After two years of waiting patiently for his Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers — the highest honour for volunteerism in Canada — to be presented, Greg Kobold was rewarded for his patience in an unforgettable way.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions over the past two years, the longtime Brighton Legion member was unable to travel to Queen’s Park in Toronto to receive the prestigious medal.
“I was supposed to get it several times, but it ended up getting cancelled,” said Kobold, 62, of the previous false starts.
Last Wednesday, however, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, travelled to Kobold’s Gosport home to deliver the medal personally. The Aide-de-Camp (from Dowdeswell’s office) and an OPP detail arrived at his home around 1:30 p.m., with
Dowdeswell arriving shortly after at 2 p.m.
It was an occasion he won’t soon forget.
“The Aide-de-Camp called me and said that they were actually going to come right to the house with the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. It was pretty amazing,” said Kobold. “I had met her before. I have been the master of ceremonies for the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Brighton for the past 20 years, she was here during one of our Remembrance Day ceremonies and I had met her then, and she remembered me. It was nice. I was very honoured and humbled.”
Kobold, who’s been a fixture at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 100 in Brighton for the past 40 years, was exceedingly modest about receiving the deserved recognition, noting there were others worthy of the award.
“It’s always nice to be recognized. There are many, many deserving people for the same thing and to be one of them who’s recognized is nice, but certainly there are a lot of people that are equally as deserving that go unrecognized,” he said.
By definition, the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers is a Canadian decoration intended to honour volunteers who have made a significant and continual contribution to their community, either in Canada or abroad. And, Kobold certainly fits that criteria in every way.
For the past 36 years, Kobold has been helping veterans within the Brighton community through Legion activities. During that time, he also worked on the annual poppy campaign within the branch.
Kobold said the reason for his tireless volunteer work on behalf of veterans over the years is simply this: veterans are responsible for the freedoms we enjoy in Canada today.
“It’s knowing that veterans are the reason that we have the freedoms that we do. I didn’t serve, but this is my way of serving the community,” he said.
Kobold spent countless volunteer hours over the years just being present for veterans in the community, visiting with them, talking with them, and ensuring their needs were being met. He’s also represented the Legion at the funerals of veterans over the years.
“A lot of veterans later in life, who I deal with quite a bit, are lonely a lot of times, so I try to get out and visit and talk with them, some of the shut-ins. I’ve probably overseen countless funerals for veterans, acting in a quasi-padre (role), making sure they are recognized during the funeral. The Legion is there and we do a little Legion service for the families,” he said. “I’ve been the service officer at the branch many times, making sure they get a pension, accessibility to help them… I have actually built ramps at (veteran’s) houses…Whatever is needed to help a veteran, we’ll try to find a way.”
Being a Legion member has been a way of life for Kobold who joined at the first opportunity he could in 1982 at age 22 after sons and daughters of servicemen were allowed to join the Legion ranks. His father and grandfather had served in the Canadian military.
“I’ve just been volunteering ever since. Most of it comes back into our community, which I’m 100 per cent in favour of. We do a lot for the community and our mission is to help veterans and their dependents and we help the community at the same time,” he said.
Being a volunteer has also been a way of life for Kobold, who remembers helping out in his youth, shovelling the driveways of neighbours during the winter months.
“I never charged, I just wanted to help,” he said of volunteering in his youth. “My grandfather was very much like that, my brothers as well. Just something that’s been in the family.”
He recalls being on the ground in New York City during 9/11, serving as a volunteer in the recovery efforts three weeks after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001. He decided to volunteer after talking to a friend who was an FBI agent working in Miami who told him volunteers were still needed in New York City. He applied, was accepted and was later winging his way to New York City to lend a hand in the recovery efforts.
“They had lots of first responders, police and fire, but actual civilian volunteers were becoming less and less because they had to get back to work. So I told them, I would go if there was a requirement, so I sent them my information and they called the next day that we would be happy to have you if you wanted to go. So, off I go,” he said.
He volunteered as a ‘spotter’ for two weeks at the site of the former Twin Towers as excavation work continued. He helped to spot human remains, as well as the personal effects of people who died in the tragic event while the area was being dug up.
Kobold continues to be on the executive of the Brighton Legion, serving as the bylaw officer. He admits, however, that he was forced to curtail his volunteer activities at the branch owing to a 2016 car accident that left him with far less mobility.
“My abilities to get out and do a lot of physical things is not there (because of the car accident). It has diminished my role. The young guys have picked up the slack. I’m more in an advisory role now,” he said.
(Written by Alan Rivett; photo courtesy of the Facebook page of Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell)
