Gray honoured by Town as Community Champion after decades of volunteering

By Rob Paul

As part of its annual Community Recognition Awards, the Town of Caledon is honouring 40 outstanding volunteers whose efforts have made a significant impact towards the development and advancement of recreational sports, arts and culture, environmental leadership or community and social services.

“This is our opportunity to celebrate and thank the outstanding people that truly make us #CaledonProud,” said Mayor Allan Thompson. “From volunteers to athletes to artists and beyond they, in their own ways, help build and enrich our community.”

In a normal year, the Town hosts a Community Recognition Night to present the awards, but the event was cancelled in 2020. Now with the province opening up, the Mayor and Council have been meeting with recipients to safely present the awards.

The Community Champion award is the highest honour the Town gives out to a volunteer and the recipient is chosen from among all the nominees by the Selection Committee based on the significance of their community involvement and years of service.

The 2020 Community Champion award went to lifelong volunteer Joe Gray.

Gray has spent decades volunteering for different organizations across Peel. 

“I really appreciate being honoured with this; it felt unbelievable when they phoned me and told me,” he said. “You do it because you have a passion for the things you do, and I just have a great passion for it. As I said to one person, ‘Some days you couldn't pay me enough to do what I did, but it's really rewarding to help others.'”

He spent years involved in the 4-H-clubs in Peel, founded the Junior Farmers Club in Peel in 1962, and was the founding President of DixieLane Junior Farmers in 1963. 

“One of my first times volunteering, I was a 4-H member myself and other leaders had given me their knowledge and I thought it was interesting,” he said. “After your 21 you can't be a 4-H member anymore, but I guess I did well and some of the leaders saw and told me I should be a 4-H leader and when they asked, I jumped at it. That's the way it always has been, with the S.H.A.R.E. foundation, my brother and I were so heavily involved—I don't think I missed an annual meeting in all my years back to 1977—and they asked me to become a board member and I became treasurer.”

As Secretary of Peel Junior Farmers, he chaired the committee that organized the Farewell Party of the Junior Farmers Building in Brampton when the Peel Agricultural Society sold the Fairgrounds to the City of Brampton. 

Gray also served on the Board of Directors of Peel Soil and Crop Improvement Association and the Board of Peel County Holstein Club. He was Secretary-Treasurer of Peel Federation of Agriculture for a number of years and was a Director of Ontario Federation Agriculture representing Peel. He chaired the Peel 2000 event held at the new Junior Farmers' Hall at the Brampton Fairgrounds. 

He was Secretary-Treasurer of Flowerlea Dairy Co-op for 13 years and later became a delegate, board member and vice president at Gay Lea Foods Co-op. He was also Chairman of Dairyland Transport Co-op and also spent time as a member of the Peel Milk Committee and later chaired of the committee.

For the last 14 years Gray has volunteered to help get rid of the invasive species such as purple loosestrife and phragmites for the Town of Caledon and the Region of Peel, digging up hundreds of plants year after year.  

He is also an active member of Mayfield United Church, leading the Young Peoples Group, singing in the choir, and serving on the board of stewards. He was superintendent of the Senior Sunday School for two years and helped raise funds for their choir when they were invited to sing on stage at Carnegie Hall in 2019.  

Gray was founding chair of Central Peel Group of Churches. This group of United Churches grew to include churches beyond Peel and changed its name to The GIFT Group (Growing In Faith Together). 

One of his other passions is S.H.A.R.E. Agriculture Foundation, a small, volunteer-managed charity that helps impoverished rural people in Central America, Bolivia, Haiti and Columbia. He has been a strong supporter from its beginning in 1976. 

“My motivation is my passion for the community,” he said. “I've always been involved with the church and the S.H.A.R.E. Agriculture Foundation helping a larger community internationally. I've been down in Central America a couple times and the only difference is that we were born here or immigrated to Canada, and those people were born in developing countries. I spoke at an event one day and I said, ‘you probably paid $2 for a coffee this morning, and that's the average wage per day for them.' Our ancestors came to Canada in 1823, they did it for a sake, so, now I'm trying to help someone else.”

The way Gray looks at life is that if someone needs him, then he'll be there to lend a helping hand in any way he can for the community, and he doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

“I was treasurer of the S.H.A.R.E. foundation for almost 36 years and the biggest thing was how time consuming it is to find a volunteer,” he said. “And even after I've found one, I'm still helping out—I was on a Zoom call this morning. They tease me that they're going to put me out to pasture, so my new title is Donor Relation Officer. Helping others towards a better life, either here or internationally, is very rewarding, and I have met and worked with many wonderful people, some now are great friends, and all this is what keeps me going. I'll carry on with this until I'm here no longer. I think I'll probably continue on with volunteering until I drop, that's my plan. I want to help where I can, and wherever I can.”