Town of Tantramar honours Patrick Barnhill and Jonelle Mace
On September 19, during the Sackville Fall Fair, the town of Tantramar recognized two residents for their outstanding contributions to the community. Jonelle Mace, Mt. A’s media and external communications coordinator, won the Tantramar Citizen of the Year Award, while Patrick Barnhill, a fourth-year Mt. A commerce and political science student, won the MTA Youth Citizen of the Year award. Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black presented both honours at the Fall Fair’s Opening Ceremonies.
While announcing the recipients during the ceremony, Black highlighted Mace’s “integrity, generosity, and deep local pride.” Originally from Ontario, Mace lived in Sackville while her husband attended Mt. A from 2008 to 2011, and returned “only a couple of years” ago. “Sackville’s always felt like home,” she says, “so it feels like a homecoming.” After returning to Sackville, Mace worked as an advocate for food security in the Tantramar region before joining Mt. A’s University Advancement Office this year.
Mace says she was “so honoured” by the award, which recognized her work with the Rotary and the Sackville Food Bank, among her other efforts. “Community work has always meant a lot to me,” she says, adding “it was really important for me to immerse myself in sharing my talents and my interests in a way that would serve my community well.” According to Mace, working with the community brings personal benefits as well as public: “I’ve volunteered in my communities for years and years, and it’s given back to my life far more than I feel like I’ve invested.”
Barnhill, the MASU’s director of entertainment and activities, says the award “meant a lot.” Barnhill is in his fourth year at Mt. A following a family tradition that started with his great-grandfather. “I’m a fourth-generation student at Mount A, which is kind of crazy,” he says. According to the town’s announcement of the awards, Barnhill “contributed to student life and to town-gown relations” by serving as Campbell Hall’s community representative, hockey coach, as well as a Mt. A campus ambassador. As the MASU’s Shinerama campaign chair, Barnhill coordinated Mt. A’s portion of the post-secondary fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis Canada. “Mount A and the community love Shinerama,” Barnhill says of the campaign, which the MASU has participated in for 51 years. “It was just so amazing to see everyone come back together for a cause they know about and care about.”
Barnhill’s efforts led to his nomination, then eventual win, of MTA Youth Citizen of the Year. “It really took me by surprise,” he says, “but I was so grateful for the recognition.” He accepted the engraved plaque in front of a crowd of community members, including his relatives. “It also meant a lot to my family,” he says, “because they’re from Sackville, so they like seeing that our family still cares about Sackville, and Sackville still cares about, not just my family, but that people are doing things for them.”
Both Barnhill and Mace have advice for those who want to follow in their footsteps. Mace says she wants to “leverage” her award “to encourage, especially people in my millennial age category, to get involved in their community, even in a small way. If we all do small things it makes such a big difference.” Barnhill shared similar thoughts, saying “everyone should get involved,” particularly students. “I feel like the perspective for students is that they come for four years and then they leave right away, and they kind of don’t venture into what’s going on in the town very much unless it’s affecting them negatively,” says Barnhill, “but there’s the opportunity for such an amazing relationship there, that it’s almost a shame to let it go to waste.” Mace also reiterated the importance of student involvement; saying she was “thrilled” seeing a group of university students serving chili as a Rotary club fundraiser during the Fall Fair, just outside the tent where she accepted her award. “We love having students in the community,” she says, “I think it brings such life to Sackville, and it makes us such a unique small town.”