Calgary, Alberta
Tina-Louise Tung has assisted and advocated for Veterans, their family members, seniors, and youth across Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories for over 40 years. She has volunteered at The Royal Canadian Legion branch in her area and been a very active member in her community, with a major focus on supporting Veterans.
Primarily through the Legion, Tina-Louise has worked to support and assist Canadian, Australian, American, UK, and New Zealand Veterans and their family members. She has used her formal education and training to help listen to and resolve Veterans’ problems, find support and refer them to healthcare professionals where necessary. She has personally transported or referred Veterans to 12-step support groups numerous times a week and will make phone calls to Veterans who have little to no close family to offer them motivation, support, and hope. Her presence in the community can also be seen when she helps the Legion to celebrate Veterans’ milestone birthdays and anniversaries.
Tina-Louise plays a significant role in the honours and awards sector of the Legion and was the event server and coordinator for their award ceremonies from 2018-2020. Since 2017, she has helped to research and write the nominations and citations of certain honours and has aided the Stolen Valour issues by highlighting individuals wearing Canadian Honours illegally.
She has volunteered and supervised 100+ air cadets, senior NCM, officers and family members of the Air Cadet Squadron in Calgary, helping during their meetings and events, as well as encouraging interaction between air cadets and Veterans of all age groups.
In 2019 she was part of creating the Remembrance Day booklets and volunteered during Veterans’ Week. She has also helped a board member with the Foundation of Addiction and Mental Health in an administrative manner, in rewriting their bylaws to help Veterans and their families to access funding for specialized assessments in addiction and mental health related issues.
Outside of the Legion, Tina-Louise gives back to her community through purchasing items such as coffee, tea, and muffins for low-income Veterans, ensuring they and their families have enough to eat. Since 2018, she has been a volunteer board member with fundraising for seniors, Veterans, youth, and police services.
Though Tina-Louise is severely physically disabled and has much difficulty using her left hand, she maintains a strong presence in her volunteer work. She has ample education in the fields of addiction, mental health, employee assistance, and continuing care coordination, and is currently working toward earning a degree in social and behavioural sciences to further her knowledge and thus better assist Veterans.
She is the recipient of multiple honours and recognition. Namely, the Canada 150 Award for community volunteer excellence; the 2018 Government of Canada Citation for outstanding volunteer work with Veterans and seniors; the 2019 RCL Branch 275 Certificate of Appreciation for exemplary services to Veterans; the 2019 RCL 90th anniversary Medal for her volunteering with Veterans and Veteran family members within the Legion branches; and she has been nominated for the province of Alberta’s Member of Legislative Assembly Citation for extraordinary work with battered women, youth, seniors, and students.