Roger Cattell was honoured by the Leaside Property Owners Association for his leadership and tireless work in creating and executing the “Slow Down” lawn sign campaign. This initiative was wrought out of the painful death of Georgia Walsh in July. At its meeting Tuesday night (November 25, 2014) the LPOA made the unassuming Leaside father an honorary member. Mr. Cattell spoke briefly to the meeting and recalled the late afternoon on which Georgia died. He did not know what had happened but he heard the sirens and knew there was trouble. Nor did he know that a death had occurred at the intersection he expressed concern about to the councillor a few months previously. When his own children got home, he recalled his relief. After the accident there was an overwhelming sense of the need to do something. Mr. Cattell said the sign campaign, which he spearheaded and which has become a sort of city-wide movement, was intended to represent a pledge by each person who planted a sign on his property. “I was asked by a reporter why a sign? A sign changes nothing,” Mr Cattell recalled. “I told him that the sign changes me,” he replied. It was his hope that it changed all those who took a sign and by their example made things better. It was, he said, a promise to ourselves to do better.
