2009
Mike Depratto | Stanley Fraser | Laurent Ladouceur | Bob Leroux | Ronald MacDonald
Mike then moved on to Algonquin College where he graduated from a Recreation Director/Management program. Mike, from 1973-1998, was the Parks and Recreation Director for the town of Alexandria. He was also a member of the building committee for the Glengarry Sports Palace and became the arena manager from 1976-1998.
Now that Mike had finished most playing, he began to coach and volunteer. During college he coached the Canterbury High School football team. For 10 years he coached the Alexandria Chippers and Carnation Fastball teams winning many tournaments. After Mike got married he coached his wife in Ladies Softball, Broomball, and Sponge puck for over 20 years. With his 3 children now in the picture his coaching extended even further. He coached hockey for the Alexandria and District Minor Hockey Association (ADMHA) and girls AA in Cornwall. Through all of this, Mike found time to volunteer his time to the local chapter of the Special Olympics and was also the president of the Glengarry Soccer League for 4 years. Mike later became president of the ADMHA replacing his good friend Billy Gebbie. Then he moved on to the Ottawa and District Minor Hockey Association (ODMHA) where was first a director, then VP, and currently president. Somehow, Mike still found time to run a successful farm, be a longstanding member and occasional president of the Alexandria Lions Club, past chairman for the Alexandria Heart and Stroke Committee, past board member of Glengarry Community Living, member and chairman of the Alexandria and District Chamber of Commerce, and most recently president of the Alexandria Junior B Glens. Mike was named volunteer of the year in 1992 by the Alexandria Lions Club and was honoured with the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2003. |
Off to the University of Toronto it was for the Glengarrian where in his second year he played for the Varsity Blues Intermediate soccer team. Soccer then was a very “un-Canadian” sport and he found that most people on the soccer team had really heavy accents – definitely not French Canadian or Maritime. Stanley’s background of playing senior men’s soccer at such a young age helped offset the finesse and skills the older teammates had. He was a regular scoring forward on a championship team for the two years that he played. In his second and third year he played lacrosse.
Another highlight for Stanley at Glengarry District High School was when he started teaching there. He became the coach for the football team he had once played for; some of the boys even remembered him as a senior student. The first year he coached they didn’t win a game. The second year they won maybe 2. But in the third year they won their first championship, and then continued on to win 6 more in a row giving the once bottom team 7 consecutive championships. The fifth year and 3rd consecutive championship the high school was 210 points for, with only 7 against. Also at Glengarry, Stanley had much success with his track and field team. For 10 consecutive years they were the Glengarry Prescott Russell overall champions. As an avid tennis player, Stanley offered his knowledge of it to the students of G.D. as well as all of Glengarry. He started a Summer School Tennis program for local children and an Encore Senior’s program. His last project will be to teach a tennis summer school with his daughter, Stephanie for inner-city children in East Vancouver. |
Laurent now has 12 DIRTcar 358-Modified Track Championships (3rd all-time) at ovals like Autodrome Edelweiss (Que.), where he is the reigning point’s king for the third consecutive year. In 2004, Laurent’s son Joey earned the highest honour – overall Mr. DIRTcar Champion. This accomplishment by Joey made him and his father the first father/son tandem to ever be crowned “Overall Mr. DIRTcar Champion”.
Along with scoring 3 DIRTcar Big-Block Modified wins during his track side tenure, Laurent has also registered 85 victories (10th all-time) in the 358-Modified division with still more to come as he enjoys his 36th season. |
Bob organized a hockey match between the Glengarry Transport Ltd. Old Timers and the Montreal Canadians Old Timers. The G.T.L. team was created for this event and lasted over 20 years. Bob also organized a match between G.T.L. Old Timers and the Ottawa Old Timers. In 1977 G.T.L won the Old Timers tournament featuring teams from Gatineau, Cornwall and Montreal. Bob was named goaltender of the tournament.
Bob again organized a match for the G.T.L. team, but this time it was across the pond. He arranged for the G.T.L. team to go to Scotland and England. The team came back with no losses. The second time the team went to Europe, they went to Holland and Belgium. With the G.T.L. team coming out of Europe with no losses last time they wanted to do the same, so they did. Bob also won top goaltender in the A division at the Cornwall Civics Third Annual Old Timers Hockey Tournament. Bob was the chairman of the Fund Raising Committee for the Glengarry Sports Palace. With help from various sources he raised over $220,000 for the construction. Wintario offered $2 for every id=”mce_marker” collected throughout the campaign. In 1976 he organized an official opening supper for the Sports Palace. He had NHL referee Red Storey come to the dinner as guest speaker and also had World Amateur Figure Skating Champion Kim Alletson of the Minto Skating Club, Ottawa Rough Rider defenseman line and kicker Moe Racine, and Expo Baseball player Mike Jorgensen. This amongst other things is the reason why Bob was unanimously voted “Man of the Year” for 1976. To top it all off, from 1990-1993 Bob cycled the 70 km tour de L’ile in Montreal. |
Playing hockey was not his only standpoint on the game; he also coached. He coached the Renfrew Lions Junior B hockey team for seven years and in his last year with them they won the Citizen Shield, O.D.H.L. Junior title.
The other sport that was a big part of Ronald’s life was basketball. He joined the Holy Name Society team in high school winning the City of Cornwall title four times between 1950 and 1955. These wins gave them berths in the Ottawa District finals where they then moved on to the Canadian Semi-finals twice. On a less sports oriented note, many know Ronald because his heroic act in 1957. He saved a drowning co-worker who had fallen into the cold icy waters. With heavy bleeding from the co-worker and no hesitation from Ronald, he saved a life that day and both of them will cherish that moment forever. Ronald Joseph MacDonald passed away on October 5th, 2012. |
