Point of Light Shines on years of service
Cormier receives lifetime achievement award for his volunteer work
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Staff Reporter

Denis Cormier

Denis Cormier was simply saying yes to a friend who asked him to help when he took over as scoutmaster for the South Ashburnham Boy Scout Troop in 1961.

The then-25-year-old man told Fred Sweeney of course he'd help with the troop he'd been part of as a boy. Sweeney gave Cormier the uniform with the scoutmaster's badge on it.

"I said, 'Great, I don't have to buy the uniform. All I have do is change the patch,' " Cormier recalls.

Sweeney apparently responded, " 'No, you don't.' "

Cormier ran the troop for four years before it dissolved. At that point he got involved in town politics and waited until 1980 to regain his role as scoutmaster, this time for Ashburnham Troop 18.

"I think it's such an achievement when the kid makes Eagle Scout," Cormier said on why he stays involved. "It opens so many doors for him for the rest of his life."

Now the 70-year-old Ashburnham resident is preparing to receive the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Service Alliance. The alliance, founded in 1991, gives out the Governor's Points of of Light Awards, the highest honor in the state given to a volunteer.

This year the awards are being given to seven people in a variety of categories.

The organization received more than 80 nominations, screened and ranked three times by the judging committee, said Pauline C. Jeong, director of marketing and communication for the alliance. "He has been volunteering in one capacity or another for the last 50 years," Jeong said of Cormier. "So much of his time and finances have gone to the causes."

The organization used to honor a volunteer a month, but this year it decided to start annual awards instead.

"We have never given out a lifetime achievement award and he is the first winner," Jeong said.

The applicants were judged on their ability to serve a need in the community, innovation in solving a problem, and the positive impact or change the work has had on the community. Jeong said it is amazing how much Cormier is willing to give to a cause that isn't his family or himself.

He has not only shown commitment to the Boy Scout organization but also to the larger community with his military service and work in town politics, as well as his individual efforts to make care packages for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and for military servicemen stationed overseas.

"I feel pretty flattered," Cormier said of the award.

The formal presentation will be Tuesday, November 14 at the Massachusetts Statehouse during a formal gala hosted by Governor Mitt Romney and his wife.

Cormier found out about the award on October 16 when he received a call from the governor's office. It was not the way his son Brian, who nominated Cormier, hoped his father would find out.

Cormier was visiting Brian in Milford on October 17, the day the winners were made public, and Brian said he kept checking the Web site so he could tell his dad. Then Cormier asked if Brian had plans for November 14, and invited him to the gala.

"They'd called him the day before and let him know. I wanted to surprise him," Brian said.

The nomination could only be 500 words, so we had to figure out how to condense what he's done, Brian said.

"Probably all of my adult life I have felt that life is a gift and that you receive more than you give and that you can never give enough," Cormier said.

Over the years, in addition to the Boy Scouts of America, Cormier has worked with the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's organization that works to support the church, the pope and the pro-life movement.

He also has been involved in every political campaign since 1964, working for the local Democratic party.

The Ashburnham native served five years on the planning board and five years on the advisory board. He said he ran for the Ashburnham Municipal Light Board but was defeated because he didn't support the proposed nuclear power plant in Seabrook.

Cormier retired from the phone company 11 years ago.

"It was interfering with my volunteer work so I had to take an early retirement," he said.

Cormier now devotes his time volunteering at the two

local camps in the upkeep of their facilities, and he has

attended five national jamborees and five world jamborees.

"I'm all set to go next year to go to England for their world jamboree to celebrate the 100th anniversary of scouting in the world," he said.

- + - Caitlyn Kelleher can be reached at (978) 827-3386, ext. 15, or e-mail: editor@thecommunityjournal.com