MIDLAND - When the Georgian Bay Cancer Support Centre (GBCSC) was being built near Lorraine Moreau's Penetanguishene house, she baked cookies and took them out to the workers in the winter of 2019/2020.
In the heat of the 2020 summer, Moreau was back with Popsicles and water. Meanwhile inside, her husband Gil Moreau, who had beaten prostate cancer, was losing the battle with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDM), a blood marrow disease.
"My husband and I watched it go up," she says, adding Gil was fascinated with the construction of the modular building.
But before the GBCSC opened, Gil was admitted to Hospice Huronia Tomkin House and was one of the hospice's first patients as it also opened in 2020. Lorraine was by his side amid the many COVID restrictions.
"When my son came to stay with his Dad, I’d leave, bake and bring in big containers (of frozen home baked goods) and get some ice cream and bananas for milk shakes."
Gil died on Aug. 7, 2020.
“After he passed away I brought in a big container of fruit and two big containers of baking. My daughter and I crocheted dish clothes for each nurse and the staff. That was our way of saying “Thank you,” says the 77-year-old woman.
Lorraine hasn't stopped giving back.
The senior volunteers at the GBCSC, Hospice Huronia and Penetanguishene Centennial Museum, but that's not all.
When a building on Penetanguishene's Main Street collapsed last summer, she brought trays of dessert and drinks to the firemen on site.
Later, she volunteered at the fundraiser for people displaced from their apartments due to the building collapse.
“When you can give back to someone, it makes you feel good,” she says.
Lorraine's efforts haven't gone unnoticed. She was voted the 2024 Senior of the Year for the Town of Penetanguishene.
The town's release stated Lorraine is a "remarkable volunteer" who is "always willing to lend a helping hand to those in need, whether they are friends, family, or strangers. Her kindness and generosity know no bounds."
Debbie Kesheshian, executive director for Hospice Huronia, met Lorraine when Gil came to the hospice.
“Lorraine’s volunteerism is her way of giving back to the community to make sure that people like her husband have dignity and compassion in care all the way through what they are dealing with," she says.
"We are honoured that one of our volunteers received this award and it's so worthy. She’s one of our strongest advocates and she helps other people find us.”
Lorraine lost her sister to cancer, so Lorraine partnered with her niece Anne Beauchamp and the duo volunteered for three years when Hospice Huronia was the recipient of Tim Horton's Smile Cookie Campaign.
They started early each morning of the week at the Penetanguishene store to sell cookies outside the drive-thru and then decorate cookies inside. The store sold a record number of cookies in those years, raising a lot of money for hospice.
"We were quite proud of ourselves but man did we work. We pushed ourselves," Lorraine says.
This year, North Simcoe Big Brothers Big Sisters was the recipient and the aunt/niece duo volunteered again.
Anne and Lorraine have been volunteering with the GBCSC for four years too, starting with the Halloween pink pumpkin fundraiser.
"We've been washing pumpkins for a few years. Last year we washed 350 pumpkins," says Lorraine, who also paints and decorates the pumpkins and sells them.
When she didn't sell three dozen at a Penetang Kings hockey game, she set up shop the next day outside Foodland to sell the remainder. The duo surprised staff at GBCSC when they were expecting to unload pumpkins from her car. Instead she handed them money.
"They were happy. It was funny," she says.
At the Penetanguishene Museum, Lorraine volunteers for the museum opening and closing celebrations, Canada Day and Winterama.
These days, you can find Lorraine and Anne baking one day a week at GBCSC. They don't leave until they've baked extra and frozen it in containers.
"They like the date squares and the raspberry cookies. It doesn't matter what we make. They always say 'Thank you.'"
Now she needs to find a place to hang her new Volunteer of the Year award certificate but it will be down the hallway as her living room is full of framed photos of her immediate and extended family.
She adds: “I'm happy to do stuff and make people happy."