At our Annual General Meeting, we award two awards:
1. Trail Maintenance Award
Given to any club that has demonstrated significant trail maintenance work along its section of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail.
2. 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.
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