Honouring Legacy of Volunteerism
A volunteer was recognized for giving back in the footsteps of a mentor.
Auxiliary Staff Sergeant Shawn Pinto is the recipient of the inaugural Tim Maiola Exemplary Service Award presented at 14 Division on February 24.
A Toronto Police Service volunteer for 40 years, Maiola passed away in October 2023.
“Tim mentored me and I lead my team with the same passion he did,” said Pinto. “Creating a strong team is the foundation of success. It is the people who make it work. It is what Tim believed in and practiced, and it is what I strive to do with my team.”
The award will be presented to the Auxiliary officer demonstrating excellence in service, community engagement and integrity.
Staff Sergeant Dan Greenwood said Pinto had the highest number of volunteer hours at 14 Division in the last year.
“He continues to look for opportunities to learn and grow and ensures there is a focus on meaningful crime prevention and community initiatives when guiding his team,” he said. “He always reflects the professionalism of the Service and takes pride in representing the Auxiliary program and the Toronto Police Service in everything he does.”
An Information Technology specialist, Pinto has volunteered almost 400 hours each year after becoming an Auxiliary member in 2015.
“I enjoy being an Auxiliary because of the wide-ranging activities,” he said. “They range from crowd control, traffic management, looking for missing persons and homicide canvasses to managing our Division’s Auxiliary social media platforms.”
Maiola dedicated thousands of volunteer hours in four decades and was a passionate advocate for his team often showing up early to share breakfast and build camaraderie with team members.
“Tim’s passion and enthusiasm was infectious,” said Greenwood who oversees Auxiliary members at the Division. “It built the team up and that was something he knew how to do innately.”
Chief Myron Demkiw, along with Maiola’s wife, Kim, and mother-in-law, Edith, attended the event to present the award alongside TPS members.
Nearly 300 Auxiliaries volunteer approximately 65,000 hours in Toronto annually, assisting in community mobilization initiatives, crime prevention programs, special events, parades, searches for missing persons and emergency call-outs.
Individual members contribute between 150 to 1,000 hours yearly in addition to their regular jobs, studies and family commitments.
The Auxiliary program was established 68 years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Hazel in 1954 which killed 81 people in Canada, the majority in Toronto.
In the last six decades, members have provided countless hours of service during the 2010 G20 Summit, papal visits in 1984 and 2002 during World Youth Day celebrations, at the 2003 Rolling Stones concert and at the sites of the 1962 propane plant explosion in Maple, the 1969 natural gas explosion in Malton and the 1979 trail derailment in Mississauga.
Learn more volunteering with the Toronto Police Service: www.tps.ca/volunteer
