{"id":30203,"date":"2021-10-28T17:19:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T21:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30203"},"modified":"2021-10-28T17:28:47","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T21:28:47","slug":"ready-to-walk-the-hall-lois-thompson-needed-softball-and-the-sport-needed-her-right-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ready-to-walk-the-hall-lois-thompson-needed-softball-and-the-sport-needed-her-right-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready to Walk the Hall: Lois Thompson needed softball and the sport needed her right back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We might ask ourselves every day how do we want to live? Do you want to throw off the bedsheets every morning and say this is just another day? Or do we find something we love and pursue it no matter what it took?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lois Thompson took it upon herself to find reason since she was young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in the village of Drayton, ON, just north of Kitchener-Waterloo, Lois Thompson fell in love with softball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter school we used to play ball. I was really young, seven or eight years old, I think. I think the only reason they let me play was because they needed the numbers. I don\u2019t know!\u201d Thompson said. \u201cEver since then, everywhere I seemed to go, I wasn\u2019t content until I found a team to play on. What can I say? It\u2019s my sport!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1967, Thompson and her husband Bob purchased their first home right here in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A simple and private woman, she sought to start her life in a much larger community than where she came from. But she was adamant on one thing, of course, and that was seeking out the local ball club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She watched the local men\u2019s team play and couldn\u2019t help but wonder why there wasn\u2019t a women\u2019s team?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery shortly thereafter, we founded the ladies league, and they\u2019re still playing, which is great,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe ended up with four teams and I got sponsors for our team. There was a bunch of us that got together and put out the word. We had enough interest for the four teams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the Aurora Ladies Softball League was formed between the year of 1968-69. The Auroran\u2019s Diane Buchanan was also involved in getting the league started and played a little ball herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson, who said she was fortunate to be a stay-at-home mother, played up until her two daughters, Cheryl and Barbara, were ready to play rep ball in 1971. She packed in her playing career and, along with Bob, began coaching and convening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1978, she got involved with an Aurora Diggers team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy 1979, there were three Diggers teams and we decided to get together and thus the Aurora Diggers Girls Softball Association was formed in the fall of 1979. I have been the secretary and treasurer ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simultaneously, she joined Provincial Women\u2019s Softball and Softball Ontario and became a manager. Thompson had a part to play in the first women\u2019s softball team that Canada watched compete in the Olympics in 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2001, in London, ON, in front of a stellar crowd of 1,500 people, she also managed Team Ontario past Team Alberta to win the gold medal, in one of her most memorable softball moments she had ever experienced in her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her life, aside from playing ball, Thompson loved to volunteer her time elsewhere in the community with school track and field events and camping. She\u2019s an outdoor girl, who has a passion for gardening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the 79-year-old who recently was awarded the Town of Aurora Volunteer Service Award for her contributions over the past 40 years in the community, is incredibly thankful to be honoured in the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked how she felt when she got the phone call, Thompson said she was very honoured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure you want to know,\u201d she chuckled. \u201cAwards usually aren\u2019t my thing. I don\u2019t like to be in the highlights. But I am very honoured to be selected and thanks to all of the people who worked towards the nomination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson said that after being nominated it was fun for her to travel back down memory lane and sift through all of her photos. She doesn\u2019t do it very often and it was interesting to go through all of the newspaper clippings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout her time, she made memorable friends throughout her softball career that have been there with her every step of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To meet Thompson, you can do so at the Induction Celebration Dinner set to be held at the Royal Venetian on November 18. Tickets are still available for purchase online at aurorashof.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

We might ask ourselves every day how do we want to live? Do you want to throw off the bedsheets every morning and say this is just another day? Or do we find something we love and pursue it no matter what it took? Lois Thompson took it upon herself to find reason since she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30193,"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":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/2021-10-28-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7R9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 09:06:30","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\/30203","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=30203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}