A Greater Sudbury man is being recognized for his years of
volunteer service at the Westmount Community Centre (WCC).
The WCC's executive committee has nominated Bob Howard for the
RBC Local Hockey Leaders program.
"He's known as the iceman," said Jeff Birmingham, president of
the WCC's executive committee. Birmingham composed the
nomination essay submitted to RBC for consideration. He said
Howard was the unanimous choice for the executive committee.
"He has such a low-key role. It's probably the job
with the least amount of glory but the most amount of work,"
Birmingham said.
"He's the type of guy that in October is kicking the gravel
around making sure the holes that the dogs have dug during the
summer time are all patched up so that when we get the
opportunity to flood, we're not getting these huge mounds
of gravel."
For his efforts, Howard could be one of 13 finalists selected
from all the nominees. Finalists receive $10,000 towards a
local charity/hockey cause of their choice, recognition in the
Hockey Hall of Fame and a signed Team Canada hockey jersey.
Howard, an employee with Xstrata Nickel, is modest about being singled out among other volunteers at the WCC and says he's sure the work would still get done if he weren't around.
"I started off with my young son playing playground hockey
(about 12 years ago). And I just stayed with it because I think
the community needs it," Howard said. "It's nice to involve the
young kids, it's nice to involve the teenagers and when the
kids that grow up through the hockey teams graduate, they tend
to hang around."
Birmingham calls him the glue that holds the community centre
together.
"We have these conversations at meetings about things
it would be nice to do, and then bang, Bob's off and
running with it," Birmingham said. "The guy just
doesn't friggin' stop."
Howard isn't exactly sure how he fell into his role at the WCC.
He moved into the neighbourhood in 1984 when his job brought
him from Toronto to Sudbury.
Since then, he's helped grow and expand the community centre.
In the past few years, Birmingham said Howard has led the
charge in creating three additional ice surfaces, a nature
rink, a toddler rink and a curling pad.
According to Howard, the nature rink is a major success. Using business contacts, he was able to acquire a tractor and a pile of soil to use as a base for the rink.
"It looks natural, when it's shoveled off and in use, it looks like a natural pond. Obviously it's not," Howard said. "It's nice to have something for the whole family when they come.
"A couple of winters ago, Howard came up with the idea for a
toddler rink, a place where young kids could learn to skate
without having to keep an eye out for errant pucks or sticks.
The small rink is taken apart and put back together again every
year. Another one of Howard's ideas was to ice the bocce courts
and paint targets on either end for jug curling.
New to the centre this year is ice-covered bocce courts that
serve as curling pads. Howard painted targets on either end of
the ice.
"This is a big attraction on carnival day because a lot of the
parents bring the kids for the skating and the hockey and want
to do something for themselves," he said.
Howard built homemade curling stones, basically margarine
containers filled with concrete. To keep the frozen plastic
from breaking on contact, he glued foam strips around the rim.
The iceman says the key to good ice is patience.
"You have to be out here all the time so that you can pick and
choose the nights to work on it. It's really weather dependent,
especially lately."
This is the first year there hasn't been any outdoor Sudbury
Playground Hockey League games scheduled because of the weather
and how long it took create ice surfaces.
The ice also benefits nearby schools that use the facilities
for physical education classes.
In addition to a list of volunteer phone numbers, Howard has a
list of high school students who need volunteer hours to
graduate.
More than 1,000 entries were submitted to the contest.
National women's team member Jennifer Botterill, national men's
sledge hockey team assistant captain Jean Labonté, hockey
legend Ron Ellis and Hockey Canada officials will select
winners, who will be revealed March 1.
