Legacy of service highlights inductees
By GERRY deSIMAS, Jr.
Farmington Valley Post
CANTON, Oct. 13, 2006 -- A legacy of service to the community and individuals was honored Friday night at the fifth annual Canton High Wall of Fame induction ceremony.
Donna McAleer, a 1966 graduate, has built a career helping older citizens with a company called Elant, which is the leading provider for health and housing services for the elderly in the Hudson Valley region of New York.
Richard (Dick) Miner (Class of 1939) and his brother Lawton ran Miner Lumber, but Dick was a founding member of the Canton Lions Club and Canton Ski Club that used to own and maintain a small ski area on Sweetheart Mountain.
Ron King (class of 1955) has always taken pleasure in helping people, whether it is preparing meals at the Canton Senior Center, providing free tax advice or raising his brother's two children after his brother died at an early age.
They were among seven Canton High graduates that were inducted into the Wall of Fame, joining 28 other graduates to be honored for their leadership in the community and in their chosen professions. George Becker (1926), Clifford Anderson (1932), Walter Langer (1930) and David Vaudreuil (1984) were also honored.
McAleer is president and CEO at Elant in Goshen, N.Y., a community-based, not-for-profit organization that serves more than 2,500 people a day in six facilities.
McAleer began working for Elant in 1985. Under her leadership, Elant opened its first facility, Arden Hill Life Care Center, and moved away from the use of restraints and heavy drugs, which were very common in the industry in the late 1980s. Elant provides older adults and chronically ill people of all ages health care in nursing homes, rehabilitation services, adult home living, enriched housing and adult day care.
Lorinda Miner Pane accepted the Wall of Fame award for her late father, Dick, who died in 1994. But she talked of how Dick and Lawton encouraged their Miner Lumber employees to donate their time to the town. It was common for employees to use company trucks and equipment to help various community organizations, she said.
With the Lions Club, Dick helped build the Little League field on Dyer Avenue, its dugouts and snack shack. Pane said her father had a special spot in his heart for the Canton Ski Club and its ski slope on Sweetheart Mountain that ended on Dunne Avenue.
Dick Miner, his family and friends from the Lions Club would clear brush each fall, blaze new trails, install new ropes and equipment on the slope's two mechanical rope pulleys that would bring skiers to the top of the mountain. And when the popularity of the hill grew, Miner and friends helped build a parking lot and warming shed for the skiers.
"I remember Sweetheart Mountain on a crisp January night with a huge full moon over the Collinsville cemetery. If the snow was right, we were out there skiing," Pane recalled fondly.
King excelled as an accountant rising to the position of comptroller for two different businesses in his career. Upon his retirement, he helped institute a lunch program for senior citizens at the Canton Community Center and generously donated time to help St. Patrick's Church in Burlington.
He also became the guardian of his brother Richard's two teenage children after his brother died at an early age. "He was there to help me," his nephew Jason said. "And he is still there when I need him. I can call him (in Florida) and he still gives me good advice."
Becker, 97, had an incredible 50-year career with Lane Construction of Meriden. He started with the company as a flagger at the age of 15 and held a variety of jobs before he retired in 1976 as a company vice president.
Becker built highways, dams and airports across the Northeast and eastern half of the U.S. He was involved in construction at Bradley International Airport, Westover Air Force Base in Westfield, Mass., and the Limestone Air Force Base in Maine in the late 1940s where temperatures fell to 40 degrees below zero.
At Collinsville High in a class of just 26 students, Becker was a center on the football team. He was also manager of the basketball team and it was his responsibility to raise $15 to pay for the bus for each road game. Admission to games (75 cents) and dances helped raise the needed funds.
Anderson, 92, was a deputy fire chief, firefighter and ambulance driver with the Harwinton Fire Department. He also was a Boy Scout leader. Several years ago, he was honored with the Harwinton Outstanding Citizen Award.
"If I could help someone, bring a little smile or make life a little better, it was something I could do," said Anderson, who currently has a great granddaughter attending Canton High.
Langer was one of the fortunate students that graduated from Collinsville High in 1930 after many classmates dropped out to help earn money due to the Depression. He sold and delivered eggs to earn money and worked on farms in town for years before landing a job with Miner Lumber.
He was director, vice president and president of the Canton Creamery Association for 15 years and was recently awarded the St. Joseph medal for outstanding service to St. Patrick's Church in Burlington.
But he earned international awards for his photography. In 1992, he was named as one of the top 25 exhibitors in North America. He has been a member of the Canton Camera Club for over 50 years and has been a club leader and teacher for many years. An avid woodworker, he donates a piece a year to raise money for the camera club through an auction.
Vaudreuil is probably the best professional athlete to come out of Canton. An All-American selection in high school (1983), he led CHS to a state title in 1981 and went on to play at Princeton University.
He played pro soccer for 15 years including seven years in Major League Soccer, winning two MLS titles with D.C. United in 1996 and 1997.
Vaudreuil is currently the director of soccer for Club Chivas USA, an affiliate for MLS' Chivas USA franchise in California. He runs a recreation program with 16,000 kids in Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco. Vaudreuil was recently nominated for induction in the National Soccer Hall of Fame by its board of directors and will be on the ballot through 2012.
