Parkinson community organizer Moes honoured with medal

Queen’s Jubilee award for Strathroy man

STRATHROY, Ontario - The local organizer of the Parkinson’s Support Group who despite his illness became one of the region’s top fundraisers for the Parkinson Foundation, was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal recently. Klaas Moes set up the local group after holding earlier meetings under the auspices of the London organisation.

Now 70, Beilen, Drenthe-born Moes was diagnosed with Parkinson twelve years ago. The Strathroy group organized Parkinson Walks which raised as much as $12,000, a result not lost on Parkinson Society Canada of Toronto. This society credits Moes with developing ‘strong partnerships between healthcare professionals and community organizations’ and increasing ‘volunteerism in the community’ as well as promoting ‘a strong awareness and sensitivity of Parkinson’s’.

Moes who came to Canada with his parents and most of his family in 1954, for over seventeen years sold products for a Dutch Canadian import firm until 1991.