Ah the morning after. Some would say it’s not the best time to write a follow up post to an event but that’s what I’m doing, so if parts don’t make sense, that’s because I’m tired! Where to begin.. Well we kicked off shortly after 7:30. Surprisingly there were a handful of free seats due to some organisations buying large numbers and then not using them, but it didn’t really affect us. It’s a shame though because I know lots of you wanted to come but we were pleased that we had half a dozen or so pay on the door.

The ceremony kicked off with the Nova Scotia Mass Choir who were extremely impressive. They started the ceremony with “We are Family”, a very fitting song. By the time the choir has reached their acapella chorus the audience was clapping along. It was a great atmosphere. Once they had made their way to the upper seating on the balcony I welcomed our guests and award winners and we were on our way.

First up was our first artist. Jenny Macdonald. Her performance had a certain rustic feel to it which was very fresh and entertaining. Sadly Jenny didn’t get to hang around as she headed off to another gig.

Our first award went to Lindsay Allain who has been fundraising for the IWK. In 2005 Lindsay’s sister was diagnosed with HSP which developed into Berger’s Disease. While her sister Anika spent time in the IWK, the two of them would play in the crafts rooms and Lindsay noticed that the rooms were a little bare and this was the beginning of ‘Crafts for Kids’. Lindsay has been fundraising for the crafts rooms for five years. This year she raised $4000. Thanks to Tillie Cox, of the Child Life team at the IWK for sharing a few words.

Our second award went to Irvine Carvery. Irvine has been living in Halifax for 58 years. He is currently the President of the Africville Genealogy Scoiety, Chair of the Halifax Regional School Board and a community basketball coach. Irvine said some very kind words about me at the ceremony and I am very thankful for that. Irvine is one amazing man.

The third award went to Q104 for their fundraising efforts and commitment to their community. Most recently they were raising money for Haiti disaster. We were lucky enough to have Dan Bedell come say a few words. Dan is the Director of Public Affairs for Atlantic Canadian Red Cross. My joke about our researches getting distracted by Q104’s thong of the day gallery went down quite well too.

Then we moved on to Adriana Afford, owner of the Argyle Fine Art. Adriana is your community super star. The gallery as she describes it is a gallery by day and a community hall by night. She embraces all types of visual arts at the gallery. Examples of this are the many music nights, wine events, hair shows, book launches, weddings and obviously art collections.

Four awards down, we took a short break. During the interval the guests wondered the lower galleries looking at the museum’s collections. We also ran some photographs on the projector from previous projects that were accompanied by random facts about our previous award ceremonies.

After the break the Nova Scotia Mass Choir moved back in to share their next song with us, “Love Train” It was another truly awesome performance. You should certainly check it out. This was quickly followed by a performance from our Second Artist, Kristina Trites. She was singing one of her new creations which was titled “Nova Scotia”. Very fitting!

Then it was on to our final 3 awards. We began with the IWK and the QE2 for their awesome work in organising Bust a Move. Bill Bean head of the QE2 foundation shared some great words with the guests. For those of you who don’t know, Bust a Move for Breast Health was a massive project undertaken by both foundations. On January 30th over 750 participants took part in a huge fitness fundraiser at the Halifax Metro Center led by some local celebs and Richard Simmons.

—and finally on to our last two which had an overlap. We received a nomination for four students at Halifax West High School. I could write about Alanna Langille, Patrick O’Connor, Morgan Patzelt & Chan Kim all day. They students are incredible. They raised thousands for the cancer society at Run for a Cure and 15k more at their recent “Head for a Cure” event which I was able to attend this week. There is much more to these students so check out the ceremony video for full details.

We then presented an award to Sandra who is the teacher who has guided these four amazing students and she is just as amazing. Sandra Starratt runs the school government at Halifax West. The government has 13 sub committees and the students we have been talking about make up the volunteerism committee. We had speeches from Lyn Moulton, Vice Principal at the West and a representative from Run for a Cure. As you can see it was a packed night.. but it wasn’t over just yet. Our Third artists of the evening Mary Stewart brought the ceremony to a beautiful close. She is extremely gifted and has such a unique quality to her voice. I was very thankful she was able to join us.

Then it was time for some serious points to be made. I shared my disappointment with City Hall and their lack of support. We never asked for money, all we wanted was a thumbs up from the City to show they supported us. I also expressed my hope that they will be less hesitant about my work in the future. At some stage soon we will be posting that speech so you can all watch it.

—and while we are on the subject, I encourage you all to check out the video and photographs of the ceremony. You can pre-order your copy on the Haliwards website.

I would like to express my thanks to everyone who attended the ceremony, the staff and to our award winners. You guys know who you are!

The Haliwards is where the Somerset County Awards was several years ago. This project was far from perfect. Not only was it a new angle for me, it was new territory. I feel that we have created the foundations we need to make this an annual project that one day everyone in HRM will know of. It feels appropriate to end with the lines that I used at the ceremony last night.

“Ladies and gentleman, alas we are out of time, and apparently out of words. It’s been a pleasure. Goodnight.” PS. Thanks for the standing ovation.

The year was 2005. It was a funny year because as the summer approached I was just rounding off a project called the Somerset Variety Performance and had plans on running a similar project but on a bigger scale. My original plan was to go as far as including a few more counties and renaming it the SWVP (South West Variety Performance). Being me I decided to make some major leaps and went with a national variety show. This move made me one of the youngest Managing Directors of a national organisation in the country. The National Variety Performance ended up being a range of projects instead of one main show and part of which was an awards project that we planned to role out across different counties. The original awards project was named the Somerset Charity Awards. We were planning on seeking out those in our communities that had raised money for various local and national charities but we broadened things out more than planned and in the end went with the Somerset County Awards. This way we could award the “pride” of the community not just fundraisers.

The Somerset County Awards

Our first award ceremony was very different to the ones we run today. It was completely new territory to me and the team. At the time of the launch of this project the National Variety was going through some changes. I was saying goodbye to some staff and saying hello to some new faces. The transition from old to new came with its problems but at the same time solved a few too. I had huge visions for the National variety Performance and it was only right to let go of the ones that were holding the organisation back.

Nowadays for most projects we ask the public to nominate people for awards but back in the early days it was me, the team and enough newspapers to open a recycling plant. We visited community centers, workshops, schools and many other public places trying to find our award winners. I contacted people i had worked with on variety shows in the past and called in a few performers for the event. The awards were very traditional. Something you would expect at any award ceremony. To be honest the award ceremony was very traditional too but it didn’t really matter because it was a complete success.

After great feedback from the community we started work on a ceremony for the following year. 2007 was an extremely busy year for the National Variety Performance so the ceremony that year was non-existent. We just couldn’t fit it in. Instead we surprised people with their awards at unexpected times. Some people we visited at home and at work and others half way through their own events. We called it the ‘Winter Edition’. It was a shame that we didn’t have time for a full blown ceremony but i was committed to the NVP and other commitments to uphold. Over the next two years i was back and forth from Weymouth and London working on projects for the NVP and the awards was purely a sideline but we kept it up as best as we could.

The Pride of Central Somerset

Towards the end of 2008 the Somerset County awards had not seen a ceremony in a while so i wanted to think how we could improve what we already had. I wanted to make the project bigger and better. By this time the National Variety Performance was just a fond memory. It had been very successful that it became something bigger than i could have ever imagined but i am kind of restricted by an NDA so I’ll leave it at that. In November 2008 i contacted Mid Somerset News and Media and started to build a partnership with them. It makes sense to work with the people who distribute directly to the people you want at the ceremony. Now that we had a lot more access to press coverage in the local area we opened up nominations to the public and asked people to nominate those special individuals in their lives.

The Pride of Central Somerset was a turning point for me. The project had really evolved from its earlier counterpart. The planning was much more precise and the ceremony was grand and refreshing. I knew that after i finished this project i was heading to Canada for what could be the best part of a few years and i was worried that the project may not continue so some of the 2009 team are already on standby for this years awards project which will really kick in after nominations close in the summer.

This video is a clip that was taken at the ceremony during the interval.

We presented more awards in 2009 than any other year. It was the first year we introduced a category which normally goes against our rules but we felt that sporting achievements were being left in the dark hence the introduction of the sports category.

A few days after the ceremony i packed by bags and headed back to Nova Scotia.

The Haliwards

The Haliwards was never planned. I had no intentions on branching out in Canada until i knew where me and Tara were going to settle on a permanent basis but as time passed by i got rather bored. During the summer of 2009 i had worked with the Blue Nose Marathon and was preparing to work with the Tall Ships. This is when i met Haligonia. Haligonia is a small media group focusing on news and events across HRM. I agreed to do a video interview with them for their website about my previous work and why I was in Nova Scotia. A few weeks before I met with Haligonia I started to do some research on running an event in Halifax and I was thinking about running an event similar to the Pride of Central Somerset. I was slightly worried that I wouldn’t be able to get enough exposure so I discussed my ideas with the guys at Haligonia.

What most people don’t know is in the early project plan it was a joint project between me and the Haligonia group. As the Tall Ships approached Haligonia were very busy with the event as they were the New Media Sponsor so we went our separate ways. I had no plans on dropping the project so I tweaked the project plan and submitted it to City Hall.

After nearly a 6 month wait we finally got word from City Hall who rejected the plan until further notice as they were working on a new volunteer strategy.  I really believe they just didn’t look at the plan properly or maybe not even at all. After taking a knock back from City Hall I ploughed on and we received hundreds of nominations.  We are now only weeks away from the ceremony with barely a ticket left and a set of amazing award winners. What can i say.. i know what works!

What’s Next

The Haliwards is in full swing so it’s only a matter of time before we know how successful it will  be but what was meant to be a low key pilot project is turning into quite an event. No complaints though! The Pride of Central Somerset 2010 is already in production and i am working with some members of last years team to put together the first steps.  We are currently taking nominations.

Click here for Part Two

This article is part of a series of posts that will be published during the month of March to celebrate 5 years of award ceremonies directed by Alex Maine. Stay tuned for the next post

When i first started work on the Haliwards here in Nova Scotia it really was new grounds for me. All the ideas and successes from England could be redesigned, remade and in theory reanimated. I really have not had the time to put my heart and soul into a project so i wanted to start with something simple but something that would make a good impact to the local community. Since the launch of the Haliwards project in June we have surpassed all kinds of numbers i could have hoped for. We received nearly ten times as many nominations as we did when we first did a similar project like this in the UK.

While i have every hope that City Hall will eventually catch up with us, the show must go on. I have decided to extend nominations until the end of the year which gives all you latecomers plenty of time to catch up and get your nomination in. The award winners will then be picked in the new year and the awards presented before the spring.  I had thought long and hard about postponing it until the new year and i felt this was the best option. I could have easily just rustled up some pathetic certificates and plonked them on a desk, rambled on for ten minutes about who did what, but i really like to take time to think about these things.

Many of you know that the Haliwards was my way of testing the water. Apparently i should have just dipped my pinky in but in real British fashion i put my whole hand in and i am doing my best to avoid getting burnt. Many of you have expressed how much you like the idea of the Haliwards and because of this and obviously my stubbornness this project will go ahead as planned.