Although the Derby Board (Scott, Shayne, Michelle, Garth, Rob, Gayle and Anne) prepare for\u00a0months for the Derby, it is the participation of community-minded volunteers that actually make\u00a0the Derby such a success.<\/p>\n
The Oxford dictionary defines a “volunteer” as “a person who freely offers to take part in an\u00a0enterprise or undertake a task”, and without these volunteers, the Derby simply could not\u00a0happen.<\/p>\n
Thursday evening March 5th saw the first group of volunteers, the Michipicoten Volunteer\u00a0Firefighters, friends and family, spend hours covering the ice surface with boards and setting up\u00a0chairs and tables for the 1370 Derby participants. Many, many thanks to these wonderful\u00a0people!<\/p>\n
Friday March 6th was the marathon Derby Registration. Line-ups were shorter than in past\u00a0years, due undoubtedly to the capable and friendly Registration team, who despite the cold\u00a0hands and feet greeted participants with pleasant smiles and helpful manners. Many, many\u00a0thanks to Heather and Bill, Marla and Steve, Leslie and Bev, Andy, Enos and Marg, Barb and\u00a0Mark, Mary and Claudette, Pauline and Cathy, Islay and Rob, Carol and Gayle, and Cathy and\u00a0Erin. Thanks go to Kathleen, whose unflapable manner kept Anne “cool”, and to Derby\u00a0webmaster Dave, who ably assisted Scott with a stubborn computer. Whether experienced\u00a0registration volunteer or newcomer, each and every one of you did an amazing job. Thank you!<\/p>\n
Saturday and Sunday saw a small but capable team of volunteers at the fish weighing station.\u00a0Once again, fish-weigher emeritus Louis returned to the table, keeping things calm and\u00a0professional with his quiet attitude and wonderful sense of humour. Thank you, Louis, we\u00a0cannot imagine a Derby without you! Sheila again took the position of computer guru, keeping\u00a0track of fish caught, species, tag number, lake, participant’s name, city, etc., and doing all this\u00a0with a computer programme that misbehaved with regularity! Fortunately, our capable\u00a0webmaster Dave arrived in the nick of time to assist. Thank you, Sheila and Dave. Fish-gutting\u00a0and fileting was left to Chayse, whose ability in that job is second to none. Many thanks, Chayse.<\/p>\n
Special thanks go out to the Wawa SnoRiders for their trail grooming efforts and to the many\u00a0patrollers and hut officials who worked on the ice of Wawa, Hawk and Manitowik Lakes.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the Municipality of Wawa for donating the use of the Community Centre to the Derby\u00a0Board of Directors, and many thanks to Mayor Ron Rody for attending our Saturday evening\u00a0celebrations and welcoming our many Derby guests to the town of Wawa. Finally our thanks go\u00a0to Director of Community Services and Tourism Alex Patterson, whose professionalism,\u00a0friendship and humour shines through the excitement and occasional difficulties of the Derby.<\/p>\n
Without the assistance of so many volunteers, the Derby simply could not operate. Our thanks\u00a0to all of you for making the 29th Derby a great success. We look forward to the 30th Derby in\u00a02021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although the Derby Board (Scott, Shayne, Michelle, Garth, Rob, Gayle and Anne) prepare for\u00a0months for the Derby, it is the participation of community-minded volunteers that actually make\u00a0the Derby such a success. The Oxford dictionary defines a “volunteer” as “a person who freely offers to take part in an\u00a0enterprise or undertake a task”, and without these …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 08:52:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29586,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29585\/revisions\/29586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}