A Valentine's Day sweetheart

"Acton's sweetheart" is how Marlene Beitz of Links2Care describes Valentine's Day birthday girl Mae Hoare. Hoare turns 90 today (Wednesday), and at that age she is older than most of the clients she delivers food to every other Friday from her sporty red car as a Meals on Wheels volunteer in Acton. But that doesn't bother Hoare at all, who has been delivering Meals on Wheels for more than 25 years. "I'm the oldest everywhere," Hoare said with a laugh, who celebrated her birthday with family and friends at party at Acton Legion Sunday. "She's very reliable, very wonderful and very dedicated," said Beitz, volunteer co-ordinator with Links2Care. "She's very fit, very active, very positive. She doesn't live in the past." Beitz said she remembers during the 1998 ice storm that hit parts of Quebec and Ontario Hoare, who was a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross, was ready to go to the affected areas and help. She was 81 at the time. Hoare's son John was not too keen on the idea. "I said I'll put my snowmobile suit on and I'll be fine. I would have loved to have gone," said Hoare. In the end, no volunteers from Acton went Hoare said. Volunteering is a way of life for Hoare, Acton's Citizen of the Year in 1997 and a recipient of the Queen's Jubilee Medal. Along with Meals on Wheels, Hoare has been a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross Society for

Longtime Acton resident Mae Hoare turns 90 today-- Valentine's Day-- but that doesn't mean the energetic volunteer expects to slow down any time soon. She has volunteered with Meals on Wheels for the past 25 years, along with numerous other charitable organizations. Photo by Ted Brown many years. She has also been a longtime canvasser for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Hoare has also canvassed for the Canadian Cancer Society and been a member of the Acton Legion Auxiliary for more than 20 years and a member of the Legion Branch for 25 years. For several years she co-ordinated the legion's children's Christmas party. "I figure I'm left here for some reason and I don't work anymore. I'm not a person to sit around. If I can help someone I'm happy doing it," said Hoare. Hoare has been an active volunteer since her retirement from dietary services at Georgetown Hospital when she was 62. She also enjoys spending time with her family which includes two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, golfing in the summer at Acton Meadows where she is a honorary member, bowling in the winter and for the past 75 years singing in the St. Alban's Church choir. (Lisa Tallyn can be reached at ltallyn@independentfreepress.com)