I caught up with Jeff Thingstad at a coffee shop. He’d finished his morning workout at the Complex and agreed to sit down with me to talk about a little project he started that means the world to him – the Thunder Bay Grounds Operations. This dedicated group of volunteers goes above and beyond. Jeff, the unofficial crew chief was the spark that got the fire going 36 years ago. Larry Bortolon, another longtime member of the crew picked up a hot chocolate and joined us at the table to talk about events, friends, and community.
Jeff and Larry are a couple of those folks you might see behind the scenes at local festivals. They help to get events off the ground, so to speak. They do a lot of the physical labour needed to host an event from setting up stages, picking up garbage, installing snow fences, lining up parking barricades and erecting tents for many of the community gatherings that Thunder Bayites enjoy year-round like the Sleeping Giant Loppet, Staal Open, Ribfest, Air Show and many more. There are a dedicated group of about 24 people who are part of the crew. “We’ve helped with so many projects like the Fly Days with the Kakabeka Flying Club, Skate Canada, and helping with the Salvation Army events at the lower Boulevard Lake Park,” says Jeff. “And we’ve helped with so many events at Lappe and Kamview Nordic Centre too. The pancakes at Lappe are a highlight for volunteering there!”
“I got started helping with events around 1979,” said Jeff. “That’s when Frank Gartrell and Rob McCormack asked me if I wanted to come out and help them with the ski jumping events they were hosting back then at the Little Norway ski jump.” Jeff helped with any of the odd jobs they might have at the Thunder Bay Ski Jump but one job that stands out in his memory was carrying a computer up the hill to the judging tower. Not only were there a lot of stairs to climb to the that tower which was nearly half-way
up hill, computers in those days were much bigger and heavier than the laptops of today!
When the work became too much for him alone, he decided to put the word out for more help. “Actually, I conned a few friends to give me a hand,” Jeff laughs. And friends like Larry, who worked with Jeff at Lakehead Motors, went along for the ride.
As volunteers, the work is tough and the morning calls can be early. The call for the Sleeping Giant Loppet is 6:30 am so the guys and gals are in place at the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park to help with parking at 6:30 but at 10:30 am their job is done. They enjoy their annual Sleeping Giant Loppet tradition by gathering at one of the friend’s houses for a barbeque. For all the hard work they do – even with the occasional arguing and colourful language thrown in – they keep coming back for more. “It’s fun. When we helped with the Thunder Bay Marathon, we’d set up all the tents along the route and then go for breakfast,” says Larry.
As volunteers, some events give the guys tickets to their volunteer appreciation events but Jeff said he usually asks them to put that money for his dinner back into helping the charity. The guys occasionally will get a donation for their work and they can donate it to different local charities, or in some cases they use the donation to cover the insurance for the building where they store all of their event supplies and equipment. That building was built by the volunteers and it’s their gathering spot to load and unload the trucks before and after events. When the guys told me about building their storage shed, I was reminded of a non-profit program in Australia called Men’s Sheds where men, mostly men who are retired, build community gathering sheds and meet regularly to do physical work or just to get out of the house. I realized that the Thunder Bay Grounds Crew was a local example of a Men’s Shed.
When Jeff had a health scare two years ago, it was the guys in the crew that were right there for him. Jeff is feeling good these days but he and Larry want to start slowing down a bit. They don’t call it retiring, it’s just working less. They want to recruit a few folks who will work along with them and eventually take over. The time has come when Jeff, Larry and other members of the crew like 80+ year old Doug Martin might want to sit down and enjoy the show without having to set up the chairs! And when they do sit down to enjoy the show, I hope they have front-row seats!
Note...The Thunder Bay Grounds Operations would be happy to invite new members to help out. They don’t have a website or Facebook page but if you are interested in finding out how to get involved, email me and I’ll pass along your interest, nangus@shaw.ca
