Jones family moving to Winnipeg

After living here for a little over 10 years, Mark and Miriam Jones and their children will be moving back to Winnipeg come the end of the school year.
Mark Jones, most recently a financial planner at Holmlund Financial Services here, has accepted a job with Vantis Credit Union in Winnipeg and now is providing his services for eight branches of the bank there.
While he started the job Jan. 8, his wife, Miriam, son, Derek and daughter, Erika will remain here until the summer, as Derek wraps up his Grade 12 year at Fort High while Erika graduates from Grade 8 at St. Francis.
“Mark and I are both from Winnipeg, we have a lot of family there,” noted Miriam Jones, adding Derek already has been accepted to attend the University of Manitoba this fall, where he plans to enroll in the education program there.
“Deciding to move back was a tough decision. Every place we’ve moved to over the years, we’ve made our home. We’ll miss Fort Frances,” she noted.
“We have covered a lot of ground over the years,” echoed Mark Jones yesterday from Winnipeg, where he’s staying with his wife’s parents.
“But Miriam cried every time we moved to a place, and every time we had to move away from a place.”
The couple moved here from Saskatoon, Sask. in 1993, when he was transferred through the TD Bank, whom he was working for at the time. Before that, they had lived in Dauphin and Thompson, Man. while working for the TD.
He later went to work as a financial advisor at Holmlund’s while his wife worked at several local businesses over the years, including Garton’s, Northwoods Gallery and Gifts, and Mary’s Little Lambs.
“I’m going to miss walking down the street and always bumping into someone I know. I think I’ve become a small-town person at heart,” said Jones, adding he also misses his clients he was used to dealing with at Holmlund’s.
“Mark and I have both been involved in the community over the past 10 years, whether it was through the [children’s] schools, Kiwanis, or otherwise,” noted Miriam.
Outside of his job, Mark Jones perhaps is best known for his work with Kiwanis, serving as president in 2002-03.
But he also was a Scout leader and a separate school board trustee, and most recently contributed hours and hours of work to the skate park project spearheaded by fellow Kiwanian Steve Maki, whom Jones called the “visionary” behind the endeavour.
After putting so much time and effort into the project, Jones said he’d love to see the skate park finally become a reality this year.
“I think it’s much-needed by the town,” he remarked. “I did a lot of work for it, and I hope someone will take my files and make use of them.
“I understand the bricks are being sold now. I think that’s going to raise a lot of money,” he added. “I think Fort Frances will step forward once again.
“If there’s one thing I learned over the past 10 years, the people of Fort Frances are a giving people.
“I’ll always be amazed by that.”