october 7, 2020
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News Advertiser PAGE 13
Vegreville Royal Purple Ladies Celebrate 60 Years of Volunteering for Canadian Blood Services
In the front row from left to right are: Marge Henderson, Shirley Rattray, Clara Nawrot, and Anne Stefancik. In the back row from left to right are: Enid Theophile, Ann Markowsky, Rose Hook, Nora Paquette, Marian Lemiski, Marion Baxandall, Stacey Mynsak, and Janet Kobylnyk. Please note Stacey Mynsak is a member of the Vegreville Elks Club, but he also volunteers his time with the Vegreville Royal Purple Ladies. Missing from the photo are: Joyce Porayko, Effie Lazowski, and Susan Stecyk. (Canadian Blood Services/Submitted Photo)
Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent Canadian Blood Services Blood Donor Clinic honoured the Vegreville Royal Purple Lodge No. 125 Ladies for volunteering for the CBS Blood Donor Clinic for 60 years. The presentation
was at the Blood Donor Clinic outside of the Vegreville Social Centre on September 22. Olga Elizarova, Coordinator for Volunteer Resources for Canadian Blood Services, and Tanya Atallah, Clinic Supervisor for Canadian Blood Services, presented each of the
Royal Purple members with a flower and a gift bag to recognize all of their years of volunteering at the Blood Donor Clinic. Blood Donor Clinics first began operating out of the basement of the old United Church, the current site of the Telus
Orest Fodchuk - CONTINUED from PAGE 9
Orest is 97 years old and he still has a full life. (Rosanne Fortier/Photo)
got called in 1943 to serve in the army but I was exempt because I was the only boy on the farm and someone had to stay home to produce food. In a way, I was happy not to have to go to the war. Then I went to work at a sawmill north of Edmonton called Chishon. My job was loading plain lumber into the boxcar.” Then in the spring of 1944, Orest started working again on the farm with his father. “In 1960, I married Alice Mills who was a widow with four young daughters. I knew Alice most of my life but I didn’t date her until she became a widow because after she finished at the country school, she went on her own and she took one year of university, and then she joined the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division. “After I married Alice, I took over the family farm from my father. Our marriage was very good. We worked hard on the farm. I enjoyed my four stepdaughters: Beverly and Barbara who were twins, Jo-Anne, and Lorna. They took to me well. As the girls grew up, I became very proud of them. All four girls attended university. “Then in 1967, Alice went back to university to take education where she
finished and got her Degree in Education, and then she taught school at Lavoy for 20 years. When Alice retired from teaching, they went straight to grain farming alone because they wanted to do some traveling. So, they took tours through Europe. Then in 1990, they rented out the land and retired from farming where they toured all the continents and Canada. In 1999, they sold the farm and moved to Vegreville. Orest has resided at Heritage House since 2013 with his wife until she passed away about a year and a half ago. Orest showed National Geographic films of different countries to residents at the home. Now, he plays music for the residents from a cd player he owns. Orest credited his long life to having good genes. The advice he would give people is to take time off; don’t only work in your life. His final comment was he had and still has a wonderful life.
building. The clinic moved to the Elks Hall and operated there until late 2019. The clinic moved once again because the facility was too small to accommodate all of the equipment that was required by CBS. The clinic is currently held in the Vegreville Social Centre.
