LITTLE CURRENT—After 33 years at Inco Ltd., Little Current’s Norris Valiquette is very much a union man, and it is his views from a union standpoint that have shaped how and when he volunteers.
Mr. Valiquette explained that he only volunteers when it doesn’t affect another person’s job, or takes away from a person’s paying job.
After retiring to Ice Lake, Mr. Valiquette said he planned to live a life of riley, but that life quickly caught up with him. He soon went from 185 pounds to 225 pounds and felt he had to make a life change.
“I signed up for the gym in Gore Bay,” he said of beginning his path to being fit.
When he moved to his home town of Little Current there was no such facility available. A private gym did open for a time, but when it closed Mr. Valiquette and a group of like-minded individuals, captained by Honora Bay’s Kerrene Tilson, got busy and planned to make a community gym a reality. Nine years later, it’s a going concern in the basement of the Manitoulin Welcome Centre, with plenty of members.
Mr. Valiquette is a founding member of the Manitoulin Community Fitness Centre committee which went from meeting almost every week 10 years ago to a smooth running volunteer-led operation whose board now only has to meet every two months.
“You’ve got to give credit to the people who joined,” he said. “They’re the ones who made it work.”
“It’s been very, very successful,” he added.
Mr. Valiquette is also an active member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #177, hosting the Legion’s pool tournaments and making sure the billiards equipment is in good order and ordering anything new when necessary. He also sat on the events committee of the Legion, helping to set up for events, clean up after they were over and meal prep too.
Mr. Valiquette is also a proud member of the Little Current Lions Club and enjoys the camaraderie all his volunteer efforts bring.
A word of advice for those nearing retirement: “You should not retire if you don’t have anything to do.”
“Volunteer wherever you feel comfortable, as long as you’re not interfering with someone else’s livelihood,” he adds.
