{"id":26799,"date":"2020-06-18T19:09:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26799"},"modified":"2020-06-25T09:10:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T13:10:38","slug":"make-sure-you-share-what-you-have-tom-connor-named-2020-citizen-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/make-sure-you-share-what-you-have-tom-connor-named-2020-citizen-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMake sure you share what you have\u201d – Tom Connor named 2020 Citizen of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tom Connor\u2019s mother instilled with him from a young age\nthat you have to share what you have with the world around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a simple philosophy, but it\u2019s one that has stuck\nwith him throughout his life, including the past 47 years living in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were words that echoed through his mind on Monday\nnight as he was named Aurora\u2019s 2020 Citizen of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Connor received the honour at the Town\u2019s Community\nRecognition Awards hosted June 15 by Mayor Tom Mrakas \u2013 held virtually due to\nrestrictions surrounding COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching the ceremony virtually with his wife Barb while\nenjoying a meal at another couple\u2019s home, Mr. Connor says he was surprised as\nMayor Mrakas read out the many accomplishments of the incumbent Citizen of the\nYear. As it slowly dawned on him that he was being recognized, he had no\ninkling friends and well-wishers were gathering outside for a socially distant\ncelebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Connors moved to Aurora in 1973. Almost straight from\nthe outset, Mr. Connor set out to make a difference in the community he now\ncalled 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 organizations 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 Mrakas before the big reveal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After announcing this year\u2019s honouree, the Mayor\ncontinued: \u201cTom\u2019s compassion, dedication and commitment to our Town is\ninspiring. His lifelong goal of giving back to others shows us the importance\nof volunteering and the positive impact on our community. Over the years, Tom\nhas built a network of volunteers, community connections and neighbourhood\nresources and, most of all, lifelong friends.<\/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 the Connors over for a meal at the start of the week, subtly suggesting\nthey sit down to watch the Community Recognition Awards together.<\/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\nvolunteering and giving back to the Town. Tom has done it so quietly. He never\ntalks about it. He even still has a flip phone, so he\u2019s not a social media guy!\nHe\u2019s not about posting or boasting about anything that he does. It has never\nbeen his style.\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

\u201cThe 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

But, for Tom Connor, volunteering is just something one\ndoes \u2013 and, in his case, it is something he has always done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I grew up, it was one of those things where you\nsaid, \u2018Okay, who is going to organize it?\u2019 and people said, \u2018Let Tom do it,\u2019\nso, I have always done it,\u201d Mr. Connor told the gathered crowd, which included\nCouncillors Harold Kim, who formally presented Mr. Connor with his trophy on\nbehalf of the self-isolating Mayor, Councillor Sandra Humfryes, Bruce Gorman,\nCEO of the Aurora Public Library, and former mayor Tim Jones. \u201cFor me,\nvolunteering is a thing you should do. It is what you have to do to make your\ncommunity strong and what you need to do to make your community great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mother always used to say, \u2018The one thing you need to do is make sure you share what you have.\u2019 Barb and I have always wanted to do stuff and both of us have worked on things and, to me, this is just a wonderful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Tom Connor\u2019s mother instilled with him from a young age that you have to share what you have with the world around you. It\u2019s a simple philosophy, but it\u2019s one that has stuck with him throughout his life, including the past 47 years living in Aurora. They were words that echoed through his mind on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26795,"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-26799","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\/2020-06-18-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Yf","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 17:51:09","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\/26799","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=26799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}