Jeannette Eddolls speaks to the crowd after Catholic Family Services announced they would be starting a scholarship named in her honour. (paNow Staff/Nick Nielsen)

By Nick Nielsen

Four decades of service

Catholic Family Services celebrates 40 years

May 2, 2025 | 11:52 AM

Good food, music, and stories that brought out laughs and warmed hearts was the atmosphere at the Catholic Family Services 40th Anniversary Gala. The non-profit organization gathered at the Ches Leach Lounge on Thursday night to celebrate how far they have come, and they announced a new scholarship as well.

CFS has been offering a number of mental health related services to the community of Prince Albert since 1985, geared at helping people deal with the traumas of abuse, addictions, anger management, grief management, and other forms of mental stress.

Anna Dinsdale is the Chair of the Board of Directors for CFS, and she spoke on stage about how the community of volunteers in the CFS help not only the community around them, but also how much of an effect the CFS has had on her own life as well. Originally from the United Kingdom, CFS served as Dinsdale’s welcome to Canada.

“We immigrated, and I thought I would find a job really easy. It took a moment and I was working actually at the SPCA initially, but my background is in Human Services and I met the Executive Director at the time and she offered me a job. So yeah, seven years ago this month that I started working with Catholic Family Services and I was involved in family programming at the time. I went for the interview and I remember saying to my husband, ‘Ohh Catholic Family Services, what’s that? Am I going to be asked questions about my beliefs?’, and no, the organization was the opposite, extraordinarily friendly, kind hearted, empathetic, professional and a great sense of humour. So yes, and they taught me some key Saskatchewan things for sure.”

The biggest announcement was saved for last when CFS decided to announce a new scholarship they will be offering to the students at St. Mary’s while honouring one of their long-time supporters. The Jeannette Eddolls scholarship will reward a student who exemplifies relentless enthusiasm and positivity in volunteering, supporting the CFS’s Catholic mission to help anyone and everyone in need regardless of faith, and shows a high academic achievement.

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“George (Marshall), our executive director, he and I were talking through ideas and it was important to be able to think of a way that we could honour Jeannette, but one that tries to inspire who she is and what she stands for. Jeanette is a powerhouse of volunteerism and of community mindedness and we were hoping to find a way that could speak to her legacy and also inspire in a new generation of volunteers that are as committed to their community as she is.”

While Dinsdale has been with the CFS for the last seven years, Hilda Powell has been helping with the CFS since 1995. She originally worked for the CFS for five years but has been helping volunteer with them ever since, and she’s proud to see how far this organization has come.

“I’m happy I was the little bridge because they were in trouble at the time, but there was so much hope there and so much caring there that it became more than a job, and I wanted to really work hard to get them back so we wouldn’t lose it. I used to say to the staff all the time, ‘we’re never going to close, we’re needed,’ and I can remember one day I was sitting in my office and a man came in and he wants to talk to me, and he said he wanted to make a donation.”

Powell was the second Executive Director the CFS has ever had, and the organization is in a very different place now than it was when she joined in 1995. While CFS takes care of a ton of different people now, thanks to donations from the community, they didn’t always have that support and had to take care of themselves more than they do now. Powell even had to fix her own sink in her office on one of her first days in 1995 because there was no one else there to do it.

“I had come from Woodland Institute where if you had a problem with the computer, you called the computer guy. If you had problem with an appliance, there’s somebody to fix it. This was hands on, and yet it was an agency that I had always admired. We had paid membership fees for years, I’ve even taught a class for them in the past, but it never occurred to me to apply to that until somebody phoned me, and once I got into it, I really met so many people that we’re giving a very good atmosphere.”

To learn more about the services offered and how you can make a donation towards Catholic Family Services, visit their website here.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com