Lions Assists a Thankful Neighbour

The Kingston Whig-Standard

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Wednesday, October 8, 1980 page 27

A comunity assists a thankful neighbor.

By HARRY KILFOYLE Whig Standard Staff Writer

WESTPORT

Edward Bedore has always wanted to build his own home so he could leave a legacy to his son Roger. Despite being crippled by an inoperable cyst on his spine and confined to a wheelchair since 1972, Bedore accomplished his dream Sunday and moved into a new bungalow outside of this village. He did it with a lot of help from his relatives, neighbors, friends and members of the Westport Lions Club. “It also took a lot of guts for my banker to lend me the money.” Weekend bees were organized by Westport and area residents ever since the lot was purchased and the basement poured a year ago. “I am not one for taking help” Bedore admits, “It was something unbelievable. There is not a person in the Westport area that won’t help you out if you are in need.” Just when Bedore had exhausted his home-building funds for this year and thought he reached an impasse, Westport Lions headed by Jack Hearns, chairman of the good and welfare committee, came to his aid. Club members bought insulation and installed it Saturday allowing Bedore his son and housekeeper to move into the uncompleted home. “I couldn’t afford to complete the insulation this year,” Bedore said. He was “quite surprised” when the Lions showed up. He said he knew only about three of the dozen Lions members who did the job in less than an hour. The work bees were first organized on a small scale but grew as more than a dozen Westport area residents donated their time their skills and tools to complete Edward Bedore’s dream. Housekeeper Pearl Burtch hired by the government to look after Bedore also pitched in to drive some nails and saw lumber between her regular household duties. “I kind of supervised,” Bedore says. Along with son Roger, 16, carpenter Mason Wilson and carpenter and plumber Tom Richards, others who assisted were Bedore’s brother, Keith and his sister, Helen Chisamore, Doug and Gerald Burtch, Am and Joe Kirk, nephews Clay and Dale Bedore, Keith Taggart, and Jim Coskery. “When I went into the wheelchair I knew I has to do something for my son Roger,” Bedore says. He and his sister subdivided a four-acre lot located south of the village on the Perth Road and Roger and Helen, a widow, started clearing brush about a year ago. After the basement was completed the work bees were organized for Sundays. Bedore was a guide and caretaker at Burton’s Campgrounds for 17 years. Previously he worked for eight years working on a Great Lakes steamer between St. John, N.B. and the lakehead. “At first I would stagger like I was drunk and then I used canes for five or six years,” Bedore recalls. “I had my last of three spine operations in 1972 and have been confined ever since to a wheelchair with little feeling in my legs or arms.” He has undergone six other operations, including a recent gallstone operation. The fact that Bedore, an active man before his operation, has been in a wheelchair for eight years has not left him bitter. “I’ve had a great life with no regrets.” And the bees organized by his neighbors are just the icing on the cake as far as he is concerned.