LITTLE CURRENT—It was fitting that the interview for Volunteer Week with Rick and Gail Gjos was done in the hall of the Little Current United Church, as so much of their time has been spent there over the years, volunteering with the many committees that go into the daily running of a church.
In fact, that morning, Gail was to meet with the outreach committee for what she expected to be a long meeting. She’s chair of the committee. Following the interview, husband Rick was going to dash off to do some banking for the Sheguiandah seniors’ group. He’s the treasurer. All in a day’s volunteering for the Gjoses.
The couple explained that the family moved to Manitoulin in 1973 and began their life as volunteers extraordinaire in minor hockey. Rick coached, managed and sat on the executive while Gail took on fundraising efforts for the club. Gail also busied herself in ringette and figure skating.
“She always has good ideas and she’s a driving force behind raising money,” Rick said proudly of his wife.
“And we’ve always been involved with the church,” he added, the couple explaining that fundraising efforts are always a part of church life, with one of the biggest to date the money raised for a new church roof in the early 1990s. Gail has served in almost every capacity at the Little Current United Church.
Gail is always coming up with new ideas to raise funds. Last year she brought the idea forward of the rain barrel campaign. Stories and advertisements in this newspaper encouraged Islanders to buy a rain barrel, pointing out all the good things that come from saving rain water to help your garden grow. This was done through the church’s outreach committee, with all the money raised going toward the Manitoulin Help Centre food bank building fund. It is also the outreach committee that hosts the always-popular Breakfast with Santa each December and the ecumenical progressive dinner too.
“The thing is, you don’t do any of these things by yourself,” Gail was quick to point out in her matter-of-fact way. “While you may have had the idea or spearheaded the committee, you’re only as good as the people you work with.”
The Gjoses also put their fundraising talents to good work with the former Manitoulin Islanders Junior A hockey team, hosting regular barbecues in downtown Little Current, Rick always the smiling face behind the barbecue, luncheons at the church hall or musical evenings at the Sheguiandah seniors’ hall.
Among other things, Gail has also been involved with Meals on Wheels, the Little Current Public School snack program, Rick Hansen’s Man in Motion tour and the Terry Fox run. She’s also been the Sheguiandah team leader for the Canadian Cancer Society’s April canvassing campaign and volunteered for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Rick is a dedicated member of the Little Current Fish and Game Club, helping out with the elementary school visits at the home of Bill Strain each spring and keeping a watchful eye during the spring pickerel watch too. This winter he is regularly seen driving the Bidwell Road, doing his part for the Manitoulin deer save campaign. These patrols help the fish and game club keep an eye on the struggling population due to the severe winter weather.
“If we see property that would benefit from cutting browse and making trails, then we’ll seek out landowner permission slips,” he explained.
A retired Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer, Rick also sits on the board of the OPP Veterans’ Association and the Gjoses have hosted the annual veterans’ barbecue for the past 25 years at their Sheguiandah Bay home. In fact, Rick won the prestigious Vivian Levensohn award for volunteer work four years ago,
In their own community, Gail is known for keeping her eye out on local seniors in need of a helping hand, running them to appointments or dropping off a meal every now and then. Most recently, however, the couple has been intently focused on the creation of the new and improved Sheguiandah Seniors’ Hall on Townline Road.
Sheguiandah can be truly thankful that they have volunteer powerhouses Rick and Gail on its side. It took a solid year of work, but the outcome was truly inspirational in the form of a new, beautiful and highly functional hall for the community.
Gail explained that when it came to the hall, a decision had to me made: “Simply walk away from it or go out on a limb and do what we did without really knowing where the money was going to come from.”
“At the very least, we thought we’d have a foundation, walls and a roof,” she added. “But thanks to the many, many, many volunteers who graciously donated to the project” there’s so much more.
Rick explained that the group was fortunate enough to coordinate three grants which enabled them to have $100,000 to start from, coupled with fundraising efforts.
Rick explained that Gail formulated a letter that was either hand delivered or mailed to individuals and businesses, seeking donations for the cause. “The response was great,” he said.
During the construction phase last summer, when the hall was out of commission, the Gjos’ and the seniors’ group rented the Sheguiandah United Church hall, enabling the Monday euchres to continue so that a bit of income was still coming in.
The pair said that the amount of time put into this particular project was far and above their usual volunteer time, which is already a full schedule, resulting in a summer of no fishing, Rick laughed. “My boat never left the yard.”
The Gjoses couldn’t say enough about the raft of volunteers who made their time available too during the construction and fundraising phase. Island contractors and building supply stores also did their part for the project, giving them the best prices available.
“We couldn’t have done it without them,” they said.
“(The seniors’ hall) is one of the few buildings in Sheguiandah that’s available to the public,” Rick said. “For people who maybe can’t afford other facilities, the hall is a viable option,” Gail added.
The hall also doubles as an emergency service building for the municipality, as it is equipped with a generator, washroom facilities and propane appliances.
“It’s a legacy for Sheguiandah families too,” Gail continued, listing family names such as Myers, Batman, Lewis and Bowerman. “It will be there for other generations of these families to use.”
Gail said that for all those naysayers, for those who think a project is impossible, they are here to tell you that nothing is impossible with a little hard work and determination.
“It was all worth it in the long run—it’s a great facility to have in the community,” Gail said.
“It certainly wasn’t ‘her and I,’ it was a group thing,” Rick said.
The couple is already in the planning stages of a volunteer appreciation dinner to mark the new and improved hall sometime this spring.
“We hope that more people join the group and come up with good ways to utilize the building,” Gail said, noting that the hall offers euchre on Mondays, weekly tai chi classes, as well as catering services.
The couple admits that all of their volunteering means that it’s sometimes hard to schedule their own personal lives, “but for the most part we have fun,” they said.
Sheguiandah, and the Island community, are lucky to have people like Rick and Gail Gjos in their midst.
