BY JENNIFER McDOWELL
There are people in the town of Candia who will tell you that Bob Martel is one of the hardest-working, community-oriented people they have ever known.
Martel will be the first person to remind you he’s one of many in the town.
“There are a lot of other people in town who do just as much work as I do, and they deserve pats on the back too,” Martel said.
The town’s Boy Scout Scoutmaster and the volunteer fire department’s new lieutenant, Martel knows a lot about what it means to give back to the community. According to him, his wife also knows a lot about it.
“I have a very understanding wife,” Martel said, adding that without her support he would not be able to serve the community as he does.
He moved with wife, Lisa, and son, Jaymin, to Candia from Manchester, where he lived his whole life, in 1998. He bought 74 acres on High Street after selling some apartments he had owned in Manchester. “I wanted land and a good school system, and I got it here in Candia,” Martel said.
Jaymin, now 15, became involved in Cub Scouts shortly after the move. After a year, the Cubmaster decided not to continue with the program. Martel instantly stepped up, having been a Life Scout himself as a kid. Life Scout is one step below Eagle Scout.
Stepping up with him as Assistant Cubmaster was Jim Hawes, who worked with Martel for three and a half years before Martel moved up to Boy Scouts.
Hawes said Martel completely revitalized the interest in Cub and Boy Scouts in the town, an aspect of the community that had been on a rapid decline in years past. “He is tireless in his efforts to make Boy Scouts better,” Hawes said. “He’s probably the hardest-working individual you will ever meet in your life.”
During the same year, Martel signed on with Candia’s volunteer fire department after making a donation and attending a meeting of the department’s members. He carries a scanner everywhere he goes, ready to jump into action at any time.
Martel moved through the ranks in both endeavors, eventually becoming the town’s Scout Master and secretary of Candia’s Volunteer Firefighter Association.
Not one to gloat, Martel modestly attributes his giving nature to the support of others in the community. There were a number of parents in the community who helped him with his Scout leadership, he said.
“I cannot say enough about the parental involvement. The pack is very strong now,” he said of his Scouts and their families.
Martel works at Jeff Canter’s Car World in town, and has for 15 years. When he decided to take on all of this volunteer work, Canter was instrumental in supporting his efforts, according to Martel.
“He’s the most generous employer I ever knew,” Martel said, adding that Canter allows him to stay punched in at work if he gets called out for a fire emergency.
Canter also makes donations to Troop 120, the Boy Scout group Martel oversees, and to the volunteer fire department. Martel said that Canter donated money to buy a trailer for the troop. Each year, he said, Canter also donates cars to be used in the fire department’s extrication courses.
One of the values taught in the Boy Scout program is responsibility, and Martel tries to instill that in his Scouts by encouraging them to fundraise on their own so they can earn their way onto hiking and camping expeditions and other trips throughout the year.
For example, each spring Troop 120 delivers the Town Report to 1,700 homes in Candia. They ask local businesses to pay $75 to place an ad in the packaging with the Town Report. Martel said the troop makes about $2,000 each year from that.
In fact, Troop 120 just returned from a hiking trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, a sprawling 210 square miles of camp and wilderness within the Rocky Mountains chain owned and operated by Boy Scouts of America.
Martel said his reward for helping to develop his Scouts is getting to see how new experiences shape their views of life. “I know these kids are going to grow up with good solid memories,” he said, adding that instances such as the tent collapsing or endless rain on a trip are learning experiences that we always remember.
When it comes to his duty as lieutenant of the fire department, Hawes said the same diligence and sense of duty carries over. “He’s probably one of the top responders to fire calls,” Hawes said, also saying that Martel is “always willing to lend a hand.”
Martel said his nature is to help people, and that he has frequently forgiven late or missed rent for tenants in his apartments. Martel still owns one apartment in Manchester and a house in Hooksett, he said, that he rents out at low cost.
The thanks and gratitude that he gets from being a volunteer firefighter and responding to calls in the wee hours are more than enough compensation for his time, Martel said. “There’s no monetary value that could satisfy that,” he said.