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.
There is an annual call for nominations for these awards in our Winter Edition of Ganaraska News, and winners are announced in the Spring Edition and on this page.
2022 Winners
This year’s Trail Maintenance Award is being presented to the Wilderness Club, under the capable leadership of President Rob Halupka, for their outstanding work to provide a floating bridge over Montgomery Creek. The process took at least a year, with many club members involved with the project, helping in the planning, design, partnering with Parks Ontario, pivoting when something didn’t work, and generally getting the job done! Installation was on Aug. 26 under the guidance of the Ontario Parks team, and the bridge was in place until late October when as planned, it was removed for the season. It served the purpose beautifully and was much enjoyed by many hikers.
Without the bridge it was sometimes impossible to get across Montgomery Creek due to fluctuating water levels, making this section of the trail occasionally unusable.
Well done, Wilderness club. That will be a tough one to top!
The 2022 Volunteer of the Year Award is awarded to Stan Muldoon of the Pine Ridge Club, for his significant contributions to Pine Ridge, but also to the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association as well.
Some people just keep on giving – and this year we are recognizing Stan Muldoon for being one of those people in the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association, Inc.
Stan has been a member of the Pine Ridge Club for years and has served as its President and representative to the Board. As well, he chaired the 50th Anniversary Celebration Committee – and during that time he prepared and delivered a history of the organization from its inception, bringing recognition to the founding members. At the 50th Anniversary celebration, Stan also delivered a workshop on stretching, much appreciated by the attendees!
Stan joined the Executive as Vice President for a few years as well and more recently has stepped up to Chair the new Mapping Committee, as well as the Indigenous Engagement Committee.
Well done Stan – you are a great example to us all – and we want to show our appreciation by presenting you with the Volunteer of the Year Award for 2022.
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