Fairview leadership caps a life of service [Fairview Mennonite Home]

When Fairview Mennonite Home residents moved to the new building here on September 1, Elmer Shantz stayed on the sidelines. He had concluded his nine years on the board in June and intends to "walk away, so that I don't hamper the work of people who follow."

Shantz was a key figure in stick-handling negotiations for the new long-term care residence through formidable obstacles. He recalled in a recent interview that the feasibility study was tabled at his first meeting as a board member. The project appeared to be "in slow motion."

By the end of the year, Shantz was named board chair and went to work to secure funding for the project. It took almost a decade of work.

"I don't like all the hoops you need to go through [with governments]," he said, but he persisted. His mother was a resident at Fairview and visiting her gave him an inside view of the need for a new building.

"I'm happy for the residents and future residents," he said after a tour of the new facility at the end of August.

The Fairview board is only one of Shantz's volunteer contributions. Service at his church, Stirling Avenue Mennonite in Kitchener, included chairing church council and managing a $700,000 building project.

He helped to found Habitat for Humanity's Waterloo Region affiliate in 1988. During eight years on the building committee, he worked on almost all of the region's 22 building projects, as well as leading projects in Georgia, South Dakota, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.

Shantz's building expertise derives from 19 years in construction, a job he left in 1971 to build his own business, Shantz Coach Lines Ltd. The bus business actually began in 1958 when his eldest son, Robert, started school. Negotiations with the school board resulted in the family purchasing a station wagon in which Elmer's wife, Eileen, transported Robert and neighbourhood children to school. Soon she was making three trips twice a day.

They put their first school bus on the road in 1966 and by 1970, they were operating 13 routes. Eileen did most of the business from their home, catching up with Elmer by phone on construction sites. After a fierce blizzard created chaos for the buses and Eileen couldn't reach Elmer, they decided he should devote full time to the bus business.

When Elmer retired in 1993, the company had 150 bus routes, 118 vehicles and 140 employees. He is still president, but sons Robert and Larry run the business. The company's hallmark is providing transportation for special education students with 60 vehicles, 20 of them equipped to accommodate wheel chairs.

They also began giving kindergarten children and their parents a bus ride to school in late summer to ease the trauma of going to school for the first time. The program has spread across Ontario.

A successful business has allowed the Shantz family to give generously to their church and community, both financially and by supplying buses for Conrad Grebel College and Rockway Mennonite Collegiate trips, and for numerous charities.

Shantz said people donated funds to pay for the churches he built and tax dollars paid for the school bus service he provided. "Now it's time for me to give back."

What's next for Elmer, with the Fairview work completed?

"I don't make a lot of plans ahead," said Elmer, "but I want to be selective in the future and do things that include Eileen who has been very supportive."

The next couple of hours, however, would be devoted to a golf game with his grandsons.