Jim Mason
Columns
November 06, 2008 12:29 AM
Jim Mason
Mac Keith worked the crowd on the grounds of the Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library like a veteran politician Saturday morning.
Problem is, he isn’t running for office.
If he was, he’d have the vote of all 75 people gathered in his honour.
Mac Keith is salt of the earth, old school and small town, all in one package. He is so Stouffville.
The Stouffville Horticultural Society honoured Mr. Keith by planting a tree on the south side of the library.
The man of the hour thanked the society and his friends for attending. He mugged for the camera, pretending to plant the already planted tree, then cleaned the shovel on the grass. Always working.
He’s also volunteered with the Stouffville Recycling Group and at the Care and Share Thrift Shop, putting we younger Stouffvillians to shame.
It’s refreshing, and hopefully a trend, to see the Mac Keiths of our world toasted.
Same goes for sticking former politician Harry Bowes’ name on the new elementary school in northeast Stouffville this fall.
And the section of the York Regional Forest near Ballantrae that carries former mayor and regional chairman Eldred King’s name.
At the Markham Fair’s annual dinner Saturday, friends of the fair, including Sun-Tribune columnist Jim Thomas, were feted.
All well deserved.
We’ve all been to too many funerals and heard beautiful epitaphs. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s so much sweeter to honour our leaders when they are still with us. To shake their hands, give them a hug and say thanks in person.
To say thanks for making this the great community it is. To do it with a permanent reminder for future generations.
Like the Mac Keith tree.
Jim Mason is editor of The Sun-Tribune.