Growing up in Greensville, a small community near Dundas, Ontario, probably provided pretty similar childhood experiences to those of youth in his adopted hometown of Alma, says Mapleton resident Rob McKay.
“It’s pretty much like Alma. That’s kind of why we’re up here,” McKay said in a recent interview with the Advertiser.
McKay’s childhood memories including joining a youth group affiliated with a local church.
“That was just so much fun for me growing up and I never forgot that,” he recalls.
The program, which involved various sporting and other activities for young people, was primarily run by one volunteer.
“At one point in time it dawned on me that this guy was giving up his time. You know everyone’s time is precious and this person felt – and I don’t think he even had a child in the program – he just thought it was a good idea to do it for the youth.
“I think about that often,” says McKay, who, as an active volunteer and local Optimist Club member, has made himself available to help with a wide range of programs designed to benefit young people in the Alma area.
McKay moved to Mapleton in 1983, after completing a degree in math and statistics at the University of Guelph. He had planned to continue working toward a masters degree, but ended up landing a job with Uniroyal in Guelph, which led to a 30-year career in the company’s mathematical services group.
McKay’s wife, Christine, was a teacher with what was then the Wellington County Board of Education. After the couple was married in 1981, they began looking for place to build a home in the area.
With land prices south of Guelph well beyond their price range, the McKays started looking at properties between Mount Forest and Fergus, ultimately settling on a rural property a few kilometres from Alma, where they built a log home.
McKay’s involvement with the Alma Optimist Club began after he decided to sign his daughter Amanda up to play T-ball in the community, as a means of helping her get to know some of the local children prior to starting kindergarten that fall.
“The coach was a fellow named Jim de Bock,” said McKay who became friends with de Bock, a prominent, longtime member of the club.
“So I got to know Jim and he said, ‘I belong to this club, the Optimist Club, are you interested in joining?’”
McKay says he liked the hands-on approach the Alma club takes to working with local youth, as opposed to clubs that concentrate on raising funds and making donations.
“I wanted to be involved with the youth – because our motto is, friend of youth,” he notes. That goal led to McKay volunteering to take on the role of liaison with Alma Public School to facilitate Optimists programs.
Traditionally, he notes, many of the programs the club offered – Hit, Run and Throw; soccer; basketball and others, were of an athletic nature.
“You were seeing the same kids getting the medals and the trophies because they were athletic – so other kids weren’t getting the same chances,” said McKay.
While an Optimist Club spelling bee program was in operation, it wasn’t being offered in the area, so McKay decided to bring it to the zone, much to the amusement, he says, of his daughter.
“I was the worst speller in Greensville PS Number 5 my whole academic career,” he explains, adding, “So she just finds that hilarious, that I’m the chair of the spelling bee – but I don’t have to spell the words.”
The end result, McKay notes, is that a whole other group of kids had a chance to become involved in a confidence-building program.
Similarly, McKay, who was a leader with the Alma/Creek Bank Boy Scouts for three years, kept a popular non-athletic Scouting program alive at the school after the local troop disbanded. Cub Car and Beaver Buggy races had long been popular activities with those groups, so McKay acquired the tracks and equipment from the scouting program and turned it into a “Gator Car” competition, named after the Alma PS school mascot, for Grade 3 and Grade 6 students.
Since joining the Optimists in 1996, McKay has been an active volunteer in numerous areas. He can be often be found helping with beef barbecues, the Elora Fishing Derby and other events requiring the Optimist food booth.
“It’s something that everybody should probably take a turn at, and I enjoy interacting with the people. It’s just kind of a fun thing. That’s one thing about the Optimists, there is a lot of fun.”
McKay was the club president in 1999, 2002 and 2007 and also held the position of secretary five times. In 2000 and 2001 he served as Lieutenant Governor at the Optimist zone level.
His work with the club has enabled him to bring his love of Sports and recreation to Alma Public School to run activities like a softball competition, basketball skills, disc golf, soccer skills and bicycle safety.
He is also the Optimist representative for the Mapleton Township Communities in Motion group.
Among the key accomplishments of the Alma Optimists, McKay notes proudly, is the construction of the Alma Community Hall.
The club had developed a previous community hall in an old church, back in 1986, but outgrew the facility, which had also become dated in terms of accessibility and other features.
However, construction a new facility seemed out of reach until the 2008 recession promoted upper tier governments to offer funds for new infrastructure projects. With two-thirds of the funding secured from the federal and provincial governments, the Optimists split the remaining $600,000 share of the $l.6-million building with Mapleton Township.
A community fundraising campaign raised about $200,000 and sale of the old Optimist Hall raised a surprising $200,000.
“All of a sudden we had enough money and some in the bank.” McKay notes.
The extra funds were soon spent on restoring the community’s ball diamond, another Optimist facility, which had been damaged in a storm.
In Alma, it seems the Optimists play a role in virtually every facet of community life.
“It’s a very caring community,” said McKay, noting Alma’s strength draws from three areas key to any successful community: church, school and service groups.
“When all of them work together, then you can have a really strong community. In Alma it’s pretty simple: one school, one service club.”
McKay’s enthusiasm and expertise in various areas are a real asset to the club, says de Bock.
“He’s enthusiastic and he’s really knowledgeable too,” de Bock states. “His ideas are creative and new and they have been a positive influence on just about every member of the club – including me.”
Aside from his Optimist activities, McKay has also been involved in coaching minor softball, hockey, soccer and football for many years. He is also a founding member of the Alma Community Recreation Committee (ACRA).
The coaching, he says, resulted from simply signing his children, Amanda and Matthew, up for involvement in various activities.
“When we put our kids into hockey and these other groups, the first thing we noticed is that they all need volunteers. We’ve never been the kind of parents to just drop our kids off at the rink or whatever – so I figured if I’m going to be there anyway, I might as well be on the ice or on the bench,” he said.
That spirit of volunteerism resulted in one unusual season at the helm of a local youth soccer club. McKay had agreed to assist the team’s coach, while stressing to organizers that he had never played soccer and knew next to nothing about the game. However, before the season started, the head coach became unavailable and McKay was asked to take over. With the help of a 14-year-old volunteer with some knowledge of the game, McKay says, he got through “a very interesting year.”
Whatever the challenge, McKay says he draws inspiration for volunteering from an old adage that states: the first 25 years of your life are for yourself, the second are for your family and the last 25 years are for the community.
“I really agree with that – I think that’s a good way to live your life,” he said.
In May McKay was selected as Mapleton’s recipient of the Wellington County Volunteer Appreciation Award, largely for his work with local youth through the Optimists Club.
While honoured, he defers the credit to the entire organization.
“Any time a person within an organization is recognized, all you are is the front man, essentially,” he said. “You end up getting the accolades, but there are so many other people who help out.”
