Taking a moment to pay tribute to our community volunteers

This one is for the rink volunteers, the ski trail groomers, the community association board members, the neighbours who clear fire hydrants and shovel out the end of the laneway for busy or elderly families, the service group members, friends of Petrie Island or Mer Bleue or the Ottawa Public Library, and all those who give freely of themselves to benefit our community.

There is no greater asset to anyone than time, and those who donate their own to make a small corner of their community just a little bit better deserve our humblest thanks.

So many of us benefit from these benevolent neighbours, often without even having met them. While we may think that these community champions are simply helping in their free time, we all know that time is never free. This is time spent away from other duties and responsibilities - time that could be spent elsewhere.

But these special neighbours come out to