Local News

Annual banquet provides opportunity to praise training efforts

AT THE LOCAL 146 (Edmonton, Alberta) 36th annual banquet, held Jan. 30 at the Delta Edmonton South Hotel, members of all ranks — from entry-level apprentices to retirees with over 55 years of service — celebrated their love for the union by honoring members earning service pins, graduating apprentices, and top-level apprentices.

Couple travels to Mexico to teach children, maintain orphanage

FLORENCE AND JEAN-MARIE Nadeau, a retired member of Local 128 (Toronto, Ontario), are living part-time in Mazatlan, one of Mexico’s greatest vacation destinations. Their time, however, is not spent at an exotic resort, but in volunteer work at some of Mexico’s poorest regions.

Daniel Lance’s passion for underwater exploration began at young age

NO MATTER WHAT people say, television does influence children, says Local 28 (Newark, N.J.) member Daniel Lance. A 30-year field construction Boilermaker, Lance grew up watching such TV programs as “Diver Dan,” “Sea Hunt,” and “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” At a young age, he learned how to scuba dive and spent weekends diving off the coast of New York and New Jersey.

Robin DeMonaco mentors child through Boys To Men program

ROBIN DEMONACO, WIFE of 30-year member Charlie DeMonaco (L-433 — Tampa, Fla.), received the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) Outstanding Mentor Award April 7 in New Orleans. It was the fourth year the FYSB presented the award from the Administration for Children and Families, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, for its Mentoring Children of Prisoners program.

Kirsty Henderson is devoting her life to helping victims of natural disasters

Kirsty Henderson digs a hole in Bangladesh, where she and other volunteers are building five playgrounds for schools in the area of Rayenda.

Union hall is 10 times size of previous facility

LOCAL 169 (DETROIT) moved into spacious new digs Dec. 12 after renovating a 28,000-sq.-ft. building in Allen Park, Mich., that was formerly owned by a Ford Motor Co. vendor. The building is 10 times the size of the lodge’s previous hall in nearby Dearborn, and it consolidates office and meeting functions as well as training operations.

ACTIVE AND RETIRED members of Local 627 (Phoenix) attended their annual lodge picnic at the Shriners’ Park near Farmington, N.M., Sept 5. About 85 members and their families attended. Each adult received a T-shirt featuring the Local 627 logo, and a drawing was held, with two winners receiving a GPS roadmap unit and two others receiving portable DVD movie players. In the photo to the right, Local 627 BM-ST Allen Meyers begins the drawing with help from the granddaughter of retiree Al Stapleton.

Program buys calling cards for troops

ONE OF THE biggest sacrifices service members make when stationed overseas is being away from loved ones. Local 13 (Philadelphia) is doing its part to help American soldiers stay in touch with their families. Since April 2009, the lodge has collected nearly 1,000 used cell phones, which have been cashed in for more than 56,000 minutes worth of calling cards. The cards are distributed to military personnel for free.

ADAM STAGNER (front) and Matt Pryor, both members of Local 112 (Mobile, Ala.), pose with their massive feral hog Oct. 28, 2009, in the Turnerville community near Chunchula, Ala. The boar weighed 780 pounds and measured 6 feet 11 inches long, with a neck girth of 51 inches and an estimated height of 44 inches. The cutters (bottom tusks) measured 3-and-one-half-inches in length. “It’s probably the biggest game animal I’ll ever kill,” Stagner said.