By Rizwana Shaikh, Federation of Calgary Communities
We’re happy to congratulate Mark Langlois and his family for their 35 years of volunteer service with the Falconridge/Castleridge Community Association and the honour of having Langlois Hall renamed after them on May 13, 2017.
Anthony, James, Lois, Mark and Marianne Langlois celebrated the reveal of the newly-named hall.
The Langlois family moved into Castleridge in 1981 and have lived in the community ever since. Mark and his wife Lois have both been on the community association’s board of directors many times over the past 35 years, with Mark serving as president twice, and Lois twice serving as treasurer.
“It’s (always) been about our community,” said Mark.
Lee Pederson, general manager of the community association at the time, said their bigger community hall is named after the late Denis Walsh, a founding member of the community association. It made sense to name the smaller one after Mark, since he joined the association a short time after Denis, and has offered his volunteer service for decades.
“If you’re going to name it after a person, it should be (Mark) and his family,” says Pederson.
The new name for the hall was revealed at the community’s annual volunteer appreciation banquet, where Mark’s son, Anthony, had a presentation for the crowd about his father’s service to the community. Mark was also the one who organized the event, ensuring there was enough food for all guests and everything went smoothly. Some guests who attended included Ward 10 Coun. Ray Jones, MP Darshan Kang, and MLA Irfan Sabir.
Mark recalls spending that May 2017 day busy with the organization of the event and feeling “weird” and “honoured” at the same time, about the hall’s new name.
“It took a little while to really sink in,” said Mark.
Lois says their children weren’t surprised to learn that the hall would be named after their father knowing how much has put into the community. They now feel proud walking by the hall and seeing their name up on the wall.
Currently, Mark is the president of the community association for the third time. He also retired from his day job on April 13, to dedicate more of his time towards his role as president.
*Photo Provided by Mark Langois*
