by Isobel Harry
ELIZABETH BAY—“The way I was raised, in a small community, everyone helps everyone else. It was never called volunteering then, it’s just people helping each other out,” says Cora Hayden, a Haweater who, with husband Art, believes in lending a hand to keep that time-honoured spirit alive on the Island.
Cora Pearson grew up on her parents’ farm in Evansville, and attended the one-room SS No.1 Burpee school. She and Art Hayden met in high school and married in 1968; they immediately moved to Sudbury where Art worked for Inco as a labourer then in senior management for 42 years and Cora raised their two girls. In May, 2010, the couple returned to the Island and built their home in Elizabeth Bay on land that had been owned by Art’s grandfather and farmed by his parents since 1947.
It was then, says Cora, that, “we made the conscious decision to get involved in the community.” At the same time, she began working again in 2011, after their house had been built, and now works full-time in Gore Bay while Art works on the property in farmlands reclamation and forest management.
A full-time job is no deterrent to community engagement for Cora Hayden, though, and she is one of those people whose energy and commitment to good causes keep the Island humming. When she and Art started looking around for opportunities to help, they were snapped up at one of the Burpee Mills Sunday meet-and-greets. Cora laughs, “We attended, and we ended up with jobs!” Both now hold volunteer positions on the hard-working recreation committee, Art as chair and Cora as treasurer, planning the year’s highly popular community breakfasts where funds are raised for the Golden Age Club and for equipment for the township’s volunteer firefighters. The funds also assist the recreation committee’s donations program for special athletes, and to reimburse parents for some of the expenses incurred when their kids join in sports or arts programs.
“Many volunteers are involved in the rec committee,” Cora explains. “It takes 40 volunteers to do one of our breakfasts, from buying supplies and fresh food to cooking, setting up, serving and cleaning up. We’ve had as many as 400 people attend a breakfast; a good crowd is between 250 and 300 people.” Still more volunteers take on other annual fundraising activities like the curling funspiel and the car rally; other events, such as dances and parties, are “not so much for fundraising as they are for fun” but involve their own volunteers. All told, with meetings and events, recreation committee members contribute about “20 times for two to six hours” each for the benefit of the community and beyond.
Cora’s enthusiasm energizes her other volunteer efforts: she’s “the membership person” on the board of the Friends of Misery Bay, the provincial park near her home, responsible for registering new members, receiving annual fees, sharing information, making weekly bank deposits, picking up and sending mail and attending board meetings from April to November. And that’s not all: Cora sits on the board of the Manitoulin Health Centre’s resource committee for which she travels to Little Current for eight evening meetings a year.
“Volunteering is a new term for work so many of us started to do when our kids were young. For kids to learn almost anything outside of school, from swimming and figure skating to gymnastics and soccer, Island parents must get involved. That’s often when you first become aware of the importance of playing a part in the parent-teacher or playground association,” says Cora. “Your goal becomes making it better for the kids. Many young people raise a family and have careers but still run their kids’ extra-curricular activities.
“Retirees are sought-after as volunteers because they have a lot to contribute from their knowledge and experience. And now that students must complete 40 hours of free volunteering before graduation, the idea of giving back hopefully will be instilled at an earlier age.”
“You get much more out of giving than receiving,” Cora Hayden concludes, “and you are building community when you volunteer. You meet people from all walks of life you wouldn’t normally meet, it helps maintain your health, stretches you, teaches new skills and is a very gratifying experience. And, by the way, volunteering also boosts the economy.”
