Birmingham Retirement Community in Mount Forest celebrated Seniors’ Month by hosting a Senior Citizen of the Year Award.
Nominations were submitted to Roslyn Fortier, community relations manager at Birmingham Retirement, from seniors clubs, churches and service agencies. It was then the task of her committee consisting of staff member Lorna Williamson and two Birmingham residents, Colleen Drier and Anna Marie Atchison to make their selection.
Five nominees were praised for their various contributions to Mount Forest at a dinner held at Birmingham Retirement on June 10. The nominees were: Verna Batenchuk who is a 30-year veteran of the Ladies Auxiliary for the Louise Marshall Hospital, Fred Black for contributions of his time and talent to the Egremont Optimist Club, Patricia Orr who as a nurse worked at Louise Marshall Hospital and later as a public health nurse, Bert O’Donnell, an ambassador of good will for his community as a driver for Canadian Cancer Society patients and the Canadian Legion and this year’s winner, Murray Goold, who was nominated by the VON.
Goold is a Meals on Wheels driver and a volunteer visitor who averages 28 volunteer hours a month with the VON, serving clients from Mount Forest down through Fergus, come rain, shine or a challenging winter. He is the first to respond if the VON needs to fill a shift at the last minute or cover vacation time. Recently Goold also assisted the VON staff with purchasing fresh vegetables at a farmer’s auction in Elmira by driving with his truck to bring back the goods to the Mount Forest location.
