The Creemore
Echo
Friday, May 22, 2015
Vol. 15 No. 21
thecreemoreecho.com
News and views in and around Creemore
Inside the Echo
Beers in flight
Stormscapes
Brewery opens tasting bar
Alicia Lawson on exhibit
PAGE 3
PAGE 7
Publications Mail Agreement # 40024973
Ernie Pledger, always a young person in spirit by Trina Berlo Ernie Pledger, the man with the winning smile, has died. A loving family man, jokester and veteran, Pledger was laid to rest in Creemore on May 21. “It’s hard to believe. He just turned 96 but he was never an old person. He was always a young person in spirit. We’re all going to miss him,” said daughter Linda. Pledger worked for the Bank of Nova Scotia, starting out as a messenger at age 16, and working his way up through the ranks. He continued in the bank’s employ until he took early retirement at the age of 60, except for the time he took off to serve in the army during the Second World War. Pledger received several medals and decorations during his military service from 1942-1946. He was in the signal corps and part of the effort to liberate Holland. At the end of his professional life, Pledger was a trust officer at the main branch in Toronto at King and Bay. He worked two floors underground in a vault that held the bank’s gold deposit. “I remember, he used to call my mom twice a day and ask her what it was doing outside because he could never look out a window,” said Linda. She said when her father came home from the war, he had to get permission from his employer to get married.
File photo
Ernie Pledger attending last year's Remembrance Day service in Creemore. “He didn’t want to get married until he came back from the war because he didn’t want to get married until,
hopefully, he came back.” When he did return home from the war, Pledger married Edna, the woman
who was waiting for him, the love of his life. The couple raised their three children – John, David and Linda – in Scarborough, which was more country than city back then. After retirement, Ernie and Edna moved to Creemore, where Edna’s brother and his wife lived. Pledger loved to dance and used to take his wife to the Danforth Music Hall when they lived in the city and later they joined in with the local square dancers. In his 80s, Pledger took up curling and continued with the club until he was 92. “He loved it, he was a very social person. He loved to be around people, especially young people and children, he just loved it,” said Linda. Pledger was active with his church, St. Luke’s Anglican Church, and the Creemore branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. She said he also liked to watch curling on television and was a faithful viewer of Coronation Street. “He had a wonderful sense of humour, just wonderful. He used to play a lot of jokes,” said Linda. She said her father was a gifted euchre player and anyone would want to be on his team because he could somehow win without having any (See “Pledger” on page 3)
New foundation plans to build seniors' apartments Information session June 2 by Trina Berlo Plans are in the works to build seniors’ apartments in Creemore. The newly formed St. John’s Creemore Senior Citizens Foundation is leading the charge with the hope of building 14 independent living apartments for seniors on two Francis Street lots, behind St. John’s United Church. The foundation’s board is made up of four directors from the church and
Wendy Schellenberg. “This is a new initiative because there is a need for independent seniors’ apartments here,” said Schellenberg adding that as it is now, seniors have to leave the community when they no longer want to stay in their houses but aren’t ready for a retirement home. “Wendy has experience running seniors’ housing. She has initiated the project,” said director Lynn Bell. “This is Wendy’s vision and she has the rest of us going on this.” Schellenberg worked for 16 years
as the administrator for the Mount Albert United Church Senior Citizens Foundation’s housing project. She said housing was built by the church years ago to accommodate the widows of farmers who had no pension and grew from there. “It’s an amazing accomplishment to see how the seniors come together to be a community,” said Schellenberg. “There is a need for this,” she said. “Every community should have a place like this.” The plan, very much in the early
stages, is to build 14 rental units in a two-storey building that will be designed to fit the village’s character. The one- and two-bedroom units would likely range in size from 780-1,000 square feet. The community is invited to come to an information session June 2 to hear more about the project and provide feedback. The information session will be held at 7 p.m. at Station on the Green on Tuesday, June 2. Refreshments will be served.
Taking care of buyers and sellers in Mulmur and the Creemore hills for 39 years
RCR Realty. Brokerage
Ginny MacEachern
(705) 444-1414 10230 Highway 26 East, Collingwood E-mail info@collingwood.toyota.ca
B.A., Broker
The Town & Country Agent with the City Connections 1-800-360-5821• 705-466-2607 • maceachern.ginny@gmail.com www.ginnymaceachern.com