New rink to be Mac’s memorial

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/10/2009 (6091 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CARTWRIGHT — They’re calling it the Mac Robinson Community Arena for a reason.

Robinson was a 30 plus-year veteran on the Cartwright village council. He was instrumental in too many community projects to count, including spearheading the drive back in the late 1980s to install artificial ice in the old arena. For years, Robinson was the volunteer caretaker at the curling rink, just another task he did for zero compensation.

“He was the town’s heart and soul,” offered arena organizer Kim Kemp. “He did everything in this town. He was like a model citizen, whereby his day ended at five o’clock and he’d go home and have supper and spend some time with his family then the rest of the time he spent in the community. He had a hundred keys on his ring, I’m sure, for every building in town.”

“And he probably had a couple keys on that ring,” added mayor Bruce Leadbeater, “for the little old ladies he used to check on. A total community man.”

Not surprisingly, Robinson was the point man for the arena rebuilding committee. He painstakingly supervised every little detail of the new building, right down to the janitor’s room.

So as shocked and saddened as Cartwright residents were to lose their arena two years ago, they were absolutely floored when Robinson died suddenly of heart failure this past January.

How instrumental was Robinson to the everyday life of the town? When mourners jam-packed the local United Church for his funeral, nobody knew how to run the sound system. That had always been Mac’s job.

“We were all at his service going, “Jeezus, Mac, how do we do this?’ ” recalled Kemp.

That day in January, they drove Robinson’s ashes to the cemetery in the passenger seat of his old Duffy’s Electric truck which, even in retirement, the councillor used to travel from one volunteer task to another.

Although Robinson was unable to live long enough for the official opening of the project he spearheaded, his family members will attend the Oct. 10 festivities.

So how would Robinson, known as Mr. Fix-it, react to having his name immortalized on the new arena?

“I think he’d say he didn’t deserve the rink being named after him,” Leadbeater said. Then the mayor’s voice trailed off.

Tears were welling in his eyes.