Corinne Stewart’s career as a volunteer of our sport began in the Youth Bowling Council at Odeon Bowl in Newmarket, home of Bill and Marg Ingram, in 1965 and covers a span of nearly fifty years.
Born on Valentine’s Day in 1937 in Toronto and grew up in the Danforth and Main area, Corinne was the first child of Campbell and Gladys Stewart. A sister Arlene and brother Warren completed the Stewart family.
While Corinne quit high school and took a job working at Eaton’s and Union Carbide to help support the family, it wasn’t uncommon for friends to gather together on the weekends for a house party. It was at one of these parties where she would meet Pete Maclam and two weeks before her eighteenth birthday, they were married.
By the time Corinne was twenty-three the family consisted of three boys. In 1961 the Maclam family looking to leave Toronto, took up residence in Newmarket, where she remains today. Shortly after this move, they welcomed their daughter Yvonne. At the age of nine Yvonne, with a broken leg, was denied school bus transportation to school. From this decision, Corinne embarked on a new career as a school bus driver. For thirty-six years she drove for Casey’s Transportation and finally Sharp for an additional eleven years, until her retirement last year.
With Pete working shift work, Corinne enrolled the family in the Youth Bowling Council at Odeon Bowl on Davis Drive. The centre was run by Bill and Marg Ingram. While Bill ran the centre, Marg ran the snack bar and was Program Director for the Youth Bowling Council. It was here where Corinne began her volunteering. While the kids bowled in the league, Corinne would help out in the snack bar and eventually did the books for the Bantam and Junior divisions. With the kids bowling on Saturday mornings, Corinne started bowling in an adult league. While the boys stopped bowling when they got to their teens, Corinne continued with her bowling career.
When Newmarket Bowlerama (formerly Odeon Bowl) closed, Corinne continued bowling on the Sunday Night Mixed league at Superbowl where she also held the Treasurers’ position. As a member of the winning team tournament from the Sunday Night league that advanced to the Provincial Championships, Corinne was finally introduced to the York Simcoe Association.
With the move to Stellar Lanes in 1989 and wanting to learn more about York Simcoe, Corinne started attending the monthly meetings of the Association as House Representative along with Irene George. Intrigued with how the Association ran and the behind the scenes activities, Corinne quickly became involved with York Simcoe as their Awards and Kids Help Phone chair. Her husband Pete also got involved in the Association. As a former pin boy at the old Ace Bowl on the Danforth, Pete started bowling with Corinne and joined the S.L.M. Match Play league. As the Lane Certification agent for York Simcoe for eight years, Pete won top honours at the Annual General Meeting in 2001, 2003 and 2006 as the Lane Certification Agent of the Year.
As our Awards Chair for twenty-five years, Corinne did her job better than most. She holds the record as no one person has received more awards in one category than she has. Corinne has received top honours at the Annual General Meeting as the Awards Chair of the Year eleven times. Corinne also received her twenty-five-year award at the Annual General Meeting in 2013.
While Corinne takes her rightful place tonight in the Volunteers’ division of the Hall of Fame, it must be a bitter-sweet feeling. Sadly, Pete passed away on October 1, 2017 after sixty-two years of marriage. While Corinne is still adjusting to the silence in the Maclam home, we are sure he’s looking down with pride, while at the same time sharing a joke or a story with Jack, Betty and Jim and all the good times they had.