With the example of her father and grandfather looming large, Samantha “Sam” Wilkins, chief operating officer of External Affairs Medical Spas in Edmonton, St. Albert, and Kelowna, took the initiative to make the spa’s client appreciation event in October a fundraiser for MANS and its partner venture adjacent to Samson Cree Nation territory, the Mamawi Atosketan Centre (MAC)). All ticket sales went to benefit MANS and MAC.

Sam, who has accompanied her father at every major MANS event in the past eight years, brings the same passion to her work and her relationship with MANS and MAC that attracted the attention of the Governor General of Canada and earned Larry the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers, awarded at Government House in Edmonton in 2019.  

The CBC interview “Larry Wilkins Volunteers to Change Lives” aired on Daybreak Alberta with Russell Bowers on Nov. 8, 2019, the day before he received the Sovereign’s Medal, which recognizes the extraordinary dedication of a select few Canadians to causes that makes Canada a better place.

Read what Larry, an Indigenous businessman and founder of External Affairs Medical Spas, had to say about what his medal and the opening of Mamawi Atosketan High School mean to him: Honorary Campaign Chair Recognized by The Queen.