{"id":26762,"date":"2020-06-15T20:28:05","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T00:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26762"},"modified":"2020-06-18T19:13:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:13:45","slug":"tom-connor-named-2020-citizen-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/tom-connor-named-2020-citizen-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Connor named 2020 Citizen of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the past 40 years, he has been quietly working in the\nbackground as a tireless volunteer, but Tom Connor\u2019s decades of community\nbuilding finally found their place in the spotlight Monday night when he was\nnamed Aurora\u2019s 2020 Citizen of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally announced in Council Chambers as part of\nthe Town\u2019s Community Recognition Awards, Mr. Connor was surprised with the\nhonour June 15 while enjoying a physically-distant evening with long-time\nfriends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the families watched the virtual ceremony over\nYouTube, friends and well-wishers let in early on the secret, gathered outside\nthe home for an impromptu celebration where, following the online announcement\nfrom Mayor Tom Mrakas, Councillor Harold Kim presented Mr. Connor with the\ntrophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Connor has been a resident of Aurora since 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost from the outset, he set to work to make a\ndifference in the Town he calls home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A leader in local sports, a champion for the Aurora\nPublic Library, and a passionate volunteer on behalf of residents in need, most\nrecently with Martha\u2019s Table, a weekly meal program for vulnerable and isolated\nmembers of the community organized by Welcoming Arms and St. Andrew\u2019s\nPresbyterian Church, he has touched the lives of many over the decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is a devoted volunteer giving his time over the past\nfour decades to various organization in Aurora such as the Aurora Minor Hockey\nAssociation, Aurora Youth Soccer, the Optimist Club of Aurora, the Town\u2019s\nCommittee of Adjustment, the Aurora Public Library Board, and Martha\u2019s Table to\nname a few,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas on Monday night before revealing Mr.\nConnor\u2019s name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas lauded Mr. Connor for quarter century of\nwork with the Optimist Club of Aurora, where he has served in various\ncapacities, including President and Treasurer, his more than 20 years of\nservice on the Aurora Public Library Board, on which he presently serves as\nChair, and his tireless efforts to provide food and fellowship through Martha\u2019s\nTable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTom\u2019s compassion, dedication and commitment to our Town\nis inspiring,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas after the big reveal. \u201cHis lifelong goal of\ngiving back to others shows us the importance of volunteering and the positive\nimpact on our community. Over the years, Tom has built a network of volunteers,\ncommunity connections and neighbourhood resources and, most of all, lifelong\nfriends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour drive to serve and better the lives of others gives\nus hope, especially in times like this, where hope and positive contributions\nto our fellow neighbours and friends will help us move forward through\nadversity and instill much needed change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such member of Mr. Connor\u2019s network of lifelong\nfriends is former Citizen of the Year Steve Hinder, who, along with wife Jane,\ninvited Tom and his wife Barb over for dinner Monday night, gently encouraging\nthe foursome to sit down and watch the livestream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me, Tom exemplifies exactly what Citizen of the Year\nmeans,\u201d said Mr. Hinder. \u201cIt is someone who has given a lifetime of volunteering\nand giving back to the Town. Tom has done it so quietly. He never talks about\nit. He even still has a flip phone, so he\u2019s not a social media guy! He\u2019s not\nabout posting or boasting about anything that he does. It has never been his\nstyle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Mr. Hinder notes Tom and Barb Connor met while\nvolunteering with a youth drop-in centre in Toronto, so volunteering is a\ncornerstone of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The things that a lot of parents do in terms of getting\nengaged in sports and leisure activities for the kids,\u201d shared Mr. Hinder. \u201cTom\nwas more than a coach; he became the President of Aurora Youth Soccer for a\nyear. The boys were playing hockey and he recognized there was nothing around\nfor them at a young age, so he approached then-Mayor Dick Illingworth and Dick\nsaid, \u2018Yeah, I can support this, but you need to run it.\u2019 Tom said, \u2018Okay,\u2019 and\nactually started the recreational hockey program that in 1988 the Optimists\ntook over and it grew from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the last few years, he has been involved with\nMartha\u2019s Table. He never told me any of this stuff. That is the thing about\nhim. We saw each other at least every couple of weeks. He\u2019s not one to say,\n\u2018Hey, here\u2019s what I\u2019m doing,\u2019 but it would be Barb who would say something\nabout Tom helping with this neat program every Thursday at St. Andrew\u2019s\nPresbyterian Church called Martha\u2019s Table and he helps organize the lunch\nthere.\u2019 A couple of years ago at Neighbourhood Network, we were going around to\nvisit different organizations during National Volunteer Week. We dropped off\ncoffees to say thank you to volunteers. I really didn\u2019t know anything about\nthat program, but I walked in and \u2013 boom, there he was. I know this guy really\nwell and he didn\u2019t tell me anything about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining in on the congratulations Monday night was Bruce\nGorman, CEO of the Aurora Public Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is thoughtful, insightful gentleman who really cares about the community,\u201d said Mr. Gorman. \u201cHe really understands libraries and he has been fabulous in allowing the Aurora Public Library to move forward and do some remarkable things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past 40 years, he has been quietly working in the background as a tireless volunteer, but Tom Connor\u2019s decades of community building finally found their place in the spotlight Monday night when he was named Aurora\u2019s 2020 Citizen of the Year. Traditionally announced in Council Chambers as part of the Town\u2019s Community Recognition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-06-18-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6XE","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 17:51:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}