{"id":35369,"date":"2024-11-07T17:17:14","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T22:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35369"},"modified":"2024-11-07T17:17:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T22:17:15","slug":"21-local-sports-organizations-honor-volunteers-of-the-year-at-sport-auroras-14th-annual-volunteer-recognition-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/21-local-sports-organizations-honor-volunteers-of-the-year-at-sport-auroras-14th-annual-volunteer-recognition-event\/","title":{"rendered":"21 local sports organizations honor Volunteers of the Year at Sport Aurora\u2019s 14th Annual Volunteer Recognition Event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sport Aurora hosted its 14th<\/sup> Annual Volunteer Recognition Event at Wicked Eats on Sunday morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuxedoed emcee Stephen Forsey added a dash of elegance to the proceedings and welcomed attendees to the north end restaurant whose proprietor Rob Stewart was recognized last week by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce for Business Excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forsey thanked the amiable restauranteur for hosting this year\u2019s event and introduced Mayor Tom Mrakas.  Mayor Mrakas thanked the 21 organizations for their service to the residents of Aurora, \u201cfor keeping residents healthy, active and engaged,\u201d and praised \u201cthe positive impact of volunteerism in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Parsa, MPP for Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, also praised the importance of community spirit and noted that \u201c41% of Canadians volunteer their time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He expressed his \u201cthanks to Sport Aurora for going above and beyond in its excellent recognition of community volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MPP Dawn Gallagher-Murphy (Newmarket-Aurora) extolled the positive attitude of the volunteers present at the event \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve never heard a volunteer complain about what they do\u201d \u2013 and she thanked them for their \u201cselflessness and giving of their time so freely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou are the cream of the crop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sport Aurora President Ron Weese thanked attendees for their hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVolunteerism is the backbone of our sports organizations,\u201d he said. \u201cOur volunteers bring their expertise and this makes the sporting experience here in Aurora one of the best in Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weese added that \u201cVolunteers drive the sport. Without their contributions, sport would be too expensive for people to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President of Sport Aurora presented two distinguished and long-serving members of the sporting body with prestigious awards. The Honoured Member Award was presented to Forsey who has served as Emcee of the Volunteer Recognition Event for 14 consecutive years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long-time executive member of Sport Aurora reflected fondly on being \u201cvoluntold to coach 30 years ago,\u201d acknowledged humorously about being \u201cvoluntold by Laurie and Ron to work for Sport Aurora,\u201d and noted how much he enjoyed \u201crunning a men\u2019s hockey league for 20 years, and helping with the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame for 10 years.\u201d  He became emotional when he thanked his father for providing him with an outstanding model of community service and noted \u201cthat this award is for you, dad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sport Aurora President\u2019s Award was presented by Weese to former Aurora mayor and long-time Sport Aurora executive Geoff Dawe. Weese lauded Dawe\u2019s considerable contributions to Sport Aurora and thanked him for his active volunteer service.  Dawe expressed his gratitude for the award and noted \u201cthe economic value of volunteers and their real value to sports organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy congratulations to everyone who volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawe\u2019s sentiments were well-received by the dozens of volunteers assembled at Wicked Eats and the celebration of selflessness rolled on as twenty-one local sports organizations presented their respective Volunteer of the Year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following individuals were recognized during Sunday\u2019s ceremony:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora Community Tennis Club\u2014Eric Tolles; York Region Football\u2014Warren Craney; Central York Girls Hockey Association\u2014Sarah Tracey; Aurora Lawn Bowling Club\u2014Craig Lloyd; Gaunlet Road Tennis\u2014Shelley Thunder; Aurora Barbarians Rugby Club\u2014Stacey Barron; York Oldtimers Hockey League\u2014David Maguire; Elevation Athletics\u2014Greg Rank; Shaolin Martial Arts Canada\u2014Paiten Kopenny; Aurora Skating Club\u2014Suzanne Hoy; Toronto and North York Pony Club\u2014Liz Miller; York Artistic Swimming Club\u2014Sandra Gismondi; York Curling Club\u2014Suzanne Charlebois-Bin; York North Basketball Club\u2014Luch Condarcuri and Wayne Scott; Aurora Diggers Girls Softball\u2014Jill Green and Andy Jenicek; Aurora Junior A Hockey–  Charles Marek and John Cooper; Aurora Seniors Association\u2014Jane Snape; KO Club Martial Arts\u2014Kiyanna Emami and Aisuda Zandya; Storm Volleyball\u2014Kathie Sharkey; Team Ontario Astros Baseball Club\u2014John Stoner; Special Olympics Ontario (Aurora)\u2014Dan Banks and Simone Hubers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Sport Aurora hosted its 14th Annual Volunteer Recognition Event at Wicked Eats on Sunday morning.  Tuxedoed emcee Stephen Forsey added a dash of elegance to the proceedings and welcomed attendees to the north end restaurant whose proprietor Rob Stewart was recognized last week by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce for Business Excellence. Forsey thanked the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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-35369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9ct","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 23:38:30","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\/35369","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=35369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35370,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35369\/revisions\/35370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}