At our Annual General Meeting, we award the Volunteer of the Year award:
- Volunteer of the Year Award
The Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc. presents the award to an individual member who has contributed significant time and commitment to their local club, but also to the association itself.
2. Trail Maintenance Award (prior to 2025)
Given to any club that has demonstrated significant trail maintenance work along its section of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail.
2026 Volunteer of the Year Winners
2025 was a unique year for volunteer activity due to the ice storm. The Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc. executive, therefore decided to recognize three people for their contribution to the re-opening of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail in 2025.
While there are many people to thank for our remarkable recovery from the devastation of the storm in March of 2025, we want to extend a special thank you and present our Volunteer of the Year Award to the following:
George Boyd from the Kawartha Club – George spent considerable time providing information to make our maps of the Kawartha section more accurate while also taking a leadership role with the club’s hiking calendar.
Dale Hannah of the Barrie Club – Dale also led the activity to build three new water crossings on the Barrie section between Old Second South and Gill Road.
Bob Wilson of the Orillia Club – Bob made each trail maintenance outing enjoyable, safe and productive and there were many! He even brought snacks and refreshments along each time.
The above three sections of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail were especially hit hard by the ice storm. Dale, George and Bob’s leadership, their energy and the many long hours they spent on the trail were critical in getting our trails back in great shape.
The contribution of these three individuals shows how a volunteer-based organization such as the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc. can remain sustainable and keep on thriving.
2025 Volunteer of the Year Winners
Simone Latham – We are highly appreciative of the contributions Simone Latham has made to the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc. as our Treasurer since 2018, a valued member of our GHTA Executive, as a Certified Hike Leader for the Midland club, and as a great friend.
As a member of the GHTA Executive, her skills and past experience with other not for profit and charitable boards, as well as with procedures and policies, helped us streamline & automate our GHTA processing for payments, bookkeeping, expense reimbursements, etransfers and many other administrative changes. We also thank her for the amount of time she gave us to find a suitable replacement, and get our processes documented and streamlined to pass on to our new Treasurer.
As a member of the GHTA Executive, her skills and past experience with other not for profit and charitable boards, as well as with procedures and policies, helped us streamline & automate our GHTA processing for payments, bookkeeping, expense reimbursements, etransfers and many other administrative changes. We also thank her for the amount of time she gave us to find a suitable replacement, and get our processes documented and streamlined to pass on to our new Treasurer.
Bill Zeran – Over the years Bill Zeran has held various leadership positions within the GHTA and the Pine Ridge Hiking Club.
Through all of these commitments Bill has demonstrated a positive and friendly demeanour which endears him to those around him. Bill’s smile and sense of humour are contagious. The Vice-President at Pine Ridge during Bill’s time as President stated how much he valued Bill’s mentorship. With the ongoing support of his spouse Rita, Bill is also involved with a number of other volunteer programs especially within their local church community. Bill’s family roots are steeped in service to others.
Congratulations and thank you Bill! We couldn’t have done it without you.
2024 Winners
Volunteer of the Year – Christine Cornu
Christine has been the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc. membership secretary since May 2020 when GHTA was in a pinch after our previous Membership Director Lois Kowal unexpectedly passed away.
As the membership director, Christine has shown great attention to detail which is so important in this volunteer role. She is always helpful and approachable in assisting members with their registration questions and follows up on double payments and other scenarios that members present her with. We appreciate the consistency in her work – always on top of the membership process.
Christine was also a wonderful President of the Oro Medonte club from 2016 to 2023. She was well organized, decisive in her decisions and creative. The executive would meet twice a year to come together socially and Christine always came up with an event that was fun and entertaining. Christine is also a dedicated Hike Ontario certified Hike Leader.
Her friendliness and quiet humour went a long way to welcome members on club hikes. Her enthusiasm for nature and hiking was catching and she would throw herself into tasks like Trail Maintenance or finding new trails. During the pandemic she showed her leadership by creating bi-weekly hikes which were popular with all.
Christine, your contributions and commitment to the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc. are very much appreciated.
Trail Maintenance Club Award – Midland
After many years of planning, negotiating with landowners, mapping the route and the hard work of blazing a new trail, it is a pleasure to be able to say congratulations to the Midland Club for closing the gap between the Midland and Tiny trail sections of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail.
The 18 KM of new trail provides an interesting and pleasant hike along the Tiny Trail, through the Thompson tract of Simcoe County Forests and through Penetanguishene as well as along Midland’s beautiful waterfront, overlooking Georgian Bay.
Closing this gap also creates a Ganaraska Hiking Trail loop in Simcoe County consisting of the Mad River, Wasaga Beach, Tiny, Midland and Oro-Medonte sections of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail, as well as part of the Barrie section. This significant achievement and addition to the Ganaraska Hiking Trail system makes the Midland Club our choice for the 2023 Trail Maintenance Award – well done!”.
2023 Winners
Following a Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc. board decision in the fall of 2022 that the building of bridges is now allowed, the Pine Ridge Club of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc is among the first to implement the new policy and is therefore being nominated for building new bridges over tributaries of the Ganaraska River.
On December 2, 2022, 5 Pine Ridge Hiking Club members (Jimmy Edwards, Stan Muldoon, Jay Sherwin, John Ambler and bridge designer Ted Van Netten) installed a new 20′ bridge between 4th and 5th lines of Hope Township, at km 12, on the property of Gord and Judy Austin.
A further 2 bridges are currently being built at km 8. This project is being spearheaded by property owners Bill and Penny Harris with several PRHC members contributing numerous hours of volunteer labour. We are also appreciative of a $1730 donation from an anonymous donor to fund the bridge. Great work, Pine Ridge!
This year we are recognizing Irene Bell for her contributions to the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association Inc. as the 2023 Volunteer of the Year.
Back in 2014, she and Shirl McArthur formed a 2 women team to take over the Club Presidency of the Wasaga Beach Ganaraska Hiking Trail club, but in the last few years, Irene continued on her own until 2022.
She not only made sure the Wasaga Beach section of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail was in good shape, but with her volunteers even created a new route along the Collingwood to Barrie railtrail. She made sure there was a hiking schedule for members and organized many local social activities for club members.
As the president of the local Wasaga Beach club, she attended the board meetings of the GHTA Inc. for the last 9 years and contributed valued input at our discussions. She also acted as the GHTA rep to Ontario Nature, and as such was GHTA’s sounding board on all things nature related.
Well done Irene! We herewith would like to show our appreciation by presenting you with the volunteer of the Year Award for 2023. Thank you for your past contributions. Irene, we all enjoyed working with you, you are an excellent ambassador for hiking, and we wish you all the best for the future.
Award Winners
Trail Maintenance Award Volunteer of the Year Award
2007 Pine Ridge 2012 Linda Leblanc
2009 Mad River 2013 Chris Rowe
2010 Orillia 2015 Lois Kowal
2011 Pine Ridge 2016 Marc Vallee
2012 Midland 2017 Bill Zeran
2013 Pine Ridge 2018 Isobel Thorup and Carol Strickland
2019 Barrie 2019 John Sloan
2020 Mad River 2020 Edda Zeitel
2021 All Clubs 2021 Glynn Richardson
2022 Wilderness 2022 Stan Muldoon
2023 Pine Ridge 2023 Irene Bell
2024 Midland 2024 Christine Cornu
Volunteer of the Year Award
2025 Bill Zeran and Simone Latham
2026 George Boyd, Dale Hannah and Bob Wilson