OPP Auxiliary Staff Sergeant Tom Buckley Receives OPP Auxiliary Member of the Year Accolade Award

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Photo: Tom Buckley (center) receives his Award on July 11, 2024, at the Ontario Provincial Police 2023 Accolade Award Ceremony held at OPP General Headquarters (GHQ) in Orillia.
By Joanne Rodgers, Bruce Peninsula Press

Tom Buckley, local community volunteer and resident of Northern Bruce was awarded the OPP Auxiliary Member of the Year Accolade Award. (See OPP Press Release on page 7).  The OPP Award is in recognition of Tom Buckley’s exceptional efforts working as an Auxiliary Member with the OPP.

Buckley has a long-standing relationship with protective services, he worked closely with the RCMP in his job as a Park Warden at Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island. He says the RCMP was his backup and he was their backup as needed. In 1994 he moved to Northern Bruce, and started work at the Bruce Peninsula National Park. In 1995 he became a member of the Grey Bruce OPP Auxiliary Unit, and has continued his work in the Auxiliary through the years. He is currently based out of the OPP Wiarton Office.

Photo right: OPP Auxiliary Staff Sergeant Tom Buckley (left) shows the OPP cruiser and OPP vest to a young attendee at the Tobermory daycare summer camp.

He has worked on countless OPP outreach programs to support school activities, local fairs, food drives etc.  On 24 July he was at the Tobermory Daycare summer camp with the Community Services Officer to show the kids the OPP cruiser and equipment. On August 17, he will be involved in the Food Drive in Wiarton while other Auxiliary members will be at the Food Drive at Peacocks’s Foodland in Tobermory.

As an Auxiliary Member for the OPP, he rides along with an OPP member as a second person in the cruiser, and does patrols alongside uniformed OPP. 

Buckley is certified for ATV and snowmobile patrols and accompanies officers on marine patrols. Buckley is actively involved in assisting with the training of new recruits at the OPP Headquarters in Orillia.

Currently there are ten auxiliary OPP members in Grey Bruce working out of detachments in Meaford, Chatsworth, Markdale and Wiarton. There will be a new class of recruits graduating in August and three new recruits are expected to be assigned to the Grey Bruce Auxiliary Unit.

Both Tom and his wife Cathryn are very community minded and involved in various volunteer activities.  Along with Cathryn, he is very involved in the local Rotary Club.  He is a supervisor for Minor Hockey Referees, as well officiating at hockey games. He organizes the “Stuff the Cruiser Events” which benefit the Tobermory Food Bank. Linda Godhue of the Tobermory Food Bank says that “the Tobermory Food Bank appreciates what Tom does for us, and for other Food Banks as well.”

Buckley describes himself as a “behind the scenes guy” and believes in “getting the job done and supporting the Auxiliary Unit Members.”