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Lord Dufferin IODE presents 2023 Citizenship Award to David Nairn of Theatre Orangeville

April 6, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

A local resident who’s incredibly active in the arts community is being recognized for his contributions to Orangeville.

Local not-for-profit, Lord Dufferin IODE, awarded its annual Citizenship Award to David Nairn, the artist director of Theatre Orangeville, at the Lord Dufferin Centre last Tuesday (Mar. 28).

Citizenship officer for the Lord Dufferin IODE, Lily Cerveny, spoke about some of Nairn’s important work in the community, dating back 23 years.

“His main goal is to educate us about diverse people, and people with disabilities. What he does to strengthen this idea is he actually started a program for the neurodiverse and to celebrate abilities for children and adults,” said Cerveny. “He has also been on the DCAFS team to help create pride events like the rainbow prom and creating the rainbows on sidewalks downtown.”

She added that some of the performances from Theatre Orangeville highlight important social issues such as eating disorders, bullying, alcohol abuse and abuse in general.

“As we know, he also helps non-profitable charitable organizations like ourselves as well as local businesses. An example of that would be how he works with the library and they have made a method of ‘taking out a ticket’ from the library and you can use it to see a play,” Cerveny noted. “He also partners with clubs, like rotary, for summertime activities, and he helps about 350 to 400 kids a year with these hands-on programs. Usually there are about 3,500 to 4,000 kids that come to the theatre for school, but because of covid, they needed to maneuver around it and now they do have performances online.”

Some places Narin has volunteered over the years include the BIA, Better Together, Orangeville’s arts program, Celebrate Your Awesome and Family Transition Place (FTP). 

In addition to the Citizenship Award, Lord Dufferin IODE offered him a $100 donation to any local charity, and he chose FTP.

After being presented with the award, Nairn called it a “real treasure” and said he’s very touched by the kind gesture. 

“David has changed Orangeville throughout the years and it is our pleasure to show our appreciation by giving him this year’s Lord Dufferin IODE Citizenship Award,” said Cerveny. 

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