Bench a memorial to the work that Edward Paskaruk put into his community
Clandeboye Fire Chief Edward Paskaruk passed away last year and to honour the hard work that he did in his community a new bench has been placed in Mallard Park in Petersfield.
“He’d been a member of the Fire Hall for over 24 years. He was Fire Chief for six years. He was very community orientated with the fire department. He worked on many floods, many wildfires, grass fires, house fires, and lots of accidents. They used to have an annual Fireman’s Ball . . . They always donated the money (from the ball) to the Children’s Burn Fund at Children’s Hospital, and (the hospital) would buy equipment with the funds that they donated for the burn victims,” said Edward Paskaruk’s wife, Maureen Paskaruk.
As for Paskaruk’s profession, he also worked to make our communities safer having worked for Highways and Transportation for 18 years.
“He worked up on winter roads, managing the winter roads and worked on construction in the summertime, when Highways used to be in the construction business. And then, he transferred to Winnipeg and worked for driver vehicle licensing. And then, he retired from MPI in 2015,” said Maureen.
Paskaruk was as local as they come having been born in Selkirk, growing up in East Selkirk and graduating from the Comp. He and his family later moved to Clandeboye and he was part of the Clandeboye Fire Department.
He got into firefighting because of his profession. Maureen explained that one of his colleagues at Manitoba Highways was already with the department and recruited Paskaruk to the local fire hall.
“And, I guess if you really enjoy something, then he just stuck with it,” said Maureen.
This was after Maureen and Paskaruk met as they were friends in High School, before dating after the pair graduated. They got married and welcomed two sons, Kyle and Kurtis, into their family. They also have two grandsons Reid and Rhett.
Maureen explained that they supported each other and, events like those that the fire department hosted wouldn’t have been able to happen without the support of the firefighters’ spouses, so she helped out with fire department fundraising work.
After Paskaruk’s passing, Maureen learned that there was an effort from the community to put a bench in place in honour of him at Mallard Park. She said that this was very humbling.
She also explained that as a very humble man himself, Paskaruk didn’t love being the centre of attention so he likely would also have been very humbled by the honour of being recognized in this way.
The dedication of the bench took place earlier this summer.
“It was very small. The fire chief was there and presented the framed plaque and it was just nice. He was a hunter and a fisherman, and he did a lot of duck hunting in the Petersfield-Netley Creek Marsh area. So it was pretty fitting. The bench is there facing the water, and there are always ducks and geese,” she said.
