Junior Citizen of the year
by Lois Perepelitz

The Alberta Junior Citizen of the Year Award has been around for a long time. I always enjoy finding who was nominated for whichever year I am working on, and always pleased when the award goes to some young person in the area.
There were a few deserving young people from Coronation over the years. Charles Petersen was nominated for 1973, he was one of four selected for an award that year. When The Review was reporting on the award they also wrote about what this young man had done to deserve the award.

August 23rd, 1973
“Editors Note:
“Charlie Petersen was nominated for this award by Mrs. Ed Yeats in conjunction with the local RCMP Detachment for his part in saving 92 lives in the chlorine incident at the local pool. Escaping chlorine gas at the pool was noticed by Charlie and with a non functioning gas mask as his only equipment, managed to turn off the gas and help clear the pool.
“Ninety-two were hospitalized and experts estimated that another 1.5 minutes exposure to the gas would have resulted in many deaths.
“Thanks to Charlie’s quick thinking a serious tragedy was avoided.”

Then in January of 1974 The Review had this update:

January 17th, 1974
“The Charles Petersen story has progressed another chapter with Charles being chosen on a national level to be awarded the Medal of Bravery.
Charles and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chris Petersen, travelled to Ottawa where then Governor General Roland Michener, on behalf of the Queen of Canada, presented the award to Charles.”

Just thinking about it gives me goose bumps. Ninety-two people enjoying a warm summer afternoon at the local pool could have died.
Charles not only saved those ninety-two lives, he saved the lives of the families that those young people would have in the future.
Like I said it gives me goose bumps.

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