Rankin Inlet (Oct 18/06) - Rankin Inlet's Sally Kusugak has become the first Inuk to win the prestigious Royal Bank Performance Award.

The national award, which comes with an all-expense paid seven-day Caribbean cruise for the winner and a guest, was presented to Kusugak this past month in Edmonton, Alta.

Sally Kusugak of Rankin Inlet proudly displays the Royal Bank quarterly excellence award that earned her a nomination for the bank's national Performance Award. Kusugak became the first Inuk to win the national award this past month in Edmonton. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

Kusugak will represent the North of 60 Unit on the cruise, which includes branches in Cambridge Bay, Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Hay River and the Yukon.

She says every nominee was invited to the Edmonton gala, but the identity of the winners was kept top secret until the ceremony.

"When they call your name, you have to go up on a big stage to accept the award," says Kusugak. "My branch manager (Troy Nixon) walked me up to the stairway, and then I went up and shook everyone's hand before they presented me with a knapsack containing my registration for the cruise.

"When I left the stage, I had to go and sit with the other winners until they took a group photo at the end of the ceremony."

Kusugak says the award winners come from across Canada, and from every imaginable RBC division, such as insurance, Visa, loans, credit management and financial planning.

She says when all the winners and the RBC's top executive members gather on the ship, it will be like a floating RBC convention. There will be roughly 700 bank representatives on the cruise.

Sally and her husband, Lorne, will leave Rankin to attend a bank function in Calgary on Jan. 4. From there, it's off to Miami where they will board the ship on Jan. 6.

The cruise will take them to St. Thomas, San Juan, Nassau and St. Martins, which is the smallest island in the world to ever be partitioned between two countries. The French and the Dutch have shared the island for more than 350 years.

The excitement is still evident in Kusugak's voice as she talks about the cruise, and even more so when she talks about what the award means to her.

"Basically, the bank is acknowledging the work I've done as a customer-service officer, and the positive attitude I bring to my position and that makes me feel good inside.

"It's hard to talk about yourself, but I think everyone enjoys being appreciated for the effort they put in at their job."