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Arctic Bay mayor gets Jubilee surprise Medal recipient Frank May was born the year Elizabeth became Queen
Casey Lessard Northern News Services Published Wednesday, April 11, 2012
May asked Commissioner Edna Elias in September to be the reviewing officer for the annual cadet review, and Elias used the occasion to present 15 Commissioner's Awards. She also brought one Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, a surprise for May. "My understanding was the commissioner was just going to be explaining what the Diamond Jubilee was about," May said, noting the nomination for another woman in Arctic Bay had not been submitted in time. "I was worrying about what comes next on the calendar of events, which is God Save the Queen. I actually went over to the fellow running the music, Capt. Graham Burton, to remind him that God Save the Queen was coming up, and I didn't realize at the time that he was the one holding the certificate." May was honoured for his commitment to the community, and especially for his work helping youth as the commanding officer of the Arctic Bay Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps. He started helping when his now-adult daughter turned 12 and wanted to join. "I find it to be a very worthwhile program, especially for kids in the North," he said. "It gives them a real chance to get out and meet other people from all across Canada. It's a real eye-opener for some of them and that's why I stick with it." It's apparent that the program is designed for southerners, he said, and the corps has to customize the training to the region. "In the second year, there's a fairly extensive lesson on identifying trees," he said. "That kind of thing you skip over or change to something else that's suitable for up here. When we do the camping stuff, it has to be totally changed. In the south, you're learning how to tie pup tents up to trees and that doesn't work up here. In the south, they have great problems if anyone brings a gun on a camping trip, whereas up here, parents wouldn't let their kids go unless you had a gun." May wonders if the Diamond Jubilee Medal, which marks the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne, was given to him because he was born the year of her ascension. He's had to wait 60 years and put in a lot of effort to receive a royal gift, something one of his childhood friends was able to do by luck. "(Elizabeth) became Queen in February 1952, but it wasn't until the next summer that the coronation occurred," he explained. "If you were born in the Commonwealth on the day of the coronation, you got a silver spoon sent to you. When I was a kid in school, one of my buddies, a year younger, his parents received one of them." The award may bring more attention to the cadet corps in Arctic Bay at a time when a succession plan is needed. He hopes one is in place before the military forces him out because of his age. "I keep telling people that somebody's got to take over," he said. "I have a couple local Inuit people who are signed on, and I'm hoping if they stay in town, they'll pick it up." For now, he's still wrapping his head around the Commissioner's visit and recognition. "It was a surprise, and everybody knew about it except me and I was the one organizing the party," he said.
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