WHITDY FREE PRESe, WEDNESDAV, NOYEMBER 26, 1996, PAGE 27 Little wants to preserve the 'town' in Whitby* by MAURICE PWFIER jA condo takes form across the street and in front of bis own office building, tbe former geard bouse, interlovkine bricks are being laid for a walkway. 'Pardon the Sdisruption' says the slgn on tbe door to the office inl tbat refurbished old borne, one of four now lined on hM St. just west of Brock St. In bis office, not mlndlng tbat dlsruptlon one bit, ls Willam Little, Whltby marketer and motivator. "We've pilanted the iseed, " be says of heritage preservation in Wbltby's 'downtown core, includlng bis owo Pearson Lanes boutique development ln tbose four former bomnes. "Now we've got to tend It. Tbis isn't a garden that grows in one year. It's more like a tree. 1 As one who bas always bad "litchy feet," lie leans forward wbile pecbed on the edge of bis chair, or occasionaily rises to glance tbrough the window at the work going on outside, He fields numerous telephone cails, in an easy, emicable, "Get back to ya' later' style. Tbe oeils punctuate the usual 14-bour work day of the former Oshawa General hockey player, former saiesman, former realtor and now, marketer and j community booster. l"Vie bave to maintain ~the nterest, " Little says of heritage effort, noting that tbe conversion of Byron St. townhouses b1elped to provide the "kick start. " In fact, lie predicts Wbitby will be fantastic"l ýommunlty î"five to 10 years. It's one reason wby h( Lset up shop bere a fem years ago, relocatini from Oshawa. He wak encouraged by Mayoi Bob Attersley'E promotion~ of the towi and esicouraged by talk of control growtb. iben be woke up one Saturday mrigand declded to try and save two bornes on Byron St. slated for demolition, be, in turn, got support from coundil members. He.sald, they "sort o. took a bit of a chance' when tbey supported bis plans to convert tbem. Tbat Saturday morning inspiration was at first just to move the bouses and converi them into offices. But after visits to Markbani and Unlonvile, lie decided boutiques, to offer "individual, personal service type stores," were the answer. "Vie want to replica as mucli as we can," believes Little. "My idea was just to keep the bail rolling," after the Byron St. townhouse conversion. 'II don't thlnk there's a place in Canada that bas more potential than Witby. There's none of that "Where's my town?" bere. I think tbat's what Witby bas to preserve. It's a good place for kids to groW up and feel tbèy belong.." He brought a littie of that "town feeling" witb bim when bis hockey career led im soutb. He was born in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) but grew up in Terrace Bay, a pulp and palper town 130 miles east of Thunder Bay. His father, John Pearson Little, bad the first retail food store in Terrace Bay, also the bometown of former e w ig 's r ps le e BILL LITTLE of Marketing & Motivation Ltd. ln Witby believes it's important to maintain a town's link With the past and that's part of the reason bebind bis decision to use old homes in bis development, known as the Pearson Oshawa arena for the 1964-65 season (the team lied been playing out of Bowmanville) Little, now 18, scored 40 goals, second ln team scoring bebind Vail. Tird in scoring that season was Bobby Orr, a 16-year-old who attracted a lot of media attention. Orr would help'carry the team to the Memorial Cup finaels bofore an injury sidelined bim and bis team's chances at a Canadien championship. with," lie seys. In those three years, lie went from selesmen to 49 per cent shareholder. Sales went up la those three years, helped by putting company phone numbors in other communities and by a slogan lie made up using the acronym of ýthe company name, CORE: "Serving the CORE of Southera Ontario." 1He describes it as bis first "pusli" into marketing and motivation. He then joined a "There 's none of that 'JVhere s my town?' !here" Lanes project. NHL'er Ron Schock and current ' Boston Bruin Charlie Simmer, whose father was a policeman there. The Pearson family name lias been lianded down from generation to generation, and bis brother Jackson Pearson Little now camres thet name. But William Little decided to carry tradition a bit furtber when lie nemed bis development on Mary St. "Pearson Lanes." Little honed bis hockey skflls as a boy in Terrace Bay. "Viben I was peewee, 1 played bothi bantam and midget," lie recals. At 14, smal l stature yet aggressive, lie was the top rookie scorer among the 18, 19 and 20-, year-olds of the Port Arthur North Stars during the 1961-62 season. If I was big, I'd have been called rough. But I was small s0 I was called chippy. It was a matter of survival," lie says. H1e joined the Oshiawa Generals next season, playing ln the six-team Metro Junior A league, wbicb included the Wbltby'Dunlops. He became a member -of the team 's top scoring lise, witli Terry Vail, wbo nowi operates Durham- Racquet and Sports on Rossland Rd., and George Vail, now an Oshawa fireman. In the 196364 season, wben Osbawa rejoined the Ontario Hockey League, Litte and Terry Vail were the team's top point-getters. The Toronto Manlies won the Memorial Cup that season, with players sucli as Gary, Dineen, Wayne Carleton, Mike Vialton and Pete Stemkowski. "They were big, I mean, they were really bigi" 1 says Little of that Manlies team. Back la the new competing compaay, Suntract of Toronto, as general manager. After three years,,lie again got '"itcliyfeet" end decided te go into real estate. 11e sold cottages'on- Scugog Island la the Port Perry area for a year. 'I was having a heyday," lie says, since council at that time '"closed its eyes" te fu- time residents living in seasonal dwellings. Later coundil made them permanent. Port Perry is wliere lie met Carol, now bis wif e. As supporter and promoter of special events, Little's friends told liim lie ouglit te be in the advertising business. He also decided to give up real estate and try marketing. "Tliere was a fair amount of skeptlcism then," lie admits of his 1981 decision, ..made witbout having any "H1e was sucli an extreme talent," Little says of Orr. "H1e elways played for the team, not for bimself. You bad to pull for him,"' Little was traded, for two rookies, to Niagara FeUs the next season, bis final la hockey. But by then lielied been working for e construction firin for a few years, liaving earlier quit higli scbool, At 20, lie got a job with Ron Deeth et Mel-Ron Construction, lis 1"first contact with Witby," where lie stayed for three years. . e was a direetor for the Wbitby Jaycees and was involved in the organization of the town's carnivals la the late 60's. la 1971, lie beceme a salesman with County of Ontario Rentai Equipment, ini Pickering: "It rented equipment te construction.- companies wbli I 1was acquainted apprenticeshlp beind hlm. "I just sort of started out of the trunk of mycar. " He got a job the first week, bowever, obt.ained tbe services of a graphlc artist, Ron Lambert of Toronto, and later set up an office ln Osbawa. Marketing & Motivation Ltd. ('«I wanted a name that people would wonder what it is") grew rapidly and lie moved to Wbltby about a year and a half later. His clients now include 'beavy equipment, food and communications corn- panies as weil as a furrier. Little cornes up with the appropriate catchi-phirases or slogans, brochures or catalogues, to get the message across for bis clients. He lauglis when lie relates an advertising gimmick:lie once heard long ago, but which was neyer used: a poster showing little else but pork and beans, and the company's inscription, "They're our beans." At the very bottom of the poster would be tiny labels of the bean products of competing companies, along witb the small inscription, "'They're has-beans." He describes bis job as bis "joy" an 'd admits lie could neyer vacation anywhere in one place for two wéeks, simply because 11 can't sit still." Rather, lie prefers to balance bis office time with the physical work of building or renovating homes. He bas built or renovated 12 homes in recent years. And if lie does relax completely, it is on bis rural property forth of Whitby. He is a United Way supporter, and as 1983 .special events cheirman, organized a reunion of bis former Oshawa Generals teammates, wbicb raised $23,000. H1e holds a golf tourney for bis clients each year, to raise funds for the Special Olympics and is chairman of the Durham Tux-Ego dinner, to be held in the spring, to raise funds for the ADHOD services for the mentally bandicapped. He sponsored Joe Gati of Oshawa who competed in the Ironman triathlon worldf championship in Hawaii in October, raising $1,200 for the Special Olympics. He aIso organized sponsorship of Whitby's Glenn Beaucbamp te participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics in LosAngeles, in judo. 11 almost like my day to be constantly full," says Little, wbo is also on the publicity committee of the Durham Region Manufacturers' Associ- ation (DRMA) which recently held its first annual meeting. He' admits lie lilces pressure, and responds best immediately*before J lnvolved when a day bas fbeen "too" planned. He now hopes that the period of "hordes and hordes of talk" about beritage preservation will be followed -by actual heritage effort. "There's nothlng to hold onto the past anymore," lie laments of many areas, adding that many new buildings have no 44character" and are constructed oly accordlng to "lHow cbeap can I put it up for?" He explains how the Byron St. homes lie acquired, from the Sorichetti brothers for notbing but the cost of movlng tliem, wlll 'be part of bis grand plan. He was unable toget'a mover to relocate th 'e bouses 'since local moving companies were occupied with the Park Rd. overpass lin Oshawa. But Little got together some acqualatances- *la *the businesses of auto wrecking, towing and masonry and -tbey pooled their talents. Tbey pulled off Little's idea to turn a bouse arudby sliding on sheet metal plates and grease, to get it into a pull position. He aiso made good on a promise not to disturb Fred Ward's garden when ail the moving wes taking place. He's going < to<ý interconnect the bornes by a lengtliy "front porcli" that wiil join the buildings. Meanwhile, access for the handicapped wrnl be provided at the Byron St. Side. He says there are many people coming to Wbitby who want $160,000 homes and many wbo have them- already. They may want that "personal service" and Little says bis establishment and others in the downtQwn area provide just that, as the beart of the town. "Vibere is the cultural heart of Scarborougli?" he says of a commu nity lie feels bas no core. That beart provides an important attacliment for residents, says 'the smail-town boy. Ne' compares bis 80-year- old homes and other older buildings with many newer buildings, and predicts that the older "will be around for a lot longer. " Sunnycrest gets 3-year accreditati*on Sunnycrest Nursing Homes Ltd. in Wbitby bas recently been awar- ded three-year ac- creditation status by the Canadian Council on Hospital Accreditation. The accreditation is the higbest possible recognition wbich can be received by a health care facility. ia June, tfwo sucr- WHO IS IT? The negative for the above photo w as found ln the former Harrison house at 203 Byron St. N., the bouse bavlng recently been moved to Mary St. as part of the Pearson Lanes development. The Harrison, Bryans, Ann Jeffrey, Forestails and finelly Butts ivèd lu the home since it wes built lu 1912.