SHEGUIANDAH—Veteran treasurer Ned Martin possesses a unique set of financial skills that have proven a boon to many non-profit and community service organizations over the years, both here on Manitoulin Island and the communities in which he lived before coming to the Island.
Mr. Martin, a former clerk/treasurer in Howland, going on to serve as treasurer in Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI) after amalgamation, currently serves as the chair of the NEMI Public Library Board, a position he has held for most of the time since he joined the board in 2016. He also served two years as the president of Little Current Minor Hockey and more than 10 years as treasurer on the Manitoulin Legal Clinic board.
Mr. Martin’s volunteerism is part of a long history in his family of giving back to the community in which they reside. “My mother was part of a volunteer organization in Southern Ontario and my dad was the long-time director of a local cottagers’ association,” he explains. The cottagers’ association was formed in order to provide for fire protection in the area. “They got together and purchased fire pumps and hoses.”
Before moving to the Island, Mr. Martin was on the board of Kenora Community Living for many years and served as president of a local non-profit marina association. That last one proved to be quite an undertaking.
He also served for six to eight years on the board of Pines Community Resource Centre, an eight-bedroom half-way house for men in Kenora.
“Although we purchased an existing facility and were not completely starting from scratch, there was a lot of work that had to be done to get the not-for-profit set up,” he recalled.
Stepping up to make a difference in the community is an important part of the mix that makes a community something special. “It’s about contributing to the local community,” said Mr. Martin. “If we each contribute to the community we live in, that makes for a better community to live in.”
As for the personal rewards he attains from volunteering, he points to his current efforts on behalf of the library.
“It is so very gratifying to see how the library has expanded,” said Mr. Martin. “By bringing in new people, finding the right people and opportunities, the library now offers so much to the community.”
Mr. Martin’s family has followed in his footsteps when it comes to volunteering. His daughter Oona served as student council president at Manitoulin Secondary School (MSS) and his youngest, April, was also a student council vice president and co-president, while son Jay lends his musical talents with a group of young collaborators.
His wife Judith, an internationally renowned fibre artist, was the lead on a massive community quilting project with the Little Current United Church—a project that went on to encompass some three years and produced a series of quilts.
Mr. Martin noted that the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that accompanies volunteering in the community is more than enough reward and something that he highly encourages anyone to take up.
