Gary Endicott Receives Award of Distinction From the Canadian Coast Guard.
Transcript of speech by Kathleen Getty, CCG, at SARSCENE, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2012:
I can’t think of no more appropriate venue to deliver this award. I want to thank you for giving me the time, I am very honoured, and it is a pleasure to be here to speak to you about one of our many dedicated volunteers of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, one of them being Mr. Gary Endicott.
Gary is a founding member of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary. His membership number will attest to that. His number is #14. In this Region, we have over 800 members. He started his volunteer career with the Pickering Auxiliary Rescue Association, they tell me, about 40 years ago. What that adds up to is a lot of dedicated volunteer hours to his unit, and to the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary. He worked his way up from being a young man, … started out as a deck hand, worked through the ranks and became a coxswain, then Commodore of Pickering Auxiliary Rescue Association. He moved on to become the regional vice-president for Central & Arctic Region. Eventually in 2008, he was voted in to represent C&A Region of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary as their President.
While he was President, Gary’s strong leadership and steady temperament, his dedication to his members, provided him with the ability to focus his efforts in two very important key initiatives within the Region. It was important to him to focus on membership safety and training standards. To this day, I am proud to say that this Region, C&A, has a very high compliance rate for training in their members.
As President, Gary automatically became a member of the National Coast Guard Auxiliary Board, where he represented C&A Region nationally. He quickly became a relied-upon and respected part of the national organization. He chaired the Uniform Committee, resulting in the new uniform standards and recognition pendants for the auxiliary members across the country. As a regional president, Gary wholeheartedly, open-mindedly, supported his national colleagues in their quest for good governance, and he was highly respected in meetings, and for his good judgment. Overall, Gary was recognized as being an effective board member, achieving the right balance between his regional responsibilities and his national responsibilities.
As president he worked to broaden horizons for the Auxiliary. Regionally, he fostered SAR partnerships with other like-mandated agencies such as US Coast Guard Auxiliary, US Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard. During his tenure, he invited representatives from these agencies to take part in joint training sessions, exercises, and meetings, with the hope that long-standing relationships and rapport would be built amongst the members on both sides. I am thrilled to report that Gary’s foresight and initiative has created a strong and focused bond between many of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary partners throughout the Region, with the continuation of annual joint training sessions between the US GC Auxiliary and Canadian CG Auxiliary, along with invitations to take part in meetings and conferences hosted by other SAR agencies.
It is clear from his long respected Coast Guard Auxiliary career that Gary has been and still is committed to providing the best marine search and rescue in his region and across the country. It is a privilege to serve with him. I would like to present this Award of Distinction on behalf of the Canadian Coast Guard Assistant Commissioner to Mr. Gary Endicott.
