STELLARTON – Pictou County took time to honour some of it’s community leaders last night during the 13th annual Pictou County Tourism Association Gala Awards at the Nova Scotia Community College – Pictou Campus in Stellarton.
Winning the Rising Star Award was the Lobster Hatchery-Northumberland Fisheries Museum.
In 2007, the Northumberland Fisheries Museum, in partnership with the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association, constructed a lobster hatchery on the Pictou waterfront. The Lobster Hatchery allows guests to view the process of a lobster’s life cycle. The lobster stock enhancement research project is the only know lobster hatchery that is accessible to the public and has proven to be a great asset to Pictou County.
Winning the North Star Award was Wayne MacGillivary. MacGillivary has been the board chair of the deCoste Entertainment Centrefor more than 25 years. He is also co-founder and co-chair of the Hector Festival and a member of the Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Partnership Council.
He said he did not expect the award at all and when it was announced he won all he could say was “Thank you.”
“Any honour that you get is always appreciated,” he said. “To be recognized by Pictou County and the Tourism Association is nice.”
Sharing the honour of Star of the Festivals and Events were Race on the River Dragon Boat Festival and Maritime Fire Chiefs Conference.
2009 was the best year so far for the annual Race on the River Dragon Boat Festival with great weather, large crowds and the most raised ever. $120,000 was raised for Special Olympics Northern Region, Women Alike Breast Cancer Survivors Society and the Pictou County Prostate Cancer Support Association.
The Maritime Fire Chiefs Conference was hosted at the NSCC-Pictou Campus in July and brought more than 500 firefighters from across the Maritimes. The four-day education and trade show brought the latest in firefighting technology, including trucks to the college to be put on display.
Winning the Ambassador Award this year was Terry Curley. Curley is a councilor for the town of New Glasgow, organizer of the Johnny Miles Marathon, director of operations for the Weeks Hockey organization and director of operations for Tim Horton’s in Pictou County. In his free time he also competes as an ironman.
To receive the award was humbling he said taking time to acknowledge the accomplishments of his fellow nominees Fleur Mainville and Lesley Anne Sobey.
Winning the award of Excellence was NSCC-Pictou Campus and the Pictou County Military Museum.
In April the military museum learned that it would have to vacate it’s location in New Glasgow. They quickly reached an agreement with the Town of Westville and moved into the civic building.
“It’s a fantastic honour. We worked for getting the Veterans more recognition in Pictou County,” said Vincent Joyce, the Military museum curator. “This award for the Pictou County Military Museum is an award for the veterans.”
