‘MAYOR’ OF THE BEACH
East end community honours longtime volunteer by naming a laneway after him,
The mood was jovial.
With bagpipe music occasionally playing in the background, community members gathered around a laneway near Norwood Park to honour a respected figure who has spent decades helping out those less fortunate. Gene Domagala was the man of the hour.
When he arrived at the laneway renaming ceremony, held on Saturday, the local historian, who has often been dubbed “the Mayor of the Beach,” greeted everyone — locals, politicians, friends, former colleagues and family members — some he said he hasn’t seen in years.
“I didn’t realize there’d be so many people that I know,” said Domagala, talking to Metroland after the ceremony.
“It’s good to see the community came out. I was overwhelmed.”
Community Centre 55 organized the effort to rename the laneway — located parallel of Swanwick Ave. between Enderby and Norwood Rds.— a formal process they initiated last summer and completed about six months after.
The centre’s executive director, Debbie Visconti, said it was an opportunity for them to recognize all the work that Domagala has done and “have something more permanent that people would see.”
“We’re grateful for Gene helping us every day. I hope people realize how much work he does in the community,” Visconti said.
Bob Murdoch, the centre’s former executive director, who has worked with Domagala in a professional capacity for 31 years, echoed the sentiment.
“He is untethered in his desire to assist people. He’s relentless, omnipresent, compassionate, devoted to the welfare of others, never compensated or remunerated for his work and gets his satisfaction from service,” Murdoch wrote.
Another Centre 55 fixture, Nancy Culver, said Domagala taught her a lot about “work ethic and caring for the community.”
“He’s probably one of the most selfless people you will ever meet. He just works almost probably seven days week for the community,” Culver said.
Domagala says he’s grateful for the recognition, thanking everyone he has worked with, including those who “have passed on.”
He hopes people such as the late Glenn Cochrane and Suzanne Beard — two out of the many names he mentioned — will get similar recognition for “doing the same good work.”
The volunteer-extraordinaire said that not everybody in the Beach is a millionaire.
“Everybody helps out each other. This is just the way the city is,” he said.
“Canada is a country of volunteers. I take my hat off to all the people, the volunteers here in the east end, especially, and thank them very, very much.”
As to what’s next, Domagala says he has no plans to “retire” from his volunteering work. “When I’m in my casket — that’s when I’ll slow down,” he joked.