Long time community volunteers Laurie and Minnie Meier came to Prince George in 1967. Here is a bird's eye view of their story.
The couple met one another in Princeton, B.C. and eventually moved to Vancouver. They were married in 1955 and together they raised three children; sons Jim and Marvin and daughter Veronica who in turn gave them six grand children and three great grandchildren.
Laurie was working for Williams Machinery in Vancouver and was transferred to Prince George in 1967 to take up the position of branch manager and outside sales representative for his company. Laurie said, "My new job caused me to travel the entire northern part of BC. My sales area covered Prince Rupert, McBride, Cache Creek, Fort Nelson and everything in between. I sure racked up the miles on my company vehicle.
"In 1979 we started a family business - P.G Power Train Parts Ltd. We sold parts as needed to the logging industry and to the forklift industry. We also took on the bobcat skid steer loader line. After ten years we sold the company to Williams Machinery and I went back to work for the company as a sales representative. I retired in 1980 at age 65 after 50 years of steady work.
Minnie is a life member of the Ladies Auxiliary for the Royal Canadian Legion. Minnie says, "I worked for the Woodwards store until it closed. I enjoyed the job and all the people. These days I am concentrating on recovering from a serious car accident in 2013 when a moose totaled our car. After two separate knee replacements life is good and slowly but surely I will be back on both feet again."
Laurie has been an active member of the Elks for the past 26 years and has served as a board member for various non-profit groups around Prince George. He has been a member of the Elks Elastic Band for 27 years.
Laurie explains, "The Elastic Band is currently a group of 14 musicians who all enjoy one another's company and we all give back to our community. We voluntarily play at six senior homes around the city each Tuesday and two Thursdays a month for the months of September right through to April. We take the summer off and then start up again in the fall. We do this for the enjoyment of those shut-ins that are not as lucky as those of us that enjoy good health."
Laurie's crowning glory was when he won the Prince George Snow Golf Championship back in 1978. Laurie says, "A group of guys started the snow golf tournaments back in the late 70's and believe it or not they managed to get a patent on it. Don Prentice from the CJCI radio station promoted it and organized the tournaments.
"When I won the championship I also won a trip to compete in the finals in Ottawa for the World Championship. I didn't win the World Championship but making it to the finals was a real thrill. In fact I even wrote a song about the event and I called it the Snow Golf Song. The event brought a lot of people into town. It was good clean fun with lots of prizes for the best costumes. The whole thing kind of died out somewhere in 1985."
Laurie proudly reflects back and says, "Minnie and I raised our family together, with lots of family camping, fishing and hunting trips. We now have three generations of hunters in our family with a fourth generation great grandson arriving this past April. In fact, one of our grandsons shot his first moose out at one of our three generation hunting camps a couple of years ago.
"We spent many hours at the ballparks where we volunteered while the kids grew up. We have enjoyed our life together for the past 58 years. Prince George is a great city and we have no desire to live anywhere else and we plan to stay in good old P.G!"
