Story about a nice old man anyone?

[HEyHEY]

THis is the raw copy. There is a couple typos. THe one that goes in the paper will be better.


After every snow dump in the Crowsnest Pass there is one man seen outside, no matter what the temperature, shovelling away. His name is Stan Pacan, and he routinely shovels the miner’s path in Coleman’s Flumerfelt Park.

After every snowfall for the last five years, Pacan is up early, and after a couple waffles, the 73-year-old puts on his warm clothes and braves the biting cold to shovel the pathway. After the snow is moved, he walks up and down the pathway combating the slippery sections with sand. Pacan said he enjoys the cold mornings spent in the park when silence and fresh snow makes it "beautiful."

The reason Pacan performs his self-appointed task is simple, he wants something to do. For years he was a long haul truck-driver. He said so many years of constant work made him unable to sit around doing nothing.

"I worked hard all my life," he said. "I guess it just stuck with me."

It’s no bother getting up early to start the job, said Pacan. According to him the schedule of a long haul trucker permanently disturbed his sleeping pattern.

"Sleep for eight hours, drive for ten, for months at a time," he said. "It screws up your sleep cycle so much, right now, If I sleep four hours, I’m lucky."

But the despite the insomnia, Pacan said he never gets tired on the job. He enjoys the exercise and credits his health to all the shovelling. Last year Pacan tore ligaments in his arm after being bucked off a horse, he said the work helped heal the injury.

"It’s made my arm better," he said. "Before I couldn’t even lift it, for about eight months."

Until recently Pacan’s equipment was simple, a long handled snow shovel, some trail mix bars in case he got hungry, and a pale for carrying sand. Then, last week something interesting happened to Pacan while he was in the Coleman Drugstore.

"Some guy came in and said, ‘are you Stan?’ I said ‘Yeah that’s what people call me’ and he said ‘you shovel the miner’s path?’ I said ‘Yeah’ and he said ‘I want to talk to you," explained Pacan. "I thought ‘oh jeez what did I do now?’ But it turned out to be one of the guys from the Coleman Lions Club."

The man took Pacan to a Hardware store and bought him a brand new 21-inch snow blower on behalf of the Lions Club. Pacan still didn’t know who the man was.

"I don’t even know who the guy is," said Pacan. "That was the last thing I expected."

Pacan’s mystery man is Coleman Lions club member, Fred MacLeod. MacLeod and another Lions Club member, Wayne Marty, decided it was high time Pacan had a little help from the 20th century.

"He’s done so much for the park by shovelling that path," said MacLeod. "The least we could do was make it a little easier for him."

While Pacan modestly said the path is about three quarters of a mile long, Marty said it’s about twice that.

"Once you add the whole thing up it’s about a mile and a half," said Marty. "Shovelling that’s a lot of work."

Lions Club Secretary Cliff Reiling, said without Pacan the path would be nothing more than a blanket of snow.

"He’s worth his weight in gold," said Reiling. "He’s always willing to be there and help out with the trail, even in the summer time he came out and helped."

Born in Manitoba, Pacan and his wife moved to the CNP seven years ago, the seed for the move was sown many years ago as he drove through town.

"I drove through here in 1973, and I bought a little book called ‘The Majestic Crowsnest Pass’ I read it a couple of times," he said. "We used to live in Ontario and we came here for a trip and never went back."

In the summer Pacan works at a local ranch to keep himself occupied. He repairs fences and other odd jobs. He said he enjoys being active and jokes he can probably "out walk a 40-year-old."

Pacan said all his labour and time spent clear the path is well worth the effort.

"I just like doing it," he said. "It feels good to know people can use the path in the wintertime. When I see them using it, it makes me happy."

[Dookus]

1. Thanks HeyHey

Very nice!

Christ, I'm 42 and I couldn't shovel a mile and a half of trail.

[Raven]

2. Wonderful story! Thanks.

It's all I can do to shovel my own path! :hi:

[Don_G]

3. Great Story

He sounds just like a guy outside of Beverly, Ohio that I grew up with for a few years.

My Dad had to move where the work was and rented a house along the Olive Green Creek. Old Pat knew everything about andthe Muskingeum River, camping, hunting and fishing and about feeding the ten or twenty cats on his SSI check in the early '60's.

He was always "one of those guys" that had a full life and needed to remain active while helping out others.

I miss him.

[Melsky]

4. That's cool

I bet all that exersize keeps him young.