The Lieutenant Governor’s Leadership for Active Communities Award was created to recognize teams and individuals who “create places, spaces and opportunities for people to be active and engaged in their communities, using recreation as a catalyst.
John Logan has been awarded this prestiguous award and will receive it at the upcoming awards ceremony. CONGRATULATIONS JOHN! You deserve it.
Nancy Rempel, Community League President says, "John is the reason I got involved in our league. He called me a few years ago with his concern that our local rink wouldn’t operate without much needed upgrading.
To make a long story short, John worked the phones and got the community organized. After a last minute weekend work bee, the rink was ready for another winter of skating fun.
John has had serious health issues and wasn’t keeping the rink alive for his kids- who are young adults. He made sure it happened out of love for community and the pure beauty of the pleasure it brings others.
So, when I saw the award and its categories, including the Elected Community Leader Award, I knew it was time to nominate John.
Among his tireless efforts is Bonnie Doon Park. I’ve often heard the sliding hill referred to as 'Mount Logan' but never really knew why."
As it turns out, the project was the first of its kind in North America and transformed a one-acre parcel of flat, unused land into a “Neighbourhood Ecoscape.”
John’s vision featuring “a new urban forest with high-running ridges, a natural amphitheatre and about 1.5 kilometres of multifunctional trails” is still enjoyed daily by residents and people who come from other neighbourhoods to savour it. The design allows people to slide, skate, ski, bike and play all in one park.
John’s says the park reflects a “lifelong goal” to create high quality opportunities for leisure, recreation, physical activity and community engagement here in the city.
The 57-year-old only child and father of two, has very fond childhood memories of the camaraderie he found at Bonnie Doon skating rink, Mill Creek Pool and while exploring “the wilds” of Mill Creek Ravine.
He remembers, “walking from one rink to the next” for community league hockey games at a time when outdoor rinks were the focal point of entertainment in the winter. Logan describes outdoor rinks as “a priceless recreational resource.”
Another gem he initiated - which is now taken for granted - is free community league evening swims at outdoor pools in Edmonton.
John says the idea for free swims came when he was going back to school and his wife Bonnie, was working full-time. They would come home hot and tired to two busy boys. They live just above it but Mill Creek Pool would be rented to private groups. John managed to get 18 leagues to agree to pay $500 a summer so all outdoor pools could be available for “ordinary working people” in the evening.
~ Thanks to Nancy Rempel
Four days after his second open-heart surgery last spring, John learned that the program had been cancelled.
“I thought if it’s on my dying breath, I’m getting that program reinstated.”
Being John, a few days and breathless phone calls later, he did!
“It’s music to our ears to hear the children playing. We can hear it from here,” he says his eyes dancing playfully.
“It’s just what community-minded people do,” adds Bonnie, another volunteer, shrugging her shoulders.
One can only wish…