Deacon's greatest passion grew from CN Railway's decision to close the Prince Edward Island Railway in July 1989. Florence and Donald loved going on walking and cycling vacations around the world, and had long felt that the closure would hold great tourism and community development potential. A standing-room only community meeting on August 3, 1989 led to the creation of Rail-to-Trails PEI with its mission being to do what was necessary to convert the soon to be abandoned rail lines into a provincial trail system. Deacon became the group's founding chairman.