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PHOTO: SUSAN BOLLA
Backyard Hero
By Iris Winston
Contributing to
Remembrance
Veteran honoured for honouring vetrans
November/December 2008 • Ottawa 32 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
The cenotaph in Kanata’s
Village Green Memorial Park
and another local park that
bears his name are just two of the
reasons that 83-year-old veteran
John Gooch is so well known in the
region.
“It’s wonderful that they named
a park after me, but it wasn’t necessary,”
he says. “I just like to keep
busy.”
He certainly does that.As well as
visiting his wife of 61 years in hospital
each day and looking after his
two Shelties, John spends much of
the rest of the time involved in a
long list of volunteer activities.
“I do a lot with the Legion. I
looked after the ushers at our
church for 20 years and I’ve been
with the Kiwanis for 50. I also
belong to a couple of choirs.”
All that is only part of the story.
In 1996, when the president of
Branch 638 of the Royal Canadian
Legion in Kanata asked John to
search for a suitable site for the
branch to hold its November 11
Remembrance Day ceremony, the