HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-08-23, Page 13THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2012. PAGE 13. Mounsey Fund founder up for $100,000 award
M-T to participate
in retention plan
Patrick Armstrong, founder of the
Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund,
could win $100,000 for the fund if
he receives enough online votes as
part of the Scotiabank Game
Changers program.
Armstrong was nominated by his
stepsisters Kate and Cara O’Connor
for his extensive efforts with the
charity.
Armstrong was chosen as one of
72 nominees for the grand prize of
$100,000 from thousands of
nominations. Online voting will now
take place until Oct. 14 when the
field will be reduced to eight.
The program is being run in co-
ordination with the Canadian
Football League (CFL). Each
nominee is aligned with one of the
league’s teams. Patrick’s “team” is
the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and
whoever receives the most votes per
team will go on to represent that
team in the final eight.
Armstrong has already been
honoured and the Fund has received
a donation of $1,000 from
Scotiabank simply for being one of
the chosen nominees. Armstrong
was also introduced to fans at a CFL
game earlier this month between the
Calgary Stampeders and the
Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Armstrong was part of the
ceremonial coin toss before the
game and then he was brought out
once again at half-time. He was
featured as part of the TSN
broadcast of the game.
While Armstrong isn’t one to
enjoy being in the limelight, he says
$100,000 certainly could buy a large
amount of defibrillators, but that he’s
already pleased with being
nominated and the initial $1,000
donation.
However, as helpful as the
$100,000 could be to the Fund,
Armstrong admits that he almost
missed his chance to be a part of the
program.
“It was my stepsisters who
nominated me behind my back. I’mnot a big fan of that ‘hey, look at me’stuff,” Armstrong says. “But I almostdidn’t get it. I was a day away from
being skipped over.”
Armstrong said he is notorious for
not calling people back and the
representatives from the Game
Changers program had tried to get in
touch with him numerous times
before they actually succeeded.
“There were thousands of
nominees, so just being nominated,
to me, is a huge deal,” Armstrong
says.
Armstrong says winning the grand
prize would be “huge” for the Fund
in what has already been a banner
year for the organization and its
representatives.
“That would buy us at least 50
defibrillators,” Armstrong says.
With the Fund set to honour Huron
County’s final fallen emergency
responder soon, Armstrong says that
whether the Fund wins the money or
not, the time has come to expand.
If the Fund were to win, however,
Armstrong says the charity could
expand throughout the province and
perhaps even the country.
Armstrong says that if Mounsey,
who died in a single-vehicle
collision in 2006, could see the
success of the Fund, that he, like
Armstrong would likely shy away
from the spotlight as well. However,
he would be pleased to see fallen
police officers and firefighters
honoured throughout Huron County.
Immediately after being
recognized at the Tiger-Cats game,
Armstrong said he began looking
into emergency personnel that had
lost their lives in the Hamilton area
to honour next.
Now, faced with the possibility of
being recognized at the 100th Grey
Cup in Toronto this fall, Armstrong
says it’s amazing to look back and
see how far the Fund has come.“It has been a real snowball effectover the last two years,” Armstrongsays. “It’s incredible to think back to
discussing the idea in my basement
with a few other people to where we
are now.”
The Fund is currently planning its
19th donation, which will be placed
in honour of Ken Aikenhead, a
volunteer firefighter with the
Brucefield Fire Department, who
died in 1987. The 20th donation will
be made in Mounsey’s name and the
donation will be made to the Fire
Department of North Huron’s Blyth
station.
Those two donations, Armstrong
says, will be real milestones for the
Fund, but insists that there will still
be as many as seven additional
donations before the year is through.
In the future, Armstrong says he
hopes the Fund can achieve federal
charity status so organizers can
expand throughout the country.
However, on a more local scale, he
hopes to incorporate community
service awards into the Fund’s
annual gala celebration in February.
He hopes to present an award for the
top volunteer, the top youth
volunteer and the top volunteer for
veterans.
Armstrong is reluctant to take
much of the credit, but says seeing
the other nominees for the Game
Changer grand prize helps him to
recognize that he is in elite company.
“If you read the list online, it’s
very humbling,” he says.
Votes are allowed once per e-mail
address, per day. To vote, visit
www.scotiabankgamechangers.com
and find Armstrong under the
nominees header under the Hamilton
Tiger-Cats division. As of Monday,
Armstrong had over 3,500 votes and
was in the lead for Hamilton by over
1,200 votes.
Morris-Turnberry councillors
voted to undertake a business
retention plan at their Aug. 14
meeting.
The move came following a
presentation from Douglas Barrill,
business development co-ordinator
for the County of Huron.
After showing a video of what
business development and retention
plans have accomplished in other
areas of Ontario, Barrill explained
that similar studies have already
taken place in the five towns and five
villages in the county as well as
Howick Township. Now similar
projects are planned for Morris-
Turnberry and Ashfield-Colborne-
Wawanosh.
The first step is to hire an
interviewer and create a list of
businesses to be contacted. A
Honoured in Hamilton
Patrick Armstrong, centre, founder of the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund, has been nominated
as a Scotiabank Game Changer and could be eligible to win $100,000 for the Fund if he
receives enough votes online. To announce his nomination for the contest, which is being run
in conjunction with the Canadian Football League, Armstrong was a guest of honour at a
recent game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Calgary Stampeders. He was present
for the ceremonial coin toss prior to the game and was then welcomed into the broadcast
booth with Chris Cuthbert, left, and Milt Stegall. (Photo submitted)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen
Continued on page 14