聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 The late Steve Boychuk, a former fire chief at Kamsack, was honoured during the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs annual conference and trade show in Prince Albert April 26 to 30.
鈥淲e have an opening 小蓝视频 at every annual conference and trade show and part of that is the Last Alarm Memorial Service, where we take a minute of silence to honour those who have fallen in the past year,鈥� said Shannon Nook, executive director of the Association.
鈥淢embers of the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs Board of Directors are piped in by the bag piper. They place a symbolic helmet, lay the wreath and the president of the SAFC reads the names of the fallen, tolls the bell and calls for a moment of silence while the trumpeter plays Reveille.
鈥淚t is a very significant and emotional service for all in the fire service to remember their fallen comrades.鈥�
Included in the annual report is the following information on Boychuk.
Boychuk, who was born in 1932 and died March 24, 2016, was born on the family farm south of Kamsack to John and Annie Boychuk (nee Hutsul), the information said. While living on the farm, Steve attended McGillivray School and trapped weasels and rabbits. His mother helped skin the animals, and with money from sale of the pelts, she purchased Steve a new pair of oxfords and a .22 rifle, which marked the beginning of a lifelong affair with hunting.
Grades 10 and 11 were completed in Kamsack where he started working part time delivering groceries by sleigh and wagon for Bill and Fred鈥檚 Grocery, the information said. Steve then began working for George Pawluk who owned a watch repair shop where he learned the watch repair trade and babysat George鈥檚 children.
Quitting school after Grade 11, Steve continued to work with George and in 1951 went into partnership with him. Business was slow and Steve left for B.C. with Russ and Ed Freeze, first working in a saw mill then logging for a CNR right of way.
Boychuk and Ed Freeze then worked as prospectors in northern B.C., looking for copper and zinc. In March they were flown into the mountains and returned Hallowe鈥檈n night.
Boychuk returned to the watchmaking business and in 1954 purchased George Pawluk鈥檚 share of the business and Pawluk鈥檚 1948 Mercury car for $1,000.
On October 10, 1958, Boychuk married Sylvia Matechuk and the two continued in the watch repair and jewellery business until their retirement in 1989.
Throughout his life Boychuk was involved in many sports and community groups, it said. He played right field for the Kamsack Cyclones baseball team and his nickname was Spider. He curled and played slo-pitch.
His involvement in community groups included the Elks, Kamsack branch of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation and the Royal Canadian Legion. His biggest passion was hunting and he never missed an opportunity to tell a visitor to the hunting camp that his first hunt up north was in 1949 and he hadn鈥檛 missed a year since, a tradition he carried on for 65 consecutive years.
