Ed Carew receives well deserved recognition

The Board of Directors is delighted to announce that Ed Carew has been awarded a lifetime membership to the Mississippi Lakes Association.

Lifetime Membership Award presented to Ed Carew on 23 Sep 25 by the MLA Board of Directors

left to right: Lise Boulay, Brian Smith, Rob Bell, Linda Carew, Chris Winter,

Ed Carew, Steve Hall, Margaret Gourlay, Graham Whitelaw

In the early years of the MLA's existence as a corporation, two stalwart members of the MLA were Peter Elliott who was dubbed "Mr. MLA", and Ed Carew who quickly earned the moniker "energizer bunny" for his tireless contributions over a wide range of activities.  Ed has been involved extensively with the MLA for over 25 years.  He assisted Peter in efforts to incorporate the MLA in 2002, and led the transition to the new Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA) in 2014.  He was a Director for 12 years (2000-2011), and served as Vice President for seven of those years (2004-2010). 

Ed was the editor of the Mississippi Belle for 7 years (2008-2014), helping to transform the publication from a black-and-white newsletter to a 52-page colour magazine.  He also contributed several articles on a variety of topics including Loons, Invasive Species, lake water quality, the 2015 Lake Plan, Blue-Green Algae (BGA), and the Mississippi River Water Management Plan (MRWMP).

Ed was one of the 12 Public Advisory Committee members for the MRWMP which came into effect in 2007.  In that capacity, Ed represented the MLA and indeed the entire lake community to ensuring that the Plan met their interests and concerns.  Ed later served as Chair of the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC).

Oscar Beaudoin, Peter Elliott, Ed Carew with the Miss L.A.

Ed was also heavily involved in boat and buoy operations for over 20 years.  He was a big part of Peter's team that manufactured and maintained DIY buoys before the current yellow buoys were introduced in 2014.  He had a big part in the purchase, maintenance, and operation of the first MLA pontoon boat, the Miss L.A.  He continued as the boat operations lead until 2016, and remained part of the boating committee until 2019, thus providing valuable support to the MLA for its long-standing trademark service to the lake community.

Ed and the DIY buoys, 2008

In 2017, Ed and Frank Mills assisted the town of Carleton Place in mapping the river channel bottom, after which Ed was instrumental in facilitating the transfer of Humminbird sonar (fish finder) equipment to the MLA.  Ed then eagerly put the equipment to use on the lake from 2017 to 2019 to develop a more detailed and accurate account of shallows and hazards.  To this day, the MLA uses these maps and the Humminbird equipment to better position the 50+ marker buoys deployed each year.

Ed and the new GDI buoys, 2013

What else?... Oh yes, Ed was the Lake Steward for a number of years until 2007 when Melissa Dakers took over.  He has also coordinated the efforts to declare the ice-out date on the lake for the past 15 years, and has maintained the weekly water level graph since 2007.  In August 2025, Ed requested to be relieved of the water level duties, marking his last remaining active role with the MLA.  However, it is evident that Ed is still very active in spirit.

After all that, the Board of Directors could not simply give Ed a send off with just a big "gee whiz, thank you".  We recognized that Ed's level of dedication and passion for the lake and the community was exceptional and that his length of service is unlikely to be matched anytime soon.  We were therefore most pleased to award Ed a lifetime membership to the MLA, to serve as a small token of our deep appreciation for his contributions these past 25+ years.

Thank you so much for all you've done, Ed.