MULGRAVE: An employee of the town has garnered praise from colleagues around the region for her efforts to ease the effects of the global pandemic on her neighbours.
While most residents have been staying near home; leaving only for essential matters, and maintaining a safe distance from others, Mulgrave recreation coordinator Heather Brennan has been busy.
“There’s no programming right now due to restrictions, so I tried to be creative with different ways to be supportive of my community,” Brennan told The Reporter. “Although people don’t see recreation as an essential service, we can still do things, we just have to do them a little differently.”
During the Easter weekend, Brennan organized a visit from the Easter Bunny who was driven around town for an hour-and-a-half by the Mulgrave Volunteer Fire Department, hitting every street. She said the Port Hawkesbury RCMP detachment was called to get their approval.
“We got the Eastern Bunny to come to town,” Brennan recalled. “We got to see lots of people, from small kids, to seniors, to everybody. They were out waving. Sometimes it’s just the little things that make a difference and brighten their Easter weekend.”
Mulgrave recreation coordinator Heather Brennan helped create recreation care packages for local children with supplies so they can do activities at home during long days away from school.
The recreation coordinator also helped with the creation of Easter activity kits for children dealing with long days at home. Noting she doesn’t get out much, she was able to get supplies during one of her personal re-supply runs in Port Hawkesbury.
“We reached quite a few kids with them,” Brennan noted. “We included things to keep them physically active like skipping rope… things that they can do at their homes outside. I included arts and crafts supplies, painting supplies, different things like that. They were a hit.”
After being approached by Royal DSM to see what the town needs, Brennan the company agreed to provide funding for activity kits for the month of May and made a “big” donation to the local food bank.
“So that was a major help that DSM was on board to fund that,” Brennan said. “We’re really coming together as a community.”
Brennan said she has virtual meetings every week with other departments and staff, and the town is continuing to tweak its pandemic plan.
Acknowledging the financial strain on many Mulgrave residents – especially those on low or fixed incomes, single parents and seniors – when it comes to food, Brennan said she was successful securing $20,000 in grants through the Community Food Centre Canada’s Good Food Access Fund to support food security.
“I’m excited to get started on that project.”
Brennan added she is working on other food security projects to help out residents, as well as ideas to keep young people active and healthy.