For photos of the
receipts – see PEIMHF Photostream on Flicker http://www.flickr.com/photos/pei_museum/
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2013 Heritage awards honour history,
community-conscious Islanders
By Morgan Stride,
Guardian Newspaper February 21, 2013 – Page A5
Waldron Leard grew up in a house
full of history. His father and two
uncles were both history buffs. His dad
collected historic objects, and his uncle, George, was a genealogist. Later in life, when health problems kept him
at home, Leard turned to history as a hobby to keep himself occupied and give
something back to the community. Soon,
he built an addition to his house specifically for his heritage collection.
Tuesday evening at the Beaconsfield
Carriage House in Charlottetown, the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation
honoured Leard and many others for their contributions to preserving and
promoting P.E.I.’s heritage. The awards were
presented by Tourism and Culture Minister Robert Henderson, who was standing in
for Lt.-Gov. Frank Lewis.
Heritage awards committee chair
Clair Nantes read the citations.
The history community is close-knit
and friendly, said Leard, who won the award for volunteer of the year. At the same time, people seek him out
from off-Island for his advice on
historic sites and genealogy. He used to
do birth parent research until they became too stressful, he said.
‘I’m pretty proud of my Island. I love how they hold on to their history.” Leard said the Island calls its people home. “I went away for a bit, but I had to come
back. You hear that a lot, where
Islanders leave, but sooner or later have to come home.” Leard said he’s impressed with the museums in
the province. “They know how to get it
right,” he said.
The Guardian earned the Heritage
Foundation’s publication of the year award for a coffee table book published to
commemorate the 125th anniversary, entitled Prince Edward Island:
125 Years Through Our Eyes.
The community of Lennox Island
received the Irene Rogers award for its extensive restoration to St. Ann’s
Church. Jim Bernard accepted on behalf
of the community. Restoring the church
was like an impossible dream, Bernard said.
“We had to push to get the funding we needed. The community pulled together enough to fix
the steeple and the foundation. It just proves
that no matter how impossible something seems, you just have to go out and do
it if you want it.” Bernard said he was
honoured to accept the award for his community.
For Bonnie Aitken-Townsend, author
of The Road to Fortune, it’s all about her children. The book is a 761-page history of Fortune community,
spanning more than 200 years. The
massive undertaking began humbly, with notes she took from her grandfather’s
stories. “When the initial run of 525
books sold out in two months, I was surprised.”
Aitken-Townsend said a second run will be available in March. The book has proven popular with schools due
to its easily accessible writing style.
Henderson said he admires P.E.I.’s
passion for heritage.
Heritage groups on the Island help
show the economic benefits of heritage sites, as well as the benefits for
community. There have been a lot of
great opportunities to visit these sites as the minister of tourism, he
said. “Sometimes we spend a lot of time
talking about building when we talk about heritage, but it’s really all about
the people,” he said. Islanders take
their heritage more seriously than any other province, said Henderson. “The old saying goes, ‘you can’t know where
you’re going unless you know where you came from.’ Islanders definitely know where they came
from.”
- WINNERS -
Heritage activities:
-
Bonnie
Aitken-Townsend, for The Road to Fortune;
-
George
Arsenault, for La Roche 7 Grand Ruisseau;
-
Benevolent
Irish Society, for the Irish Heritage Lecture Series (George O’Connor accepted);
-
Howard
Clark, for the Red Barn Museum (Shirley MacDonald accepted);
-
Chris
Faulkner, for Holey Dollars and Dumps of Prince Edward Island;
-
Carter
Jeffery, for his P.E.I. Heritage Buildings blog;
-
Same
McBride, for The Bravest Canadian;
-
Wayne
MacKinnon, for The Politics of Principle;
-
Bea
and Jack O’Brien, for the Joe O’Brien Museum (Janet and Charles MacDonald
accepted);
-
P.E.I.
Cooperative Council, for the documentary Building a Better World (Todd McEwan
and Maureen Gallant accepted);
-
David
Weale, for Red magazine;
-
Wyatt
Heritage Properties and Hockey P.E.I. for Replay: A Community on Home Ice;
Natural Heritage
Activity Award: Rosemary Curley (Garrett Curley accepted on
her behalf)
Volunteer of the Year: Waldron Leard
Youth Volunteer of the
Year:
Brendan Ronahan.
Publication of the Year:
The
Guardian for the book Prince Edward Island: 125 Years Through Our Eyes (Don
Brander accepted)
Mary Cornfoot Brehaut
Award: Linda
C. Harding
Irene Rogers Award: Community of Lennox
Island, for the restoration of St. Ann’s Church (Jim Bernard accepted on behalf
of the community)
Wendell Boyle Award: Come All Ye creative team and cast (Wade Lynch
and Jessie Inman accepted on behalf of show)
Award of Honour: Katherine Dewar
Here’s
a link to CBC’s story on the award to Lennox Island Community for the
restoration of St. Ann’s Church.
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