COMMUNITY ANGEL: A poem inspires lifetime of volunteering

NewmarketToday continues its annual tradition of marking the giving season by celebrating Newmarket's Community Angels — the people whose kindness, compassion and community spirit help make our town one of the best to live in the country.

Newmarket resident Kirby Brock can remember the phrase that led him to want to volunteer.

As a Grade 8 student, he said a phrase from Emily Dickinson’s poem, “If I can stop one heart from breaking,” inspired him: “I shall not live in vain.”

Brock also said he drew inspiration as a teenager, watching a special about the Second World War and the sacrifices of the soldiers in that conflict.

“That really came home to me. I better do something worthwhile with my life. To make up for the freedom that I’ve got,” he said. “That’s how I started.”

Brock has become a prominent volunteer over the years in Newmarket. A longtime member and former president of the Newmarket Lions Club, Brock has also spent years volunteering for the Doane House Hospice, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, Inn From the Cold and the Canadian Cancer Society.

He recounted starting more active volunteering in retirement. On a whim, he said he decided to volunteer at the hospice and he began visiting weekly for more than 12 years to support families and caregivers dealing with loss.  He said he would specifically work with families of cancer patients.

“My mother died of brain cancer, so I thought, that’s a way I can help honour her,” Brock said.

He said he would soon join other volunteer roles with Inn From the Cold and the Newmarket Lions Club, seeing ads in the newspaper to take on roles and help.

“I found out that I was working 40 hours a week, doing all the things I was doing,” he said.

Being part of these causes is a way to find some camaraderie, Brock said.

“It’s your kindred spirits,” Brock said. “Each person is willing to put up so much time and energy … it’s amazing to watch what everybody does.”

Looking back, Brock said one of his points of pride is helping start community meals at Inn From the Cold back in 2006 when he was serving as president, where different groups come in to volunteer to serve a meal for those in need at the homeless shelter.

“It’s still exciting to me know that every Friday night, there’s somebody in the community providing a meal,” he said.

Brock is one of 20 exemplary volunteers and community leaders honoured with a King Charles III Coronation Medal by Newmarket-Aurora MP Tony Van Bynen.

Richard Metcalfe has served alongside Brock in the Newmarket Lions Club for years and said Brock is an exemplary volunteer.

“Kirby’s picture in the dictionary beside the word volunteer,” he said. “He knows how to volunteer, he knows how to take charge, how to get involved. He also knows how to motivate others.”

Brock said getting older, he is aware he will not be able to keep volunteering forever. But as long he has his faculties, he can continue.

“So as long as I’m good to go, I’ll go. And when I’m not, I’m done,” he said.