Boys & Girls Club Inducts Honorary Member

SUSSEX • Robert Lockhart has always had a soft spot for young people and their potential, especially those who didn’t grow up in the best of circumstances.

He lives in Plumweseep near Sussex, but the busy volunteer spent much of his life in the Saint John area and contributed a lot to non-profit work there.

As a long-time member of the Saint John Rotary Club, he can hardly remember a time when he wasn’t involved in the organization’s pet project, the Boys and Girls Club of Saint John.

“I have always enjoyed doing work for the youth and being involved in projects that get them off the street and doing things that are productive, instead of unproductive,” Lockhart said at the special occasion.

He believes young people need support, particularly those from low income or single families.

Each year the Boys and Girls Club of Saint John recognizes people who, over the years, have been committed to building the foundation of the club that has helped thousands of youth in the city. The nation’s oldest club started identifying the needs of local youth and offering programming in the 1900s.

“Its success was only made possible by the Rotary Club who provided a debt-free building and dedicated people who gave of their cost-free time, talent and money in order to create continuous miracles,” said Amy Shanks, executive director of the city’s Boys and Girls Club.

She said fearing knowledge of these “builders” and their unselfish deeds would become unknown to new generations, in the spring of 1985 the club’s officers and board of directors created the Order of the Master Builders of The Boys and Girls Club of Saint John to record their names and contributions.

Lockhart’s involvement in the club for young people dates back about 40 years. He remembers serving on the Saint John Rotary Club when the previous Boys and Girls club was burned by vandals in 1974. Rotarians raised $1 million to build the facility that now houses the club in the city’s south end.

“There’s been a strong connection between the Rotary and the Boys and Girls Club in Saint John since day one,” he said.

Lockhart began his Rotary life in Newcastle in 1970 early in his career with NBTel as an area manager. He joined Rotary in the Port City four years later when he moved there for more management roles with the same company until his retirement from what became Aliant Telecom in 2000. Over the years he has served on the executive and various committees within Rotary to do good work for the community.

Through Rotary he believes so much in the Boys and Girls Club and its programs for young people that he served as a director and for two terms, starting in 1994, was president of its board of directors. He served on many committees since then.

When a service benefits young people, the proud grandfather said, the time given is always time well spent.

While he continues to be a member of the Saint John Rotary Club as the most senior “still active” member, he is also an honourary member of the club in Sussex after he moved to the farming region in 2004. He received Rotary’s highest Paul Harris Fellow honour for service to the community by Saint John Rotarians in 1986 and 1997, and by the Sussex club in 2008.

Some of his greatest accomplishments have come from being a Rotarian for 45 years, and he takes a lot of pride in having his photo on display among the other Boys and Girls Club’s Master Builders from the Saint John community.

“It’s always nice to be recognized by colleagues and peers for good deeds but in this particular case, for me to be awarded the same honour as mentors like Bill Robinson and Abe Calp means a lot to me,” he said.

Robinson was once vice-president of Moosehead Breweries in the city and Calp was among the family that offered the once-popular department store of the same name in Saint John.

“Having my name beside current colleagues like former board members and Rotarians Heinz Schaerer who did the presentation, Mike Schulze who owns the McDonalds in Saint John and Greg Zed from Mental Health in Sussex is an honour too,” Lockhart added.

Lockhart’s volunteer work for the Boys and Girls Club has involved many major projects over the years. In 1989 he was instrumental in raising $75,000 for club renovations in celebration of Rotary’s 75th birthday; he played a key part in acquiring Rotary’s support for the purchase of a new van in 1990; and his cochairmanship with Heinz Schaerer of the Rotary Building Project raised $400,000 to fund major building renovations in 2000, the year of the Boys and Girls Club’s centennial celebrations.

Lockhart was also responsible for the donation of the club’s first computer from colleagues at NBTel.

In 2006 Lockhart was recognized with the Bronze Keystone Award, a national honour given by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada for long and devoted service to youth.