LDANB Awards Gala

The staff and board of LDANB are ending October with full hearts after a great month of celebration. October marked Learning Disabilities Awareness Month, Dyslexia Awareness Month, and LDANB celebrated its 50^th anniversary as an association.

October started off with a Zoom presentation for our LDANB Parent Group. Mary Mifflen, LDANB board member and psychologist, presented on executive functioning. A huge thank you to Mary for her informative session. If you are interested in attending our next Parent Group meeting, you can find us on Facebook.

On October 19^th we teamed up with Decoding Dyslexia New Brunswick to hold an event at the New Brunswick Legislative Building in Downtown Fredericton. The legislative building was lit up red for Dyslexia Canada’s #MarkItRead campaign. Throughout the month many communities across the province lit their municipal buildings red for #MarkItRead and various schools and businesses participated by wearing red in support.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the celebrations by attending events, sharing content from our social media, and spreading LD awareness within your own network.

We closed out the month with our first ever LDANB Awards Gala on October 22^nd. A list of our award recipients can be found below. While Covid-19 restrictions prohibited us from holding the larger public event we had hoped for, we were so pleased to be able to safely gather with our award recipients and their families to celebrate their accomplishments, as well as the accomplishments of LDANB over the past 50 years.

LDANB Award Recipients

LDANB Barton Tutors

The individuals who received this recognition have been part of the LDANB Barton Tutoring Program for a minimum of three years. The continued success and growth of the Barton Tutoring Program is because of the dedication and hard work of our tutors. Under this category we recognized Virginia Little and Mary Baker. Holly Neil-Daley, Emily Lewis and Rob Lynn were also recognized during our Gala for their years of work as a Barton tutor, however they were unable to attend our event.

Community/Corporate/GNB Partners

The support and partnerships that LDANB has with community organizations, New Brunswick businesses and from provincial government departments are vital to the long-term success of LDANB. By working together persons with learning disabilities can truly be supported. Under our partners category, recognition was given to the following three groups. 

Elementary Literacy Incorporated – Community Partner
Peterbilt Atlantic – Corporate Partner
Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training & Labour – GNB Partner

LDANB Board Member Achievement 

This award was presented to currently serving board members who have been involved with the association for five plus years. It is through their involvement on committees and leadership on various initiatives that LDANB-TAANB can continue to grow and evolve to meet the needs of clients. Board members who were recognized for their achievements during the gala were Fabienne McKay (current board member and past president), Sylvianne Caron (LDANB Board treasurer) and Dr. Rhonda Rubin (LDANB board secretary). Dr. Rubin was unable to attend our event.

Individual/Group with Outstanding Achievement in the Support of Persons with Learning Disabilities

During the last part of the summer, a call for nominations was put out for this category. We were seeking an individual or group who has gone above and beyond by:

• Embracing the use of assistive technology in their classroom or workplace to support their students or employees with learning disabilities.
• Incorporating universal design into their teaching/lesson plans.
• Providing a voice for persons with learning disabilities.
• OR an individual who has overcome obstacles with their own learning disability.

The two individuals selected for this award were Neil Squire regional manager, Charles Levasseur and grade five student, Imogen Clendening.

Charles Levasseur

Charles was nominated by his collogues Bev Grasse and Tracy Ryan. In their nomination letter, his colleagues said the following: 

“Charles has dedicated the last 18 years to supporting students with Learning Disabilities and believes strongly in their ability to learn and succeed using proper strategies and Assistive Technology. His work in the field is more than a job. It is his passion. Charles remains current and is a patient teacher of AT with students, their parents and professionals, always making himself available.  He never turns away a student, a parent/caregiver, teacher or professional in need of support, advice or a full AT Assessment/Consultation.  He is an excellent mentor to the staff he supervises and sets a wonderful example of a dedicated advocate for people with Learning Disabilities and their ability to overcome them.”
Charles was unable to attend our Gala, Bev Grasse accepted on his behalf.

Imogen Clendenning

When we opened the nominations, we received the sweetest letter from a Carolyn Barry, principal at Our Lady of Grace School. In the letter Ms. Barry describes her student, Imogen Clendening. 

“Imogen has done extremely well. Despite being side-lined many times throughout the year… she worked extremely hard and to everyone’s delight by June (our classes continued on-line after the Covid-19 shutdown), she had made incredible progress. We began teaching her at her tested grade level but with extra one on one attention to her reading and because of her perseverance she rapidly progressed. She is now reading at her Grade level, has mastered her math text and is at grade level in both math and reading to start Grade five.

We were not able to have an end of year gathering but had we, Imogen would have received the award for most improved student in the school.
It must be added that Imogen is a delightful, sweet, engaged student with a wide- ranging interest in all her studies but especially in animals and nature in general. She is also an accomplished dancer.”
 What made this letter extra special to read is that Imogen participated in the Barton Tutoring Program for some time. Imogen’s tutor, Rob, was so proud to hear of all the good work she has done at school.

All images provided by: Stephen MacGillivray Photography & Video www.stevemacphoto.com