Darrell Liebrecht is one of two Canadians on the international board for the Telephone Pioneers.

In 2011, Darrell Liebrecht (Pioneer Manager) led the SaskTel Pioneers in  a food drive to celebrate one hundred years of Telephone Pioneers on the  continent. Pioneer Chapters around North America participated that year but  Darrell and the SaskTel Chapter kept going. That first ever “Dish it Up  Challenge” was such a success, the SaskTel Pioneers have done it three more  times, each year collecting thousands of pounds of food to help serve the  people who come to the province’s food banks.

When the  international board for the Telephone Pioneers decided it would try another  continent-wide project this year, Darrell, one of two Canadians on the board,  suggested another Dish it Up food drive.

Darrell knew what was coming next. “They just looked at me and said,  ‘sure, and you’ll lead it, right?’” However, the newly appointed international  chair of the Dish it Up food drive, is happy to have the job. “The other  chapters just let it go, but we have done a food drive every year so it made  sense.”
 
“This time we want to keep it simple. We are not sure yet whether we will have  a contest like we have in the past, but we will set a target and then pick a  week for the drive--likely this September or October.”

“We will have a North American committee of people from various  chapters--mostly American.” Considering that Canadian Pioneers are tremendously  outnumbered by their U.S. counterparts, is it strange to have a Canadian lead a  project?

“Not really, they see us Canadians leading a lot of things. They look to us to  lead because they know we do some things very well and have several programs  that they would like to have going for them but don’t. Sometimes they’ll ask,  ‘What do you guys do in Canada and how do you manage that?’”

“And SaskTel’s chapter is one of the only ones that still has an excellent  relationship with its sponsoring company. They envy that connection we have. I  am one of the only chapter heads, for example, who meets with his sponsoring  company’s executive every year. That relationship is important from a business  perspective. We share our goals and objectives and show the corporation the  value we provide from a dollar perspective. Our sister chapters in the U.S.  have not been as successful at that.”

This fall, make sure you join in the food drive and help Darrell and the  SaskTel Pioneers once again in their efforts to fill the shelves at the  province’s food banks.