There was a packed house of 120 at Rosemont Hall for the Celebration of Life for longtime Rambler Wally Drew, who passed away in January:
Standing room at Rosemont
There was attendance by Ramblers, Skrastins Outdoor Club, his square dance group Swinging Singles and the elementary school where he did weekly reading with the young students, amongst others. Wally was 93 when he passed away and had been a Rambler for 65 of those years. He had served on the club Executive in the early days and coordinated many, many trips over the years. Lots of them were to places that were not yet in the guide books.
At the Celebration there were lots of stories from his various activity groups and it was apparent the impact that he had on people, and that he will be missed. A few photos from the Celebration:
Brian supplies a "Wally story" before giving the weather forecast, as Wally did at weekly meetings before the website era.
Stories of Wally Drew at Rosemont
Picture collage from Wally's square dance group
some of the tribute givers at the Celebration of Life
Social Director & MC Barbara listens while Marianne reads tributes and a poem.
As a number of tributes mentioned, Wally was noted for having a prodigious appetite for someone who was not a big man, so of course we had a finger food potluck to go along with the celebration:
Wally Drew's favourite: a buffet
Perhaps one of the most memorable stories was Wally's encounter with a bear on a 2008 Skrastins trip to Grizzly Col, so we'll put photo from that here;
Wally saunters from the bear
There will be a more detailed tribute put on the Ramblers' Tribute webpage, a link to it will be placed in this report when it is ready. If anyone has content or photos that they would like to add to the tribute, they may be sent to info@ramblers.ab.ca .
Special thanks go to Social Director Barbara for acting as Master of Ceremonies and to her team of helpers Deirdre, Dorothy-Ann, Anne, Barb, Marianne, David, Susan, Bill, Brian & Ron for making the celebration a success.
