THE BENSON CORNWALL LIONS CLUB SPORTS AWARDS DINNER 2023

The Benson Cornwall Lions Club Annual Sports Awards Dinner returned in May after a 3-year absence. The top award, the Jacques Richard Memorial Trophy for the Top Sports Personality went posthumously to Dave Murphy. Dave had been the Chair of the Awards Dinner and MC for the last 15 years that it ran. These roles were taken over by the present Lions Club President, Bill Swinden, who called Dave the “ultimate goodwill ambassador for Cornwall”. Dave’s best friend and his daughter Julia accepted the trophy, saying that Dave was a larger than life personality who loved Cornwall and made it a better place because of all that he did.

Over 60 awards and $6250 in bursaries and support for local sports were handed out during the evening. The top junior athlete was Rhianon Beckstead, a St. Joseph’s CSS student who is one of the best female high school curlers in Ontario. The Benson “Friends of the Roundtable” Award for Lifetime Achievement went to the Wildcats Football Club President Kirby Camplin for his 17 years of leadership building that successful program. Kirby also handed out, for the first time, the Mike Vierling Memorial Scholarship of $1000 to Xavier Uhr, who also won the Senior Wildcat Award and will be playing football for Mount Allson University in the fall. Mike was a longtime Wildcats coach who unfortunately passed away at the age of 47.

It was a successful evening with a full house of 250 at the Best Western, many highlights during the presentations, and well deserved recognition of our wonderful athletes in the Cornwall area. As host Bill Swinden says, it is an evening to celebrate our young athletes, give them some recognition for their hard work and success in their sports and for most, and evening that they will remember for a lifetime.