Martin Dube of Emsdale is the Citizen of the Year in the Township of Perry.
The 64-year-old is being recognized for his tireless work with the Emsdale Lions, the Emsdale Agricultural Society and the Algonquin Army Cadets.
Dube is a former lumberjack who moved to Emsdale in 1997 from Kitchener-Waterloo when the logging industry softened in southern Ontario.
He’s no longer a lumberjack and for the past 11 years, he’s done carpentry work at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville.
Dube is no stranger to volunteerism. He comes from a French Catholic background and was one of 11 siblings.
“Families were a big part of the church and you volunteered,” said Dube. “You just did it. And you enjoyed it because it wasn’t considered work.”
Dube’s first exposure to volunteering was with the Catholic Youth Organization in Kitchener-Waterloo when he was 14.
“We would do car washes, bingos, those kinds of things, and you just helped out,” he said. In his heyday, Dube easily volunteered 35 hours a month to the three organizations.
Dube is nearly a jack-of-all-trades and local organizations have benefited from his skills.
There was an incident 15 years ago when an area camp was going to throw out a six-foot-long eight-burner barbecue because it no longer worked.
Dube’s wife Martina said he applied his “MacGyver” skills to the broken barbecue, had it going again and the Lions inherited a huge unit that can cook hundreds of burgers in an hour. She adds this is only one of many instances where he’s been able to help the local organizations.
For the past 17 years, Dube has chaired a pike and pickerel tournament at Doe Lake as a Lion with the proceeds going to several causes including a local Christmas fund. Dube is also one of the driving forces of the local Breakfast with Santa and the annual seniors’ dinner. This is all the behind-the-scenes work which includes coming in the night before to prepare the turkey for the seniors and he’s not above peeling potatoes.
In his decades of work with the local Lions, Dube has been the local president on two occasions.
He’s also won the Melvin Jones Fellowship, named after the founder of the Lions, and is the highest award that can be bestowed to a Lions member.
With the cadets, Dube has been part of the parent association and has called bingos for the group.
The work he’s done with the agricultural society includes building enclosures for the animals at the local annual fall fair.
This was the inaugural year for the Citizen of the Year award by the township. It’s the first time it’s back in several years after a local organization could no longer carry out the award.
Municipal staff say the township is very eager to see it grow and the Citizen of the Year award will become a permanent fixture in the community. Nominations for the 2025 award open on Feb. 3 and close on April 15.
The municipality will post more information on how to submit a nomination in January on its website and Facebook page.
A nominee must be a resident of Perry Township and needs to have an achievement or made exceptional contributions that improve the quality of life in the Perry communities.
The list of potential nominees is long and the individual can come from a local organization or association, and can be a coach or programming volunteer. The award represents someone who encourages positive action and engagement within Perry.
In Dube’s case, he doesn’t know who nominated him for Citizen of the Year although his wife believes it was close friends. Dube was surprised that he was nominated and won Citizen of the Year, but that’s because he volunteers simply for the sake of volunteering.
Martina Dube says she’s proud her husband is the recipient of the inaugural award. “He’s always ready to do something for someone,” she said.
However, hubby notes his wife is also out there doing quite a bit of volunteering.
“If it wasn’t me, it was going to be her,” Dube said on who the first recipient of the Citizen of the Year in Perry was going to be in 2024.
The Dubes have advice for potential volunteers and the advice is to reach out to your local organizations.
They say people don’t have to join a service club to be a volunteer. They just need to get involved a little because many members from existing clubs are getting older and it's becoming a little harder to carry on the work.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
