November 19, 2025

SPIRIT AWARDS HONOUR 24 RESIDENTS WHO MAKE GRAVENHURST A GREAT COMMUNITY YEAR-ROUND

GRAVENHURST — Volunteers, community engagement, athletic achievement — and digging out strangers in the midst of “snowmageddon” earned a couple dozen local residents Spirit Awards tonight.

And inductions into the Lions Club Sports Hall of Fame at the Opera House for “Miss Wendy” Laidlaw, her Just 4 Kicks Team Canada Dancers and Donny and Dan Wilson.

They were all feted on stage receiving certificates of recognition for their outstanding achievement in, beyond and for Gravenhurst

A night of recognition and rewards for the people who make the town tick, said emcee Gord Durnan and Mayor Heidi Lorenz.

**Two dozen of Gravenhurst’s finest took the stage tonight to be recognized for contributions to and for their community. PHOTOS Mark Clairmont MuskokaTODAY.com**

The nominated honourees were appreciated for several efforts including among them:

Virginia Snider as a YMCA volunteer since it opened;
Kirsten Hamara for her work as a GHS teacher and daily breakfast program co-ordinator;
Kara Morley for organizing women’s softball and a new kids ball program for 150 boys and girls;
Joyce Yvonne Bartz for Gravenhurst the Good;
Sue Wheeler a library volunteer and Baby Bump organizer;
Jeff Knapp all-round community volunteer;
Ernest Merkley, Kenton Seehaver and the lat Cliff Fitchett for plowing roads in Barkway to open them for emergency services and access to stranded residents during last December’s snowstorm;
Jane MacKenzie for her successful book about life behind the bars working at Beaver Creek;
Om Patel for winning athletics in badminton, volleyball and delivering for GAP;
Jason MacKenzie for firefighing;
Nancy Beal for her book on Alex Tilley;
Denise Cooper for volunteering with GAP, the Sparrow Lake Women’s Institute and the GHS breakfast program;
Catharine and Eric Daly representing those who took in stranded people during snowmageddon;
Christie Buckley for her big support of the GHS Robotics team and helping new businesses with the Founder Circle awards;
Dave Reid for chairing Rotary’s Rock the Barge seating fundraiser and the club’s new Health Hub initiative;
Bonnie Dart as chair of GAP, bringing refugee families and Rotary student exchange counsellor;
Mary Storey for historical and archives work with the Muskoka Steamships.

**Mayor Heidi Lorenz presents award to more than a dozen Just 4 Kicks’ Team Canada members.**

Afterwards recipients, family and friends mingled in the Trillium Court congratulating each other and enjoying the spirit of the community.

Among them Tony King and old buddies of the Wilson brothers who marked the belated high school wrestling and sports achievements of Danny and his late brother Don who died tragically in 1984.

Their mother Betty beamed as her other son Doug accepted for Don.

Miss Wendy’s whole team sounded as if they were in audience cheering each other on. The dance instructor, who started her studio in 1996, has led the team to multiple international successes.

They’re all just part of the community spirit that makes a community a community.