2023 Volunteer Awards
Each year, East Hants recognizes and celebrates very important resources in our communities – volunteers. They have voluntarily chosen to undertake a service or duty, making a difference for our communities. Whether it is providing a beautiful community to live in, keeping our culture and history alive, providing safety and protection, coaching a sports team, mentoring youth or helping a friend or neighbour, they have made a difference.
Fire Fighter Municipal Long Service Awards
Volunteer Fire Departments may nominate a fire services member for a Canadian Volunteer Fire Service Association Municipal Long Service Award medal for 30 years of Service and additionally long-service bars for 35, 40 and 45 years of service. There is also a 50 year medal available. Thank you to all recipients for your service and all you do for our communities!
- Dan Gavel, Walton Shore Volunteer Fire Dept – 30 Years
- Angus Orman, Enfield Volunteer Fire Department – 30 Years
- Dwayne Spencer, Shubenacadie Fire & Emergency Services – 30 Years
- Dallas Urquhart, Enfield & Milford Volunteer Fire Department – 30 Years
- Glen Paul, Lantz Volunteer Fire Department – 35 Years
- Darrell Hiltz, Uniacke & District Volunteer Fire Department – 40 Years
- Raymond Ross, Walton Shore Volunteer Fire Dept – 45 Years
Volunteer Award Recipients
Andy George
A familiar face at the community ball fields, Andy George has been a leader within Mount Uniacke and volunteer with Mount Uniacke Softball for over 20 years. Andy continues to be an active coach to all ages of the youth ball program and has been a board member of Softball Nova Scotia Executive for 8 years and counting.
Andy, alongside other volunteers, has spent countless hours maintaining the Mount Uniacke community ball fields and has helped with many improvement projects over the years, including this year’s newly built storage building.
Not only has Andy helped facilitate the use of fields, he organizes learn to play softball programs encouraging sport participation, as well as physical and healthy wellbeing.
Cassandra McCormick
Dedication and enthusiasm are two words that come to mind when acknowledging the volunteer work of Cassandra McCormick, which she began at a young age. Cassandra is a role model and encourages other young adults to engage in their communities and embrace leadership roles.
Cassandra has taken on significant responsibility by stepping into the contact guider position with the 1st Carter Embers unit. She is responsible for many important aspects as a Girl Guides leader and has thrived at not only the organization and administration portion but also connecting with the young members and their parents.
Along with Girl Guides, Cassandra is active in the basketball community playing with the MWBA Windsor Edge team and volunteering as a coach with the Jr. NBA program in Sackville.
Doug Taylor
For over 30 years, Doug Taylor has been not only a resident of East Hants but an avid volunteer. He has been involved as a volunteer coach for many sporting teams and was called on to assist with keeping the books for many local organizations.
A role model to many, he demonstrates what it means to be a true community member and how rewarding volunteering in your community can be. Some of the sporting groups he has been a part of over the years as a coach or board member include East Hants Minor Hockey, Soccer, East Hants Tennis Club, and helping with the introduction of pickleball to East Hants in recent years.
Ferry Patterson
Volunteering has been a lifelong commitment for Ferry. He has committed countless hours to his community through the Noel United church filling various roles there as well as being known as the “church handyman” who would be called on often to help with various projects around the church. Ferry can also be found helping as a high school basketball referee or at the Noel New Horizon Centre.
Josie Thompson
Starting at age 11, Josie had completed all of the levels of Soccer Canada Coaching courses her age allows; she is 15 now. She has also completed the Soccer Canada Referee Course, becoming the youngest referee in the East Hants Soccer Club to be invited as an official to U17AAA Games.
Josie is a role model as a coach to the u5/u7 team she coaches as well as to her community as such a young volunteer devoted to lending a hand.
Kyle Andrews
A newer resident to Maitland who jumped right in to volunteering in his community, Kyle moved to Maitland 6 years ago and has spent the last 5 dedicated to volunteering in East Hants. Kyle has been instrumental in organizing a series of concerts and performances by local, national and international talent at the High Tides Community Centre in Maitland. He has also been a responsible for promotion of CHArt Society Events and managing the social media sites.
Kyle also helped to provide canteen service during events at the Centre. He provided and set up decorations in the community for the Winter Festival. He stepped in to construct and install 10 new planter boxes for the Maitland Bridge after the existing ones had been damaged due to storms during the year.
Melissa Boutette
Over the past 5 years Melissa has been secretary for the Milford Recreation Association. In recent years, she has also taken on the oversite of the summer students and has been involved in the interview and hiring process which has been a huge help to the association. She also contributes to the events hosted by the organization including Milford Meltdown all while being a busy mom of 3.
Michael Norris
There is no shortage of examples to illustrate Michael’s commitment to his community and encouraging youth involvement. Michael is a guy you can always count on to help out when in need. Michael is a valuable coach with East Hants Minor Hockey, and assisted with the Municipality’s summer drop-in program. Besides being an avid volunteer through his 3 sons and their various sports team, he is always ready to answer the call for other teams in need whatever that may be.
Troy MacArthur
Troy has been volunteering for the East Hants Stingrays Swim Team, recently coaching the kids in the winter maintenance program. He also helps at swim meets to setup tents and areas for the kids to relax between heats. He plans all of the workout sessions from home. He coaches the three groups 6 hours a week. He has become an inspiration to athletes and parents.
Art Burton
Art has provided many years of service to his community and beyond. He is a long-time volunteer with the Halifax Herald and St John’s Ambulance, and spent many hours helping out his late wife with her volunteer pursuits. Now enjoying his retirement, you can find Art spending many hours helping out the CHArt Society in Maitland, from writing plays to assisting with the setup of theatre seating and organizing community poetry reads or calling the winning numbers at dime auctions.
Model Volunteer of the Year
The Model Volunteer Award is presented to an individual who exemplifies extraordinary caring and commitment through volunteering their time and expertise on several projects to help make their community a better place in which to live. The award is based on the evaluation of the overall impact their contributions have had on their community.
The recipient of this award will represent the Municipality of East Hants at the 2024 Provincial Awards Ceremony hosted by the province of Nova Scotia. All of our volunteer nominees were considered for this award.
2023 Recipient: Doug Taylor
