A teary-eyed Nora Vedress stands speechless in her office after learning she was named Prince Albert's 2025 Citizen of the Year. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW)

By Logan Lehmann

High honours

‘Flabbergasted’: Nora Vedress named Prince Albert’s 2025 Citizen of the Year

Dec 31, 2025 | 8:00 AM

Tuesday was just a normal day at the office for Nora Vedress.

The reverend at Calvary United Church was doing her daily duties until around midday, when roughly fifty people ambushed her office in celebration and excitement to tell her that she was named Prince Albert’s 2025 Citizen of the Year.

“I was just shocked, speechless,” Vedress explained, adding she had no clue she was even in the running for the award.

“People just started coming in and I started thinking, like, ‘What anniversary? There can’t be another anniversary, I just had mine.’ Like, I didn’t know what it was for, no idea.”

Members of the Prince Albert Kinsmen Club and Prince Albert Daily Herald presented her with the honours, alongside her family members, friends, and those she has touched through her work at the Church and throughout the community. She recently celebrated her 20th anniversary at the Calvary United Church, and prior to that, worked with the Birch Hills, Crystal Springs, Kinistino Pastoral Charge for four years.

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The roughly fifty people who ambushed Nora Vedress on Tuesday to surprise her as Prince Albert’s 2025 Citizen of the Year. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW)

She said she was only planning on staying here for a few years but ended up making Prince Albert her home, and she’s been for the last two decades.

“I was told once, when you come to P.A., you either leave right away, or you stay forever. There’s a beauty to this community that I don’t know that people from the outside see all the time. It’s an overgrown town, but then you get to know people, and I love how people will come running up like they know you or like how everyone’s kind of connected.”

She continued that in the recent days following the Salvation Army fire, she’s been in close talks with Major Ed Dean to see where she could lend a hand, even though they’re a different ministry.

“We go in to help their ministry as Calvary people, but we’re there to support what they’re called to do in a time of need. I have seen the Salvation Army do that for us in the past in another situation where they backed us up, and even though you’re different, we can still come together.”

Vedress also works closely with well-known Prince Albert Elder Liz Settee, who called Vedress an inspiration to everyone she meets.

“She says she doesn’t do anything by herself, but she sets such a good example for leading people who just want to follow. She doesn’t give herself credit for that. There’s so many people that do deserve Citizen of the Year, yes… but [she’s] been here for 20 years, and you think about the impact [she’s] had on people over the course of those 20 years. Just the small moments even, that might have turned their life around and made it better or that smile. She’s my earth angel, I think she’s just an earth angel, period.”

The Prince Albert Citizen of the Year has been awarded every year since 1958. Recent winners include Sonja Jahn (2024), Barry Brezden (2023), and Marj Bodnarchuk (2022).

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com