Marquis receives national honour

Ken Johnston
Editor

Don Marquis of Rainy River has been recognized for his “Exceptional Community Service” as a teacher.
Marquis does not teach math or english, but instead teaches people how to be safe around trains.
An Operation Lifesaver (OL) instructor for about ten years now, Marquis has travelled all over the area to teach school kids about trains and in particular railway crossing safety.
On October 18, 2002, he and Cynthia Stotz (CN Police, Wpg.), Ron Smith (CNR Gen. Supervisor of Transportation and Prairie Coordinator for OL), Tom Bozyk (CN conductor and Assistant Coordinator OL), Sandy Hamm (CN Assist. to Gen. Mgr.) and Gerald Koopmans (CN conductor and OL presenter), all travelled to Montreal, Quebec to attend an awards banquet honouring outstanding service by CN employees.
There were 58 other awards handed out that evening, some for heroics and others for service. Marquis and company received the CN President’s Award for Excellence for Outstanding Community Service.
“The program is basically a wake up call for all students involving railroads. We focus on vandalism, trespassing, derailments, evacuations, crossings and dangerous commodities,” explained Marquis.
Grade nine is where the most emphasis is placed on crossing safety. “Most crossing accidents happen within 20 km. of home. We show them how to recognize a crossing, where to stop and when to stop,” said Marquis.
Crossings are one of CN’s biggest safety concerns. Marquis said that many people are in a rush and try to beat trains. “Some people don’t look. Most accidents are at controlled (with crossing arms) crossings and happen when people try to beat the train going around the arms.”
While they focus on students, Marquis admits that parents are often the ones that need to be taught about rail safety. OL hopes that through the kids they are reaching the parents. They do send a pamphlet home with every kid for their parents. “If we save one life we have done our job,” said Marquis.
When he first became involved in the program, which is CN Police based, he was just a helper. Eventually he became a presenter and now works hand in hand with Pete Landrew of CN Police in Fort Frances to deliver the program across the area.
In addition to visiting classrooms, Marquis is now teaching the program to teens taking drivers education in Baudette and Fort Frances.
Marquis said he started working with OL for a change of pace. It wasn’t long before he realized how important the program is. “There is a near hit just about every day.”
“I would hang my lantern up tomorrow and do this full time.” However he still runs the rails and does OL in his spare time because, “people need to be educated about railroad safety.”
Those hours of dedication, outside the scope of his regular job, earned him and the other volunteers the award. He hopes that the award will raise the profile of OL in the region and help both students and adults to be more aware that they need to be careful around trains.
In addition to visiting all area schools every two years, Marquis and other OL representatives set up information booths at both Rainy River Railroad Daze and the Emo Fair. He finds that people are very responsive to their information and he hopes that people remember it when encountering trains.