One of Regina’s finest citizens was recognized for 20 years of dedicated service to the business community.
The Regina Chamber of Commerce celebrated their CEO, John Hopkins and his achievement yesterday by hosting a barbecue at the Loblaw’s Warehouse.
Looking back on his time as CEO with the Chamber noted that the people he’s met along his journey as a big highlight. He says working with the business community in Regina has been a pleasure. “I’ve always found this interesting about the chamber, it’s a lot of people that are in business that are doing it because they love to do what they do, and a lot of them it’s not about running the business, it’s doing what they love.” Hopkins added working alongside the Prime Ministers, Saskatchewan Premiers and the mayors of Regina have been another pinnacle during his time as CEO.
While Hopkins has aided the business community for many years, he has been raising awareness on another important issue. Hopkins was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer three years ago, at stage four, his cancer is manageable, but incurable. Hopkins says he’s using his tale to caution others. “If I’d been just a little bit earlier, and it had been in stage three, I’d be cured by now and that’s the difference, so I encourage men that are age 40 and up to go get checked, because it could save your life, I mean stage 4 is incurable and the journey has not been easy for me, I’ll tell you that, but if it’s stage three it’s curable.”
Hopkins was touched by the amount of people who took time out of their Monday afternoon to stop by the barbecue to pay their respects to him. ” I’ve had a lot of great interactions with people in this community from on all sides on the political spectrum as well with various people involved in other causes and that we supported, we’ve raised a lot of money for cancer, we’ve raised money for the food bank, those are things that are really special to me and I’m happy that the board has allowed me to do that and other things over the last couple of decades.”
Even after working with the chamber for two decades, Hopkins continues to look ahead to the future. He noted that the recovery from the CO-VID 19 pandemic will be critical issues for local businesses. “We need to do our best to encourage businesses to get on the right side and help them and that’s what’s we’re going to do.”
Hopkins added it’s important to hear from local businesses because it’s in all of best our interests to have a strong economy.
