Boathouse in Niagara Falls named after Maltese

Rafters finding themselves in difficulty in Niagara River and who are invariably saved by St John Ambulance there owe a great deal to a Maltese who has devoted much of his time since his retirement to the building up of the rescue operations in Niagara Falls.

He is Vince Audibert, now 70, who has now been living in Niagara Falls since 1951. There is even a boathouse named after him. But how did he get involved in the work of St John Ambulance?

Only recently, he told the Niagara Falls Review: "I had always wanted to be active in the community and I had always been interested in St John but when I was in my store and teaching I was working 12-hour days, so it was difficult to become involved."

In addition to running an upscale men's clothing store, he spent 28 years as an instructor at Niagara College where he taught retail management and marketing.

The building of the boathouse was one of his biggest projects. "I approached the Chippawa Volunteer Fire Department with the project and they have many skilled people. We bought the material and they built the boathouse for us, something that would not have been possible otherwise."

When the newspaper asked him how he felt when he discovered that the new boathouse station was named after him, he said: "It came as a big surprise to me. I did this from my heart, just to help the community. Sure, you may be the leader of the orchestra but there are a lot of musicians that bring on the concert".

After the boathouse opened, they then launched a fund-raising campaign to replace the aluminium fishing boat the patrol members use. It was not suitable for rescues.

The first serious rescue this season was of a man who had decided to go for a paddle in a raft he had made. Soon enough he was drifting downstream towards Niagara Falls. The water patrol was in the middle of a training course at the time but they raced to the river to save the man and his dog.