Volunteers

Putting fun first and raising funds for the future of wetlands

Serge Dupuis named one of Ducks Unlimited Canada’s New Brunswick Volunteers of the Year

By Keagan Perlette April 20, 2026

Serge Dupuis, one of Ducks Unlimited Canada’s New Brunswick Volunteers of the Year

Serge Dupuis has been a regular at Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) fundraising dinners throughout New Brunswick for over 20 years. When DUC members were looking to start up a new dinner in Memramcook, N.B. in the early 2010s, Dupuis was the first one they called.

“My brother-in-law was chair for a DUC committee in the province and I started going to his dinner,” Dupuis says. “I really enjoyed those dinners. A couple of people wanted to do one in Memramcook, so they reached out to me and my friend JP LeBlanc because they knew we were duck hunters and they knew I had experience attending DUC events.”

A team effort

Dupuis and LeBlanc’s wife, Nicole — who was also named Volunteer of the Year for New Brunswick this year — ended up organizing the first Memramcook supper together in 2013.

“My goal was that our dinners had to be fun,” Dupuis says. “I said, ‘Okay, if I’m going to be doing this, we’ll do the things I like about the other dinners. We’ll make sure people feel welcome and give them a good time.’”

The Memramcook supper regularly sells out and, though the event doesn’t officially start until 6 p.m., attendees get to the venue as early as 4:30 p.m. to grab the best seats in the house.

“It’s not just about the prizes, it’s about how you do the evening,” says Dupuis. “We have kids volunteering handing out prizes. We’re involving the crowd. We’ve got a great auctioneer, Carmen Reeves. We have a hot turkey dinner every year and sometimes people suggest that we change it, but we’re not going to change something that works great.”

Community support = success

Over the years, the Memramcook dinner has set records in Canada for selling the most guns and auctioning off a print of a moose for the highest sum in the country. The population of Memramcook is around 5,000 and Dupuis feels proud that his community’s enthusiasm has put the success of their supper on par with larger cities.

“The most rewarding thing has been watching the dinner get bigger every year and seeing how much money people are donating,” he says.

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When we first started, we were so happy that our first dinner sold out. Looking at the last few years, it’s been amazing how much money we’ve raised. It makes me feel good seeing that people are excited to be at the dinner.

Serge Dupuis

Finding balance in the outdoors

Dupuis has been part of the local hunting community since he was a child. Spending time in nature has become an important way to unwind and disconnect from his work as the owner of a local funeral home.

“My dad was a big hunter and since the age of 12, I’ve been spending time in the woods. At 16 I started duck hunting. I just wanted to get out there and shoot more ducks than my dad,” he says. “I’m in the funeral business and being out in nature is my getaway. For me to stop fishing, hunting or going out into the woods, I’d have to be stuck in a nursing home!”

Being involved with DUC is one of the ways that Dupuis gives back to the land that supports his hobbies.

“Growing up, there were years where everyone would overhunt the ducks and deer and we would see the numbers going down,” Dupuis says. “It made me realize what humans can do to nature if we don’t do something about it. Knowing that we can raise some money to save properties so that we can continue to duck hunt or even just go on a walk to see ducks is really meaningful for me.”

Investing in the next generation

For Dupuis, nature is a place for making connections that span generations. “I remember bringing my girlfriend’s daughter for a walk during the spring migration and she was asking why one duck was more beautiful than the other,” he says. “I explained to her that one was a female and one was a male. It was so fulfilling to teach her about nature and that she could have that experience.”

Beyond his own family, Dupuis has also invested in wetland education for local kids. Over the last 10 years, Dupuis has paid for Grade 4 classes to take part in school programs offered by DUC and other conservation education organizations in the area.

“I find that having these places for us to go and connect in nature is really important, especially with kids, given that there’s all this technology we’re wrapped up in all the time,” he says. “If we don’t pay attention to it, we’re going to lose it.”

There are approximately 190 Ducks Unlimited Canada volunteers in New Brunswick and 2,810 across Canada. Ducks Unlimited Canada is proud to recognize each of them — including outstanding leaders like Serge Dupuis— as volunteer champions and conservationists who help ignite volunteerism and serve with generosity, passion and dedication.