R I C H M O N D H I L L’ S C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R S I N C E 1 8 7 8
The LIBERAL $1 STORE SALES /32 PAGES
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Thursday, July 19, 2012
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rallying call
obituary
Community mourns ‘Mr. Hydro’ Former publisher of The Liberal died Monday BY ADAM MC LEAN
amclean@yrmg.com
Remembering their father, Sam Cook, Vickery Bowles and Alison Tkachuk first remark of his compassion toward others. “Dad was walking around town and a man once asked if dad could lend him $10 for a haircut. Dad gave it to him. That was dad; he wouldn’t hesitate or question; if someone needed something, dad would help,” Ms Tkachuk recalled yesterday. He would want to be remembered in Richmond Hill as “Mr. Hydro”, said longtime friend and former mayor Bill Bell. “He was a very dear friend of mine and to the community. He was a fatherly type and a leader; we all looked up to him,” added Mr. Bell of the man who served on the former Richmond Hill Hydro Commission for more than 40 years. A humanitarian, leader, volunteer, husband and father and former editor and publisher of The Richmond Hill Liberal, Mr. Cook passed away Monday at the age of 87. His tenure on the hydro commission was an impressive run, considering most of those 40 years were spent as chairperson — a position requiring Mr. Cook to seek regular reelection. Mr. Bell served on the hydro commission with Mr. Cook for 12 years and Ward 4 Councillor Lynn Foster also served on the comSee SAM, page 10.
STAFF PHOTO/SJOERD WITTEVEEN
Executive board members of the Service Employees International Union of Canada Local 1, representing health care workers, sent a message of support for medicare yesterday to Prime Minister Steven Harper from the union’s headquarters on Mural Street in Richmond Hill. The message, spelled out on the umbrellas, is Secure the Future of Medicare.
Program takes aim at teen drownings By Kim Zarzour
kzarzour@yrmg.com
It was a stain on an otherwise stellar summer in York Region: one year ago today, on a warm summer evening, two teenaged girls drowned while paddling in the waters of Musselman’s Lake. Now it appears similar troubles are brewing this year, with mid-summer statistics showing Ontario drownings, while swim-
ming or falling into water, on the increase and a disturbing spike in drowning among teenagers, something the Lifesaving Society hopes to tackle with a new program aimed at pre-teens. With warmer-than-normal temperatures this summer, more Canadians are turning to water for relief, leaving more people at risk of drowning — teenagers especially, according to Barbara Byers, the society’s public education director.
While the overall number of drownings nationwide decreased last year, the number of drownings among teenagers increased 18 per cent, many due to youths trying to help their friends and putting their own lives at risk, Ms Byers said. The society has developed a new program aimed at this particularly vulnerable group. Called Swim to Survive+ (Plus), the See NATIONAL, page 12.
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