thing that David has contributed to the fire service is that he was willing to do the paperwork, and wanted to make sure that volunteers time was valued. If the volunteers weren’t busy doing something on a call, they could be cut loose to do other things with their families that was important to them. David tried to instill the value of volunteer, and also to take the paperwork aspect away from those that really were not comfortable doing that, but had other attributes they could offer for the good of the department.
David’s inspiration and guidance has been instilled in his own family members as well with both his daughter Kathy and son Cam becoming passionately involved with the fund raising effort for Muscular Dystrophy Canada. David’s son Cam has also gone on to follow his father’s footsteps as a career firefighter, currently as a Captain with CFB Esquimalt Fire & Rescue in Victoria and as a past Deputy Fire Chief with the Cowichan Bay Fire Department.
David has been married to his wife Barb for 46 years. Together they have raised a son and a daughter. They have 6 grandchildren.
David and his wife Barb will attend the CVFSA’s annual meeting in Wolfville, where the award will be presented.
