A worthy honouree

Few people can be credited with the level of volunteerism Mrs. Moore has carried out on behalf of her fellow Westmounters. Her involvement on so many committees and organizations, from the CLSC and YMCA to the coordination of Smart Living Day, would have daunted a lesser person, but her devotion to Westmount has inspired her to donate years of work for the benefit of her community. If that were not enough, she even ran successfully for Westmount city council and served a distinguished term that was unfortunately cut short by the highly unpopular forced merger with the City of Montreal.

I first met Mrs. Moore in early 1998, at the regular monthly meeting of the WMA's board of directors. Much of the discussion around the table that night was dominated by the recent ice storm, but there were several other interesting items on the agenda. Coincidentally, one of them was a discussion of the eligibility requirements for a new award the WMA was planning — the Citizen of the Year Award. Re-naming it after the late Derek Walker would come a few years later.

It was to be a big deal, everyone agreed. If the WMA was going to do this, there was no point doing it halfway. The award had to be prestigious — a real honour for the recipient and something that stood for the same high values as Westmount itself.

I'm sure it never crossed Mrs. Moore's mind at the time that 10 years down the road she herself would be honoured by the very award she helped to establish.

For those of us to whom the late Derek Walker was not just a name on a plaque but a real person who left very articulate phone messages and whose presence and participation always lent an extra touch of class to a wide variety of Westmount events, the addition of Mrs. Moore to the roster of this community's most venerated volunteers is most appropriate.

Congratulations to Barbara Moore for this prestigious award, and to the WMA's selection committee, chaired by Rosalind Davis, for choosing such a worthy recipient.