November 3, 2005 – Sport Newfoundland and Labrador recently held a banquet at the Mount Pleasant Royal Canadian Legion in St. John’s to celebrate the induction of six new members into the Sports Hall of Fame. On Oct. 22, over 200 dignitaries, past inductees, family members and friends gathered in support of the chosen new members, including Labrador West’s own Alf Parsons.

Over all, Parsons declares the evening was an enjoyable one, and lasted just the right amount of time. Sometimes, he professes, events such as this are dragged out too much and after a while become boring. This one however, managed to hold his attention he says with a smile.

“It was excellent and well organized,” he testifies.

The banquet consisted of a brief power point presentation for each athlete or builder, and then each of them got up to say a few words and accept a plaque and pin.

“I didn’t mind getting up there, it’s not totally new for me, but it’s still not a good feeling. I started talking about when I was growing up back in Point May, and how I got involved in skeet shooting and cross country skiing,” maintains Parsons.

Although Parsons was able to meet Danny Williams and Paul Shelly, and have his picture taken with them, in his eyes, it was more of a privilege to meet an assortment of sports enthusiasts. He was also proud to find he would be invited back each year for the banquets.

The best part of the evening for Parsons however, was having six of his sisters attend the celebration, as well as his wife and son.

“The best part about it for me, was that I didn’t expect my sisters to come until the last minute. At the beginning I figured there might be one or two, but then at the last minute, I had six of them show up. It’s nice in a place like that to have some support. There were two tables reserved for me at the banquet, and it was nice to have them filled.”

Not only did his family join him, but he was also accompanied to the Legion by Gerry Rideout, who is the president of the Menihek Nordic Ski Club and a long-time friend of Parsons. Rideout states Parsons gave a wonderful acceptance speech, and talked about his past and present endeavours.

Rideout goes on to say Parsons continues to volunteer his time to coaching junior golf and cross country skiing, and has just passed his 55th birthday.

This winter, Rideout proclaims Parsons will go to Italy to compete in the World of Masters Cross Country Ski Championships, and he wishes him a lot of luck.