Safedesign presented the “Bill Williams Humanitarian Award” at this year’s OAFC annual banquet.

At this year’s OAFC annual banquet Safedesign honored the memory of Bill Williams by presenting the second Bill Williams Humanitarian Award.  The award will be presented to Mr Garnett Bennett of Pellatt United Fire Fighters at Fire Con in Thunder Bay on Saturday Sept 18.

Background:

 

Mr. Garnett Bennett is a 75 year old man who has devoted his life to making other people’s lives better. He is one of the kindest, caring, gentlest gentlemen that I have had the honour of knowing. Mr. Bennett has devoted his life to helping others and not just in regards to the fire department. He is actively involved in many groups. He loves music and you will see him at any concert or music festival, but nearest to his heart are the children. Two years ago there was a lady travelling around the province teaching children to play instruments. The instruments had been donated to her and she was in Kenora when some instruments went missing. The instruments were found but the lady had already left to go on to the next town. Mr. Bennett, being Mr. Bennett hopped into his vehicle and drove the instruments to the next strop for the lady and her company. She couldn’t believe that someone would do such a kind act. It is obvious that she doesn’t know Mr. B. all that well.

 

Mr. Bennett recently retired from another volunteer job that he has done for the past 50 years. He was chairperson for the local roads board. He started on the committee as soon as he moved into the area and remained until he had to give up as he moved to town. This is not an easy job as you can imagine because if something happens to the roads in a storm or the roads don’t get plowed quite soon enough to someone’s thinking, who do you think they call? That’s right, Mr. B. He always handled these calls with courtesy, and kindness, even if the people on the other end of the phone weren’t exactly pleasant.

 

He is still an active member of our fire department as a reserve because he feels that he is just a little too old to actually fight the fires, but he can still drive the tanker if need be and he is always available to shuffle back and forth to the hall for extra equipment, food or anything that may be needed.

 

Mr. Bennett also volunteers at the main fire hall 3 days a week working with some people who are down on their luck and don’t have regular jobs. He is at the hall waiting for them to be delivered by bus and then they get to work on the job list which as you can imagine is quite extensive. He feeds them a hot lunch, then they work for a while longer and then he transports the back to town. These people are not just workers to Mr. Bennett, they are his friends. He has gone so far as to drive one of his friends into Winnipeg over the Christmas season because the man’s wife was sick in the hospital and not expected to live. The man didn’t have any money so naturally Mr. B provided him with some money and told him to call him if he needed a ride home or if he needed anything at all. Mr. Bennett didn’t tell me about this adventure, it was his son who told me and the only reason his son knew about it was because when Mr. B. was going out of town he let someone in his family know so they wouldn’t worry. His son didn’t want his father driving by himself in the dead of winter, so he went along for the ride too.

 

Mr. Bennett is so concerned about these people who work for him that he has started collecting clothes and shoes for them to wear to keep warm and dry.

 

Mr. Bennett was instrumental in getting our new committee club built which was attached to our fire hall and is now a huge building that we hold a number of events and fundraisers in.

 

Some of his accomplishments:

• Worked to get Pumper Packs into our unincorporated area starting with Laclu (approximately 30 kilometer outside of Kenora, ON)
• Was instrumental in forming actual Fire Hall in the Laclu area
• Was one of the people who worked to join the Muriel Lake Pumper Pack station with the Laclu Station to form the one fire department called Pellatt United Fire Firefighters in 1981
• Worked to get a fire station on the Southwest side of the Winnipeg Rive located on Oldford Road to better cover our community in case of fire
• Took Emergency First Response training so or fire team could respond to more emergencies other than fire calls
• Has been an active member on Northern Protection Action Committee (NPAC) for the past 13 years (NAPAC members take concerns and problems to meetings and work diligently to solve the concerns that have been entrusted to them
• Is a member of our Mutual Aid Committee and regularly travels to attend these meetings
• Although not officially on the Board of Directors for the Pellatt United Fire Fighters, he attends every meeting and does a huge amount of volunteer work for the fire halls
• Was instrumental in getting a heli-pad set up for our area and he and his workers were responsible for setting up the cones in accordance with the directions from Orang Helicopters who are the air ambulance in the area.