Greetings members of AOTS Consecon Carrying Place:

Today you celebrate 50 years of your club’s existence. Congratulations on this wonderful achievement. There are among you some who have taken that entire journey. Please extend best wishes to your four charter members: Gerald Batchelor, Russell Forsythe, Ross Goodmurphy and Gordon Lloyd. These elders and all are honoured tonight. Well done.

Your club has seen many changes since 1960. You were born in the age of: Mike vs Dief, a time of Kennedy, Castro and the Bay of Pigs; and later the Beatles, Vietnam, Trudeaumania, birth control and the sexual revolution; the flag and de Gaulle’s Vive Le Quebec Libre.

You have seen many things including the development of our health care system; Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment and the end of apartheid; the closing of residential schools and apologies to survivors; the advent of the internet; and the challenge of globalization, climate change and 9/11.

And throughout that time you have been an AOTS club devoted to the concept of servant leadership and the teachings of the one we call Christ, Jesus. 

Carrying Place United Church

You have sent youth to camp, built cabins at Quin-Mo-Lac for them to sleep in, dispensed bursaries to deserving students, organized strawberry socials, pancake dinners and auctions to raise money for various worthy causes. Well done Consecon Carrying Place. Thank you for your work.

While Christian fellowship and service has always been an important characteristic of AOTS, that spirit of service and reaching out is needed now more than ever. Congratulations and best wishes for the years ahead, as you continue the work of making a real difference for people by being among them as one that serves.

Thank you

Jim McKibbin