Alumna Wins Advancement of Animal Law Scholarship

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) has awarded Camille Labchuk ('05) one of seven international Advancement of Animal Law Scholarships for her outstanding work in the growing field of animal law.

Camille is entering her third year at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where she is co-president of the school’s Student Animal Legal Defense Fund chapter. Camille graduated from Mount Allison with an Honors degree in psychology, and after working for years for a federal political party and an animal protection organization, pursuing animal law seemed like the natural next step in helping her to most effectively advocate on behalf of animals.

As a public relations specialist with the Humane Society International/Canada, she documented the commercial seal kill on Canada’s East Coast for three years, lobbied parliamentarians in Canada and the European Union, and worked on a variety of campaigns including horse slaughter, factory farming, and trophy hunting. She has been a board member of the National Capital Vegetarian Association in Ottawa, fosters kitten from the local animal shelter, and frequently attends animal protection protests and demonstrations.

Camille has attended several animal law conferences in North America and has helped with research for the first animal law text book to be published in Canada. She was awarded a fellowship grant for the summer of 2011 to work with Lawyers for Animal Welfare, Canada’s only animal law organization. She plans to continue to work to grow the field of animal law in Canada, help develop a national network of animal lawyers, and use the legal system to advance the interests of animals.

Director not afraid to take risks

Theatre people go where the work is, but Valmai Goggin (’06) took that idea to an extreme. She went all the way to Iqualuit following graduation from Mount Allison.

“A person finds themselves with a student loan and a boyfriend with student loans,” she says, “and we thought, ‘Well, we could stay here (in Atlantic Canada) and make no money for 10 years and starve as artists,’ so we moved up there.”

She spent her Iqualuit days working at a pedestrian job that enabled her to pay down her loans, but those long, northern nights were her own, filled directing community theatre, including what may have been the northernmost production ever of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Valmai is considered a director to watch, whether at Sage Theatre’s Ignite Festival, directing a stunning production of Castle in the Sky, Francesca Albright and Jude Allen’s docu-drama about the 2006 Medicine Hat Murders; collaborating with her colleagues in Theatre Transit, a small local theatre company; or up in Fort McMurray, where she is heading later this year to direct a production of Chicago in early 2012.

Read full story: State of the arts: Director not afraid of risks (Calgary Herald)

Sackville Arts Wall of Fame

On June 18 three Mount Allison alumni were inducted into the Sackville Arts Wall of Fame, which was launched in 2009 after Sackville was awarded a national designation as one of the country's Cultural Capitals of Canada. A ceremony outside of Town Hall saw the three inductees' plaques unveiled and a reception followed to celebrate the contributions of the three individuals.

Pauline Harborne '37 (Arts Builder)
Born in Upper Sackville, and in her mid-90s now, Harborne received a Licentiate of Music from the Mount Allison Ladies College (1937) and has taught violin to thousands of young people for more than half a century.

Glenn Adams '66 (Visual Arts)
A permanent residence of Sackville since 1974, Adams originally worked in the aircraft industry, but in a 1960 art workshop and after a year's study at Mount Allison (1962-63) he was influenced by Alex Colville and Lawren P. Harris in his life's paintings.

K.V. Johansen '90 (Literary Arts)
As a Mount Allison undergraduate, Johansen was mentored and encouraged in her writing by the late Douglas Lochhead, and is currently one of Canada's leading authors of fantasy literature for children.

In the photo, left to right: (seated) Pauline Harborne, K.V. Johansen, and Cynthia Adams (Adam's wife accepted on behalf of her husband who was unable to attend the ceremony). Standing behind are Peter Higham, Karen Bamford, and John Murchie, all of whom presented special tributes about each of the inductees.

Riches of the Wetlands

The season opener at the Léon Léger Art Gallery will be the exhibition "Riches of the Wetlands" by Barbara Safran ('77) on display from June 20 to July 7. The exhibition official launch will be on Friday, June 24, at 7 p.m.

The exhibition is about waterways and marshes, their beauty and importance.

It includes more than 50 water colours mostly of wetlands around the Petitcodiac watershed area and can serve as catalysts for discussion on the environment and ecology.

Barbara's paintings explore the Tantramar region, Memramcook valley and Petitcodiac area with different seasons portrayed. Her works are known for their dramatic skies, vibrant landscapes and Maritime themes, and have appeared in private and public collections in and around the region.

Barbara hopes her exhibition will prompt a better appreciation of the waterways and marshes of New Brunswick.

She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with Distinction from Mount Allison and went on to study the old masters at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and at the Tate Gallery in London.

She has had numerous solo exhibitions and group shows throughout the Atlantic Provinces and was recently awarded the Sheila Hugh Mackay Masters of Fine Arts Scholarship to pursue her studies at the Art Institute of Boston, U.S.

Her exhibition is located at the historic church in Grand Barachois, the backdrop for a new season of art exhibitions and concerts featuring works by well-known artists over the next several weeks. L'Église historique de Barachois is located at 1350 Route 133 in Grand Barachois.

http://www.safranstudios.com/

Illustrator launches second children's book

Illustrator Jennifer Aikman-Smith (’87) has once again collaborated with Paul E. Burns for their second children's book, the 88-page Emily Finds a Dragon.

Owen and the Dinosaur, published in 2008, is followed by Emily Finds a Dragon, which will be launched Saturday, June 18, 2011 at the Riverview Library.

For Jennifer, who knew she wanted to try her hand at drawing for a living since she was 11, illustrating children's books not only allows her to work with the impossible, but it also allows her to prove that her "cartoon" drawings are art, too.

Paul saw writing simply as a 25-year-old hobby until he met Jennifer, who had been freelance drawing since she graduated from Mount Allison, and they began taking the endeavour seriously over the past few years.

Paul and Jennifer have self-published both Emily Finds a Dragon and Owen and the Dinosaur.

After being turned away by a few mainstream publishing companies, they decided to use Jennifer's skills as a graphic designer and her company Dragon Dreams to put the children's books together.

After tomorrow's launch, Emily Finds a Dragon will be available at Gifts Galore in Moncton and Cover to Cover in Riverview. Jennifer says the book should hit Atlantic Canadian Chapters stores by mid-July.

Read full story: Metro duo to launch children's book
(Moncton Times & Transcript)

In Memory of Donald Crandall

Donald Rayworth Crandall ('51) was born on Oct. 19, 1926, in Moncton, N.B.

Donald served in the navy during the Second World War, and then attended Mount Allison. In 1949, he took a job with Air Canada, working in market research and training. The position suited his outgoing personality and love of travel, since it sent him across Canada and to the Caribbean.

In 1950, he married Frances (Dayton) Crandall ('50), a kindred spirit: like Donald, she’d grown up in Moncton, served in the navy, and attended Mount Allison. After their children Louise and Hugh were born, the family settled in Montreal. Donald and Frances were “absolutely devoted” to each other, says daughter Louise.

When Frances was in her fifties, she started developing symptoms of Alzheimer’s. At 57, Donald retired from his job at Air Canada and they moved back to Moncton.

The couple continued to travel; on one Caribbean trip, Donald and Frances—then in their sixties—discovered Montserrat, an island near Antigua with black sand beaches, and built a house there.

Donald began devoting time to his growing interest in military history. He’d travel around the island, hunting for buried military cannons. He rebuilt a powder house above the capital of Plymouth, and set up a military park with cannons he’d dug up.

He wrote a book on the island’s military history, working from home to be close to his wife, who was increasingly housebound.

He nursed his wife through the tragedy of Alzheimer’s, but ‘he never complained that it was hard, and never asked for help’. As Frances’s condition deteriorated, they moved permanently back to Canada where she died at age 76.

Following Frances’s death, friends introduced Donald to Eleanor Jonah, whose husband had died of a heart attack several years before. They became companions. He rented a condo on the inner harbour and they split the year between Victoria and Burlington, Ont., where they had previously settled.

In 2005, on Christmas Eve, Eleanor and Donald were going to get groceries when another car crashed into them. Donald was hospitalized, and nearly died. While his body slowly recovered, his brain—which had been injured in the crash—never did. The couple moved to Burlington full-time.

In February 2010, the family put Donald into a retirement home in Oshawa where he passed away on April 20, due to complications from dementia. Donald was 84.

Read the full story: Donald Rayworth Crandall
(Maclean's Magazine)

Switching from microbiology to audiology

It was while doing a science degree at Mount Allison that Dr. Brian Alexander ('83), Au.D., an audiology doctor in the hub city for the past 20 years, decided to make the switch from microbiology to audiology.

As a student he was employed as a hospital worker and it was while so engaged that he met and talked to audiologists. Simply put, what they were doing sounded more interesting because it provided the opportunity to work with people in a helping profession, as well as staying involved with science and physics.

So he traded in life behind a microscope for a different kind of challenge in the health sciences field, and he's never had any regrets.

Audiologists typically work in hospital settings, private practice, public schools, ENT clinics and the like, and must stay abreast of any changes in audiology technology as well as their understanding of hearing loss and balance disorders.

Read the full article: Audiologists stays tuned in to hearing
(New Brunswick Business Journal)

Support Mount Allison Athletics

You’re invited to the third annual Mount A Homecoming Golf Classic in support of Mount Allison University Athletics. It is open to all Mount Allison Alumni and Friends!

• Friday, September 16, 2011
• Amherst Golf & Country Club
• 1 pm shotgun start
• Texas scramble format
• Dinner and prize presentation to follow
• EARLY BIRD PRICING (until July 22): $150/person or $550/team

Register now!

Brunton Auditorium Seat Restoration Project

Mount Allison is poised to breathe new life into Brunton Auditorium by replacing the aging seats and enhancing the audience experience.

You can help support the performances of students by considering a gift towards the Brunton Auditorium Seat Restoration Project.

Find out more: www.mta.ca/brunton