On April 5th, The Grand Lake Snowmobile Club lost one of it’s Charter Members.  On September 25, 1987, we held our first snowmobile meeting.  Marion Calligan was present. An enthusiastic outdoors woman, Marion enjoyed all sorts of outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, hiking in the woods and picking berries. So, it was no surprise that she was drawn to snowmobiling. Over the past 30 years she has attended many functions involving this sport. Being a widow for many years, she joined her friends and hit the trail! After she married Avon Staples, they used their sleds all winter-whether riding them on the trails or going up lake to icefish. She and Avon were active members and hard worker. Avon helped pack and groom the trails many winters. When a new  trail was built to go passed our clubhouse and take riders into town, Marion donated the gravel. Thus we named it, Marion’s Trail. When the clubhouse opened, Marion had lost her husband, Avon; the club named the kitchen, Staples’ Staples in their honor. Marion rarely missed any meetings and she NEVER missed a day when the clubhouse was open for meals. Even this winter, at age 87, she was there when it opened and stayed until it closed.  She remained very active, attending the Women to Women Club, the GLS Knitting Club, morning exercises and the GLS Historical Society.
​In many years past, she and her family had a camp on Hayes Brook , adjacent to what is now, a section of ITS 84. For several years, we held our first meeting and a pot luck supper at her camp on Calligan’s Point on Big Lake. Marion will be deeply missed. She leaves us with a hole in our membership and in our hearts. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and many, many friends.