Committee member

Good day, I’m Michael Cooper, Commanding Officer of the Trinity East-Port Rexton CLB Company and the Regimental Programs Director. As of this year (2026) I have been involved with the CLB 40 years in various aspects with 20 of those years in Uniform. I currently hold the rank of Captain.

About little bit about me. I live in Trinity East (just outside Port Rexton) on the Bonavista Peninsula after growing up here as a teenager. I currently work for the town of Port Rexton as the Waste and Maintenance Manager. I am a Manager by trade holding the CIM designation (Certified in Management). My family has all been involved in the CLB in different roles (3 generations!). My work career has been interesting, from working in small communities of the high Arctic, the big cities, to even trade shows down in Las Vegas. I bring my unique “outside the box” thinking to the Steering Committee.

Who is the CLB? CLB is NL’s oldest youth organization starting way back in 1892. My CLB Company itself was formed on September 4, 1912! Some interesting tidbits about the CLB… We are a totally volunteer based Organization and we are the only Organization left of the 5 that came together to form the NL Regiment in WW1. You can find out more interesting information about us by visiting our Archives and Museum in the CLB Armoury in St. John’s or by our website www.theclb.ca

How did I get involved with ERWC? My first experience with the Wellness Coalition was meeting the former Co-Chair Tammy at the partner table for Physical Literacy for Communities-Port Rexton. Working on that program, we both realized our programs really match up well…with the CLB’s “Be The Good” and “Fight The Good Fight” programs lining up extremely well with ERWC’s.

Our Current Programs… Thanks to the ERWC Wellness Grant, we took over an abandoned Community Garden and repaired/upgraded it. It is now a youth teaching Garden and all items grown are donated to those in need. 2025, we grew enough to create 124 soup kit bags with fresh grown vegetables! Our other big projects…The Little Free Pantry program which is expanding on the Bonavista Peninsula and just recently get listed on NL’s 211 system in the area of Food Insecurity. Also, we do a program with other youth and Seniors groups called Generations United where the youth and seniors teach each other all kinds of things with great social interaction and lots of laughs!

Why join ERWC? ERWC for its members has amazing networking and support programs, that’s what really got me personally involved. Once involved, you become part of a big Community Family and as Henry Ford said “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”