Sharbot Lake Legion honors members

Mar 15, 2012

Photo: Patty and Don Middleton each received a Certificate of Merit from Provincial Command at the Sharbot Lake Legion's Annual Honors and Awards Dinner on March 11

Following a gala roast beef dinner on March 10, members of the Sharbot Lake Legion Branch 425 presented numerous pins and honorary awards to many of its longtime members and associates at their annual awards dinner.

Sitting at the head table were the Legion's first vice president Dave Whalen, Zone Commander Dan Bush, president Patty Middleton and her husband Don, guest speaker and Deputy District Zone G Commander Garry Pond and his wife Linda, Donna Longmire and Tyrone Seeley. Special guests in attendance were members of various Legion branches from near and far and included Arnold and Elsie Davis and Chris Ingersoll representing Branch 137 in Napanee, Terry Shelley and his partner Donna Brand representing Branch 458 Tamworth, and Jean and Ross Compeau and Sue Mackenzie representing Branch 623 Bath and Area.

Prior to the awards presentations guest speaker Garry Pond spoke about the importance of honoring members. Pond, who was born in St. Johns Newfoundland, joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1972 and was employed as a supply technician, eventually rising to the rank of Master Warrant Officer. He retired in 1996. After postings to North Bay, Ontario; Shilo, Manitoba; Gagetown, New Brunswick, Petawawa and Ottawa he worked as a consultant at NDHQ since retiring. Pond spoke of the importance of “showing the people who work for you how you feel about them. Even though this is a small branch here, I can't stress enough the importance of keeping our members happy," he said.

As membership chair of District G he spoke of the extremely high membership numbers here in Ontario. “The Royal Canadian Legion has about 330,000 members Canada wide and of those, almost half, roughly 127,000 are here in Ontario. District G alone has over 18,000 members which is more than the individual totals in five separate provinces in Canada including Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Quebec, PEI. We know the politicians care about numbers and the more members we have the more political clout we have,” Pond said.

Branch 425 Legion members who received executive medals and bars were Dave Whalen, Kathleen White, Bill Everett, Connie McLellan, and James Gutowski. Members receiving ordinary pins were Dave Whalen and Bruce Bertrim for 10 years, William Bowick for 15 years and Cecilia Marshall for 45 years. Associate members receiving pins were Rustin Hollywood for 5 years, Diane and David Yerxa and Guy Cooke for ten years, Sharon Quinn and Rosemary Bowick for 15 years, Gerald Dunham for 20 years, Cathy MacMunn and Ernie Barr for 25 years, and Suzanne Barr and Peter Brugmans for 30 years. The Legion's Volunteer of the Year award was presented by Dave Whalen who said, “The Legion is made up of volunteers and without them we'd have to close our doors. Of those there are two types: those who are visible and those who are less so.” The winner of this year was Don Middleton, who was honored for all of the hard work he did when the branch was required to overhaul and replace its septic system last year. Also receiving special honors was Donna Longmire. Legion members presented a cheque for $300 to Fire Chiefs Art Cowdy and Bill Young for the Sparky Fund. The funds had been raised at a special breakfast fundraiser.

The final presentation was made to Patty and Don Middleton, who each received their Certificate of Merit from Provincial Command in recognition of their efforts to get the branch's septic system replaced in such a timely fashion and their efforts to involve the greater community at large.