Rotary honours Todd, Hunter, Cooper with Paul Harris awards

By Barb McCabe | Rotary PR

GRAVENHURST — It is a great pleasure today for our Rotary Club to recognize local citizens who have contributed so much to our community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was in this vein that we honoured three very active volunteers — Dr. Ardyn Todd, Christina Hunter and Denise Cooper.

They received Paul Harris Awards, one of Rotary International’s top honours and named after RI’s founder.

Todd has been a very strong member of the board of directors of the library.  He led the board through many challenging phases, demonstrating his strong belief that the library plays a vital role in our community.

Many of us met him in town assisting the family of the Syrian refugees, and even driving a U-Haul to Montreal to assist one family in their relocation.

The Thursday night Supper Club has been fortunate to have Todd participate every week to allow this wonderful project to carry on over the years (so needed in our town).

During his time with Rotary, when he first moved to town to set up his medical practice, he was very involved in a Rotary medical mission to the Dominican Republic.

His list of community contribution goes on ….

Hunter is honoured for her involvement in many local initiatives.

She wanted to show  her children how to make this world cleaner, safer and kinder.

Little Sprouts Eco-Club was started by Hunter to provide an opportunity for young children and their parents to meet monthly to learn and participate in projects that help improve the quality of our environment.

She, too, was also an integral part of the Syrian Refugee Gravenhurst Committee.

In her free time (and this project took six years) she authored a book “All Out of the Womb – A collection of birth stories,” which has proven to be so helpful to many women.

Denise Cooper has been involved in many many organizations in our town over the years.

And to date she is still very active in the Women’s Centre, in the Severn Bridge Women’s Institute and  is deputy treasurer of Gravenhurst Probus.

Our Rotary club is very fortunate to have Cooper offer so many volunteer hours with us in our fundraising efforts over the years.

You might see her delivering or  picking up Bingo cards in our town as well as in Bracebridge.

The Salvation Army kettles rang louder because of her smile.

And she has had extensive and ongoing participation in the “One Muskoka” initiative.

A very dynamic recipient indeed.

We, in the Rotary Club, are honoured to have all of these fine folks on our list of worthy members of our community.

Congratulations!