Archive — Honourees of the 2025 edition. Discover the 2027 Honourees →
Richard Laubonet
Richard Laubonet is a passionate and dynamic coach. With solid experience in fitness and a personalized approach, Richard is dedicated to helping each of his “warriors” (as he likes to call them) reach their goals for physical fitness, well-being and mental health, through joyful cardio and strength choreographies inspired by dances of African origin.
Trained and certified in coaching, Richard masters a wide range of training techniques, from weightlifting to functional training. His approach is based on understanding each person’s unique needs, allowing him to design motivating, joyful and dynamic programs — hence the Djamboola fitness concept.
Ashley Maureen Simo Metietze
Ashley Maureen Simo Metietze is a young artist of Cameroonian origin who immigrated to Québec at the age of two. Passionate about art from an early age, she began painting lessons at 10, which grew into her passion. As a young Afro-Canadian woman, Ashley naturally turned to works depicting Black women. To her, the Black woman is complex and colourful, yet too rarely represented. Through her creations, Ashley seeks to portray Black women from a whole new angle: her community is more than an under-represented minority — it is made of individuals who live every kind of emotion and go through every kind of season in the most beautiful way.
Carole Ferland
“I began my career at Moisson Lanaudière and at the Conseil régional de développement de Lanaudière, forerunner of the local development centres and the Table des préfets. That is how my attachment to my region was sealed.
After ten years with Québec’s ministère de la Sécurité publique in the correctional system, I came back to Lanaudière, notably at Lanaudière Économique as an administrative assistant and at the Commission scolaire des Samares as a vocational training teacher.
At the Carrefour jeunesse-emploi de D’Autray-Joliette since 2019, first with Contact Lanaudière and then with FORUM, I have the indescribable privilege of working every day alongside young people from everywhere, discovering their stories and the richness and joy they bring to my life.”
Vanessa Pierre-Louis
Involved with young people in Lanaudière, Ms. Vanessa Pierre-Louis is actively engaged in her community to fight social inequities and, above all, to empower the region’s youth.
Her path has given her in-depth knowledge of child and adolescent development. She has enriched her approach by integrating the arts to support self-expression, strengthen a sense of belonging and spark positive change.
In schools and in the community, Ms. Pierre-Louis constantly innovates to support young people and help them find their place: partnerships with inspiring collaborators, educational workshops and innovative creative projects. “Create to cry out” is the motto that guides each of her actions. Through her deep commitment to equality and inclusion, she aspires to inspire and mobilize young people to build a better future.