The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday March 22, 2008 - 3 No rest for foodbank volunteer Former high school principal Ron Ziegel keeps the food bank stocked on a shoestring budget By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF H e was principal at affluent Oakville high schools, belonged to a nearby golf and country club, has a daughter who is a golf pro in Florida and he cottaged every summer. He's also running at least his 20th edition of Fareshare food bank's two annual food drives. In fact, he's hustling now as Fareshare's all important Easter food drive is underway until Saturday, March 29. At 73, Ron Ziegel who moved to Oakville in the 1950s to begin a teaching career at T.A. Blakelock High School, can be found pretty much every day between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. -- at the local food bank. That, notwithstanding that the food bank is open only two days each week -- Monday and Thursday. Ziegel is there doing what he says he does best -- organizing. He's doing it on his own time, and when asked why he does it, says -- "What else would I do?" If Dudley Clarke, volunteer director of Fareshare, is the magic behind the food bank's ability to make something out of nothing to serve those in need, then Ziegel is the magic behind the food bank itself. He looks after everything from stocking the shelves and organizing donations and two food drives every year, to transportation logistics and volunteer co-ordination. He looks after much of the transportation with his own van and on many an evening when he goes home at 5:30 p.m., he is either co-ordinating volunteers from his home phone or returning to the food bank at 6:30 p.m. to spend a couple of hours introducing the food bank to groups of Brownies, Girl Guides, Cubs and Scouts, even hockey teams. "I figure the more people I get into the food bank, the more potential lifetime supporters there are," said Ziegel. While he hasn't shed his inherent interest in education, he has certainly stepped up to the challenge of running an operation on no money after a lifetime of running schools within an affluent region's public school board. "My forte has always been organizing LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER DEDICATED VOLUNTEER: Retired high school principal Ron Ziegel has been an active volunteer with Oakville's Fareshare food bank since the fateful day he dropped off a donation and asked if they needed any help. things. In phys-ed I was organizing this and that and so on. As a school principal I was running things, da da da da da da..." said Ziegel. His career began in 1958 when he started teaching phys. ed. at Blakelock. By 1970, he was a vice principal in Milton, then principal in Milton. After a stint as principal at Burlington's Nelson High School, Ziegel was principal at Oakville Trafalgar High School. He retired in 1991. His three children, Rick, Jamie and Trish are all grown, and he and his wife of 50 years, Bev, have a quartet of grandchildren. While the family golfed together regularly when the Ziegel children were young, they spent summers at the cottage. The cottage being the one Ziegel built himself on a plot of land that was a wedding gift from his wife's family. After numerous years of retirement, Ziegel said by the fall of 1999, he was playing oldtimers hockey five days a week and was feeling his age while others appeared to be staying young. He also had the niggling feeling that he didn't want to break any body parts. One day it all changed when Ziegel walked into the food bank to drop off his usual donation -- a cheque ­ and asked if they needed help. "I was put to work immediately," said Ziegel, noting that after he became involved at the food bank, he no longer kept up playing old-timer hockey. As Ziegel eyes the stock room of the food bank's industrial unit, one catches the gleam of challenge and satisfaction as he relates how he scrounged for the material, including ladders donated by Home Depot, to build storage lofts. Sitting at a fold-away card table that functions as a desk of sorts, Ziegel marvels at what can be accomplished with next to nothing. If those using the food bank live as Ziegel and Clarke operate the food bank, they, too, are likely making the food donations of caring residents go a long way. Ziegel outlines how he cancelled a cleaning crew and mops up himself at the food bank to save money. "It's not that hard to do," he said. With the appearance of a quiet man who somewhat gruffly sticks to his own business, Ziegel, in conversation, reveals a boundless ability to give, to teach and to get the job done. While Bev, busies herself during retirement from a career in teaching and guidance in Halton, with golf, bridge and volunteering at Fareshare, Ziegel is consumed by the food bank. Every so many minutes, Ziegel is asked by a volunteer about where a food item can be found, consulted about a volunteer logistics issue, asked how something works, if some other project can be tackled. "Ron, I believe, is here, at least as far as I know, every day of the week," said Clarke. Ziegel, upon reflection, notes the food bank may need to hire someone to do Clarke's job, should he ever leave. The mutual respect apparently translates to a well-oiled machine in Fareshare and both men say the volunteers, some of whom have been there a decade or more, don't get nearly enough credit. For Ziegel, working at the food bank means meeting people and often working in the community. When there's any "staffing" issue with the scheduling of Fareshare's 40 regular volunteers, Ziegel sorts it out. When extra volunteers are needed for the food drives and sorting sessions, Ziegel is Fareshare's recruitment specialist. See No page 4 CALIFORNIA & PLANTATION SHUTTERS · Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed · Serving Oakville with Shop at Home Service · Wood & Vinyl Shutters, Supplied & Installed · High Quality at Affordable Prices Shop at Home Service Authorized Eclipse Shutters Dealer FREE SHUTTERS ETC. 905.691.4455 · www.shuttersetc.ca