There have been some diverse and quite varied activities lately on Manitoulin that, each in its own way, serve to underscore the very important role committed volunteers have in keeping our Island society strong.
Most recently, Sunday’s fundraising event helped the owners of Green Acres Restaurant and Store in Sheguiandah. Barb and Wade Kearns lost their business to a devastating fire earlier in the summer and while they have insurance that will cover the cost of rebuilding, they have lost their income during what would have been their busiest time of the entire year.
A handful of people, friends, and neighbours set out to help in whatever way was possible and the result was a late afternoon and evening of fundraising by various means and a focus where people from the community of Manitoulin could show up and, tangibly, show their support. By all accounts, the event was a successful one. An overwhelmed and emotional Wade Kearns estimates that the large community hall at the Northeast Town recreation centre was filled to capacity not once but twice over as well-wishers came and left and the crowd seamlessly replaced itself all the while keeping the hall packed.
The Kearnses are a popular couple so it wasn’t unexpected that such an event would be successful.
But the organizing of the event gave people the opportunity, the moment, the date, and the place to show up and be supportive. The rest looked after itself.
In a similar but very different view, the announcement earlier this month that the reconstruction of Highway 6 from South Baymouth to Little Current would include one-metre-wide paved shoulders on each side of the rebuilt road is directly related to well-organized and relentless local efforts by, again, a handful of committed volunteers.
The ultimate decision to pave the shoulders of Manitoulin’s north-south secondary highway is significant on at least two counts. In the first place, it had not at all been contemplated when the road reconstruction tender was prepared and that is why Minister of Transportation Kathleen Wynne’s initial response to the 11th-hour proposal was “no,” based on the fact that this had not been anticipated when the budget for the work was estimated. Not long afterwards, after a great deal of Manitoulin support had been mustered, the minister’s response softened to “we’re looking for the money” and, finally, she was able to announce that the work would proceed with paved shoulders, which cyclists can make use of to take themselves out of the travelled highway lanes.
Secondly, this decision is significant because it is clearly precedent-setting for other provincial secondary roads that may be resurfaced if these roads would be useful routes for cyclists travelling around Ontario.
In the examples of the fundraising event on Sunday and the successful lobbying effort for paved shoulders, volunteers, with their eyes clearly focussed on well-thought-out objectives, have changed the ordinary course of events that will see, in quite different ways, positive changes to our community.
These are just a couple of recent and high-profile activities that community-minded volunteers have both envisioned and expedited.
The total list of such individuals, however, would be staggeringly long and influences almost every aspect of the pleasant lives most people enjoy on Manitoulin, from farmers’ markets to Sea Cadets to people digging in to preserve Manitoulin’s lighthouse heritage. From hospital auxiliaries raising amazingly large sums of money to improve Manitoulin’s two hospitals to volunteer powwow committees that work to keep these important cultural events strong and vital in their individual communities. From the Legions that remind us daily of the sacrifices of Canada’s military men and women, past and present, to the service clubs in every community that simply keep on earning and keep on giving back, to the people who keep our church community strong.
While all of these are only a handful of the individuals and organizations that we rely on, it is important that none of them be taken for granted.
This might seem to be a commentary that would be appropriate for the official Volunteer Week we celebrate each spring, but the fact is that volunteers and far-sighted people who come together of their own accord simply to improve our common lot are with us year-round and for this fact we must also be thankful, year-round.
