Not even a double hip replacement can stop Mary Carter from volunteering.
Even though she’s not as fast as she once was, Carter never misses a meeting or function in Lone Butte.
‘You know what, I don’t do any volunteering for a reward,” said Carter, who is a member of the Lone Butte Historical Society and the Lone Butte-Horse Community Association. “You just do it. We put on Lone Butte Rocks at the hall. Worked our butts off - for the community.”
She credits a girlfriend in a first aid group who first sparked her interest in volunteering. She was in her mid-teens - “just a kid really” - when she took her home nurse training. After getting a uniform she began working for St. John’s Ambulance as a volunteer first aid attendant at parades and hockey games. She later worked in a volunteer capacity for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind at dances or helping with their Bowling for the Blind events.
Carter believes some people are simply born to give back whatever they can to their community - not because they seek recognition but simply because it is who they are.
“I’ve been volunteering all my life, just about,” she said.
She took a break from volunteering when her daughter was born. The sojourn lasted until her daughter got involved in Brownies.
“I was a Brown Owl, I was a Tawny Owl, a Snowy Owl,” Carter said. “I was in there for a while.”
Volunteering took another backseat in 1996 when she and her husband moved to Lone Butte in 1996 because she was too busy running their ice cream store.
But a family reunion she hosted back in 2002 brought her back into the fold.
While there were enough beds to go around, her kitchen simply wasn’t able to accommodate the entire family at mealtime.
Carter decided to rent the community hall for the weekend. She discovered they were desperate for members at that time and those who signed up for a $5 membership got $25 off the booking.
She joined the association. At her first meeting, there were three people: her and two others who were about to quit. The loss of those two members meant the hall would close.
Carter wouldn’t let that happen. She asked for a membership list and got to work saving the hall. Out of a list of 38 names, 10 were lifetime members, meaning they were the ones who founded the association. With only 28 paid members left, she began calling around to people she knew. She managed to pull together a board, and she took on the role of secretary.
The hall stayed in operation for another year but then everyone quit again. She had also been prepared to retire but was once again the only one left.
Others eventually joined, keeping the hall going, but Carter didn’t feel like she could walk away.
“My brain has all the history,” she said. “I’m the only one with the knowledge of how things were done.”
Gayle Jones, secretary for the Lone Butte Historical Association, said Carter is always willing to lend a hand. The LBHA presented a plaque to Carter and her late husband Lloyd, who used to cut the grass outside the historical association as well as at the water tower park. Nobody asked him to do it. It’s just what he did.
“But he would never ever go to a meeting,” Carter said. “No. That’s not who he was.”
The plaque read: “For all the things you both do in support of the Historical Association.”
Carter said she chooses to volunteer because she enjoys doing things for people and “because everyone likes to be useful.
“People need to do something they enjoy but it’s giving back while enjoying it,” she said.
“I was born a volunteer.”
fiona.grisswell@100milefreepress.net
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