Established in 2015
A community environmental outreach to educate students and conduct research on estuaries
Alice Power (nee Joy) grew up in Conche, an outport community in Newfoundland and Labrador far from urban conveniences. Removed from the things most of us take for granted, like roads, electricity and indoor plumbing, she acquired an innate appreciation for the bountifulness of the land and sea from which all things come.
After graduating from Memorial University she taught for many years across the North where she hiked, skied, fished, hunted, camped and snowmobiled, while, at the same time, endeavoured to influence the many students she guided both as a teacher and principal in the small community-based schools in the settlements along the Arctic shores. During that time she participated in the lives of her students and her community, whether eating muktuk in Cape Dorset, muskrat in Aklavik or orchestrating a fish camp in Whati. She was never far from the land and the sea and their physical and spiritual significance to the moulding of the human identity.
Since coming to Pugwash with her husband, Mike, she has been a super active volunteer in community activities – curling, hiking, camping, orienteering, contributing to a community newspaper, school volunteering, and particularly in teaching others—especially young people—about the importance and sensitivity of their natural surroundings.
Among her many contributions, the one which has immediately identified her as a community leader has been as chair of the Friends of the Pugwash Estuary. Joining a small gathering of friends she was instrumental in starting the Society and developing it to where its membership has grown to almost 150. In the course of so doing, she has enriched the lives of many with opening up the opportunity to participate in environmental monitoring, habitat restoration, hiking, canoeing, bird watching, and, most of all, develop an appreciation for the natural environment.
Alice, by her actions, is one of the foremost community developers along the Cumberland Shore!
Fund Purpose
- To support youth in understanding natural environments and their place as responsible environmental citizens;
- To support researchers and academics in using new technologies to bring students exciting portrayals of the need to work for a clean and energizing environment;
- To build networks of physical/human resources that will help understanding the essential role a healthy environment adds to our standard of living and quality of life;
- To create new insights as to how the intertwining of our streams, rivers, harbor basins and oceans bring a necessary stimulus to our fauna, birds and animal life.