Franz Aschwanden is a longtime member of both the Bradford West Gwillimbury Local History Association and the Tecumseth & West Gwillimbury Historical Society.
“The two societies are complementary. I just do nothing in both,” Aschwanden says.
It’s an example of the self-deprecating humour that has made him a valued member of both groups.
In fact, Aschwanden’s contributions are many, and he is a founding member of the Tecumseth & West Gwillimbury Historical Society, attending the very first meeting held in a basement, “and I’m stuck since then.”
Aschwanden came to Canada from Switzerland as a machine fitter, with a specialized understanding of pneumatic and electrical systems, and a job that involved finding solutions to mechanical problems – skill sets that have sparked a passion for what he calls “engineering archaeology.”
He collects, preserves, restores and repurposes machinery.
“Some people have a knack for stray dogs. They don’t want to see them put down,” Aschwanden said.
That’s the way he feels about the machinery he collects. For the past 46 years he has been salvaging equipment – “anything mechanical or so that has developed over the years” – often taking it apart, and transforming it into something else, sometimes for use in his volunteering.
Like the set-up he created to take photos of historic materials for the Tecumseth & West Gwillimbury Historical Society’s various publications, or his use of a hand drill, lamp and automatic pot stirrer, to jerry-rig a device for taking panoramic shots.
At the Bradford West Gwillimbury Local History Association, Aschwanden is the “go-to” person for technical issues. His slide shows are legendary, and he's also the organizer of the annual Mystery Bus Tour in June, exploring aspects of local history.
“I have an interest in history,” he said in understatement fashion.
Through it all, he has been assisted by wife, Sabine, who has taken on the ‘hospitality’ aspect of the Bradford West Gwillimbury Local History Association meetings, providing the refreshments.
The couple’s volunteer efforts are not limited to the historical. For years, Franz and Sabine volunteered with El Sembrador, an organization that provided fellowship and support for Spanish-speaking guest farm workers, who came to work in the Holland Marsh.
Back from a Cuban holiday one year, they spotted a notice: El Sembrador was looking for people who could help fix up old bicycles, to provide the workers with some form of transportation while they were in Canada.
Aschwanden began collecting the unsold and often unusable bicycles left at the end of the annual police auction – transforming the parts from a dozen or so broken bikes into six working bicycles.
Sabine, a trained dietitian in Europe, worked in the kitchen on the hospitality end. Both found the work satisfying, over the five or six years that they were active with the group.
“I could go out on my bicycle, and people would wave out in the fields,” Franz said. They also welcomed a group of workers to dinner in their home – the first time the Mexican workers had been invited inside a Canadian home.
But El Sembrador has scaled back – there are fewer workers from Mexico, most employers now provide bus or car transportation, and better bicycles have been made available to the guest workers. So, more recently, the couple has volunteered with the Bradford Community Meal, a weekly free dinner held at Bradford United Church.
Sabine is a regular in the kitchen, helping out on a regular rotation; Franz generally comes out “once or twice” to set up the tables, “and then I disappear.”
Ditto with Camp Quality, a summer camp that lets kids undergoing cancer treatment just be kids. It is Sabine who has been a regular volunteer at the camp for more than eight years, working with the children. Franz, when he comes out, is happy to be put to work – even if it's cleaning the toilets.
“Certain things have to be done,” he says. “You’re quite merely rewarded by making friends, by being involved.”
“I was always looking for something to go out and meet people,” said Sabine, who has also been a volunteer with New Path Child and Family Services. “Volunteering keeps you young. You do something for other people.”
It’s something that is ingrained for both. “Franz was always this way,” said Sabine. “My mother did it too, until she was 85.”
She added, “I do enjoy it. You have something positive to do for the community.”
