Wednesday, October 12 was a special event for the Kemptville Snowmobile Klub. Not only was it our first meeting of the fall, but we kicked off the season with a celebration of volunteering. The Upper Canada Snowmobile Region funded a program which recognized all volunteers in the snowmobile clubs of Eastern Ontario who had 25 or more years of continuous volunteer service. This elite group of volunteers are now known as the TRAILBLAZERS because they have been working for organized snowmobiling since the early years when they were trailblazing our trail system across the province. Each recipient was presented with a jacket with the TRAILBLAZER logo on the back, along with the Upper Canada Snowmobile Region logo. On the chest is the name of the local club to which the volunteer belongs, and on the sleeve is the first name of the volunteer. Across the region, there were 99 qualified volunteers and 14 of them happen to belong to the Kemptville club (see photo). That amounts to over 350 years of volunteer service in our club alone. The fact that there are 14 long service volunteers in Kemptville shows the club’s commitment to volunteer retention. It is hard enough to recruit new volunteers, but harder still to keep them coming back year after year. Volunteers, along with landowners, are the backbone of the Ontario snowmobile trail system, with over 30,000 kilometers of groomed trails. North Grenville and Wolford-Merrickville enjoy 225 kilometers thanks to these dedicated people who make it happen. The Kemptville Snowmobile Klub has many other valuable volunteers who have under 25 years service, and it is the aim of the club to keep all of our volunteers happy and returning year after year to keep our club strong. We would like to thank the Upper Canada Snowmobile Region for funding this program, and a big thank you to the volunteers who give their time and talents so that our community has safe, well groomed trails on which to operate their snowmobiles. We invite you to come out and get involved with this great group of people. Look us up on Facebook.
