Grant Crawford and his wife Lesley moved to Spruce Grove in 1975. Soon the house was full of three energetic young girls and wanting to keep them busy, they looked for activities in the community. Besides Brownies, piano and soccer, the youngest daughter chose ringette and was soon joined by her two sisters.

To help support the girls, Grant volunteered with the Spruce Grove Ringette Association as ice allocator.  In 1989 to ensure that their successful Sweetheart Tournament continued to be held on the third week of February, Grant always booked ice a year in advance. Little did anyone know that would become the Family Day weekend that year and the tournament continues to be the highlight of the local ringette world on this weekend.

From being ice allocator and a team manager, Grant progressed to president of the ringette association. He was also a representative to Zone 5 as a director, and later the Zone 5 representative to Ringette Alberta. This made Grant part of the Ringette Alberta board where he became vice president and eventually acting president. Eventually he became Alberta’s representative to Ringette Canada where he became VP of Administration and was then elected for a two-year term as President of Ringette Canada.

During this time, Grant was also involved in the establishment of soccer teams for girls (until then the girls played on boys’ teams), and he was secretary of the Spruce Grove Soccer Association and a coach. When the FIFA Women’s World Cup had games in Edmonton in 2014 and 2015, he volunteered as a driver.

Grant played a key role in the Canada Winter Games in both 1991 and 1995, as well as the Alberta Winter Games in 2012, supporting in the areas of curling, fencing and ringette.

He also served on the TransAlta Tri Leisure Centre Board for six years and the Spruce Grove Library Board for nine years, including three as board chair.

When Lesley joined the Spruce Grove Rotary Club and Friends of the Library, Grant supported her by volunteering for events with both organizations such as the Grove Rotary Ribfest, Friends of the Library book sales, and helping deliver school lunches for Our Community Pantry.

Grant lengthy and significant volunteer service has truly helped make Spruce Grove the “community of choice”.