The plaque says 54 years, but Fred Wall insists it has been only a little over 20. Whatever the number, it was enough for the crowd attending the Jasper Minor Sports banquet to give him a standing ovation Wednesday (April 14) night as he walked up to receive a provincial award of recognition for his years of volunteering.

Wall spent 11 years coaching Peewee hockey and one year coaching Midget, as well as numerous years volunteering – refereeing, driving buses, umpiring baseball games, acting as equipment manager; the list goes on.

Wall, who now has two grandchildren in minor hockey, no longer spends all his time at the Activity Centre, but more-so skiing. As a result, Wall hardly even knows most of the kids in minor sports anymore, which was confusing to him as to why he was tricked into coming to the banquet in the first place.

“I was wondering why Shanon, my daughter, got these tickets for me. I thought it was for my granddaughter’s hockey team or something, having a fundraiser, I had no idea. Then Dick Ireland (the Mayor) came and sat down beside me, and then Janet Barker, and I thought ‘You know, this doesn’t seem quite normal, but we sat there and talked,” said Wall of the banquet, prior to being called up to the podium to receive his award.

When Mayor Ireland finally did call Wall up to receive his award, the crowd went to their feet.

“Oh, I didn’t know whether to cry or to go out the door and go home,” Wall said, who was so shocked he said he couldn’t say anything while on the stage. “It’s really humbling.”

Wall said at one point in his life he basically lived at the arena, from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., coaching and refereeing  hockey and baseball.

Even when his own kids, two sons and a daughter, were through the minor system of hockey and figure skating, he continued to volunteer.

When Jasper had a Junior B hockey team, Wall was the bus driver. Needless to say, his wife Rose adds, he wasn’t home a lot.

But while Wall was spending all this time volunteering, Rose wasn’t exactly sitting at home.

As president of the Figure Skating Club, Rose was up every morning at 5 a.m. for 12 years to turn on the music and get the kids skating, because at that time, the boys who played hockey had priority over prime ice times.

She would also have all the mothers come to her house around the same time every year to wash all the uniforms for all the teams.

“Fred was also the equipment manager for all the equipment for all the teams. And every spring we washed every uniform and every pair of socks. The clothesline was loaded for weeks, at my house – there were so many teams,” she said.

The mothers would then get together for coffee and mend all the socks and uniforms. These days, she said, they just throw them in the garbage bin and get a new one next year.

Wall’s award, which is sanctioned by the provincial government and approved by MLA Robin Campbell, was a result of his nomination by Barker.

“Fred Wall has volunteered from even the beginning of our arena before it was rebuilt. Fred Wall and a few other men even painted the things on the ice. It was different in those days, but he’s worked with hockey, soccer, he’s worked with baseball, just about everything in town, and he’s been a great volunteer, and Robin (Campbell), our MLA, pushed it through,” Barker said.

For Wall, he said he’s getting too old to volunteer at the rink these days. He was even asked this year to help coach girl’s hockey, but declined. He thinks there are other, younger people with new techniques and ways of coaching, and that he is just an old model now.

Wall credits many other people who he had the good fortune of working with during his time with minor hockey, including Ross Ireland, who he said didn’t even have kids in minor hockey and was still the president for years and did a lot of work.

Now, Wall said it’s gratifying for him to see so many of the hockey players he coached now involved in coaching minor hockey. He also knows there are new people to town who have coaching and refereeing experience, and suggests they get in touch with the president of minor sports to find out how they can help.

In the meantime, while Wall might be seen at the arena from time to time to watch his grandkids play, he will be enjoying his well-earned free time in the mountains, skiing everyday.