It's nice to see a guy who gets things done get some recognition.
It was announced last week that Ladner businessman Mike Owen, a stalwart of this community and a major advocate of the river for the past four decades, would be inducted into the Fraser River Hall of Fame later this year.
One of my first recollections of Mike - and this is dating both of us because it goes back more than a quarter-century - is when he bought the Ship of Dreams from Expo '86.
I was struck then, as I still am today, why a local businessman would put up his own cash for a ship - it couldn't sail but had masts and all the other rigging - simply to relocate it to an area park as a recreational amenity/tourist attraction.
He lobbied everyone he could think of to support his idea, even springing for a luncheon to bring all the parties together, as he tried in vain to move the Ship of Dreams to Delta.
I didn't know Mike well and I recall thinking at the time, "What's in it for this guy?" I learned soon enough there wasn't a catch when it came to Mike Owen. He saw an opportunity to make his community a better place and wanted to seize it.
It's a scenario I've seen play out many times in the years that followed.
Back when Mike was president of the Ladner Business Association, I remember how the absence of an area plan had become an almost weekly topic at the group's meetings. After yet another of the gripe sessions, he exasperatedly told fellow members to stop complaining (although I don't think he used that exact word!), slapped a $50 bill on the table and urged them to join him in coming up with the seed money.
It was classic Mike: If you wanted something done, you didn't wait around for others to do it for you.
He's been a driving force in countless community initiatives over the years, so many I couldn't begin to mention them all, but I can tell you that Ladner likely wouldn't have a Millennium Trail that stretches all the way to Deas Island Regional Park without him.
There were many involved with the undertaking, and a big assist has to go to Ron Toigo, but a great deal of the credit for that final link of the trail is directly related to the passion, and connections, of Mike Owen.
He didn't help out in that instance, or in all the others, for the accolades or to see his name in the paper; he does it simply because he realizes it will make the place he calls home a better place for all to live.
That sounds like a hall of famer to me.
