Fred Armstrong just can’t sit around and watch things happen. He has to roll up his sleeves, get involved and help out his town.
It could be creating some great graphics to promote a sports event, helping out with the hands-on chores for local projects or leading the community during times of joy and grief.
“Needless to say, I don’t do a lot of gardening,” says Armstrong, former newspaper publisher and now the District of Maple Ridge’s communications manager.
Neither does he have any plants or pets at home, and he lives in a condo, he adds.
Saturday, Armstrong was named Citizen of the Year by the Maple Ridge Community Foundation.
It’s an award you earn not based on what you’ve done the past year, but for the past 20 to 30 years, said Robert Shantz, who chaired the selection committee.
Armstrong’s involvement in Maple Ridge meets the qualifications. He served 10 years as publisher of the Maple Ridge Times and has been a member of the Haney Rotary Club for 13 years and will be the club’s president for 2012-2013.
He’s also chair of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Arts Council and on the Hometown Heroes committee. As well, he helps out with the Golden Ears Seniors Society as a director and does the same for the Home Show Society, and from 1999 to 2001 he helped unify the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Chamber of Commerce.
Other contributions he’s made:
• MC’d and fundraised for the B.C. Disability Games and helped design logos and branding for the event
• on Life or Meth committee in 2003
• volunteered for B.C. Summer Games
• helped organize the 2007 and 2010 Stanley Cup celebrations, when Maple Ridge player Andrew Ladd brought the cup to Maple Ridge, likely the only time the cup will be in this region.
• designed and typeset the first two Rotary Cash Calendars for the Meadow Ridge Rotary Club fundraiser for the hospice society.
• designed programs for Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey Association provincial championships in 2001 and 2010, the 1992 B.C. Disability Games and Maple Ridge’s 125th anniversary celebrations.
• volunteer for Founder’s Cup Charity Golf Classic
• as an MC he commentated for the Mountain Festival Parade, Pitt Meadows Day Parade, Maple Ridge Community Foundation, Santa Claus parade, Chinese New Year’s celebrations, Ridge Meadows Hospital bed races and last year, the Olympic Torch relay celebration.
Shantz said that Armstrong can be within hearing range of people discussing a project, then volunteer to help out.
“He’s called Mr. MC around town, you know, because he’s MC’d more things than you can shake a stick at.” He’s even MC’d Citizen of the Year events.
“We’re always happy when we find a person in the community who is easily recognized as having made long-term contributions to the community.
“He certainly has done that.”
Part of the award is the chance to give $5,000 in prize money to local charities. Armstrong wants to divide that five ways and give $1,000 each to the Salvation Army, the Friends in Need Food Bank, the youth centre society and a couple of Rotary projects.
Armstrong said Maple Ridge has a way of drawing you in and you can’t sit on the sidelines, you have to get involved.
One memorable moment came in 1999 at the memorial service for Maple Ridge race car driver Greg Moore. Armstrong was to give the address at the gathering, but the day before the service, the church was in disarray was in the middle of renovations.
But the next day, the building was ready and the event went ahead. “That was one of the cathartic moments you realize how special a place is and how connected everybody is.”
