Who’s Who

Who’s Who: Jesse Van Gestel: Top of The Charts By Mike Butler 2019 marks the tenth anniversary of when I began writing for The Grapevine. This Who’s Who column has always been a favourite of mine to create each issue because there’s never a shortage of wonderful folk to meet, write about, and be inspired by here in the Valley. We all know people who make our community a better place to live, whether through their business, their personality, or their volunteer contributions. My 2019 Who’s Who opener is a great human being who has carved his spot in our…
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Who’s Who: Gail and Everett Butler, My A-Parent Situation! By Mike Butler I’ll never forget those Christmas mornings when I received some of my favourite gifts: my drafting table, my guitar, my VHS special edition copy of Gone With The Wind, and that really bright, checkered bathrobe from Phinney’s. This Who’s Who is very special to me because it’s about the two people that have given me more gifts than I can remember, including the gift of life: my parents Gail and Everett Butler. I have pretty amazing folks! While applauding their accomplishments as great parents, grandparents, business owners, and…
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Who’s Who: Shelley Moore, The Moore the Better By Mike Butler I truly believe there are three Shelley Moores out there, because she’s everywhere, and always doing so much for the community. I know, that’s a funny statement for me to make considering all the lakes my toes are dipped in, but I’ve known Shelley for about nine years and she is all over the place! I met Shelley during my very first show in December 2009, Brand New Year, when I was fortunate to share the stage with her daughter Meredith. It was evident early on how involved Shelley…
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Who’s Who: Mark Schofield By Mike Butler Mark Schofield is in the league of people that I call Superhuman! No cape, no x-ray vision, no power to leap over tall buildings, but instead Mark is one of many that I’ve encountered who have suffered an injury, been set back many times in life, and instead of giving up he’s turned his plight around to want to benefit others. This is very superhuman to me and I want to share Mark’s story with you. With so much in the news about head injuries, concussion management in sport and the well-being of…
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Who’s Who: Sasha Nelson and The Hardware Gallery By Mike Butler For those of you who don’t know, I have my own show on Eastlink Community TV called Annapolis Valley In-Focus, an interview show where I get to meet and chat with members of our community who are striving in business, and doing what they can to improve our Valley. I am so fortunate to know and to have interviewed Sasha Nelson. A few months ago he appeared on my show, and the setting for the program is actually taped in the Hardware Gallery that Sasha owns and operates in…
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Who’s Who Norm Surette: Lost and Found By Mike Butler Norm Surette popped into T.A.N. Coffee, Wolfville one sunny day while I was working and handed me a CD. It’s pretty common knowledge that I love most genres of music and play music constantly at work and at home, it’s just how I live. Music is very special to me and Norm was kind enough to pass on his latest effort, Lost and Found, which is an engaging, marvelous recording featuring so many terrific singers, all singing Norm’s songs. My next step, naturally, was to tell everyone about the CD…
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Who’s Who: Barry Braun, Happy Community Member! By Mike Butler The Valley is filled with exceptional community members. I have the honour of writing about them in this column, including a gentleman I had never met before, but now that I have I’m very excited to share his adventures with you. Barry Braun is the founder of the Happy Community Project. He has a vision to change the world one community at a time and who wouldn’t want to help with that vision? Barry didn’t always have this vision. In fact, for a significant portion of his existence, he was…
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Who’s Who: MARIE JARDINE: LITTLE PIGGIES REFLEXOLOGY! By Mike Butler When was the last time your little piggies went to market? You need to put your best foot forward and go see Marie Jardine. Read on and find out why. Marie Jardine was born and raised in Dartmouth. In 1977 her dad retired from the Navy and they moved to Ontario. She went to high school in Kincardine, a beautiful town on the shores of Lake Huron and then went to Sheridan College to study graphic design and worked in Toronto for a few years. She says, “I worked for…
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Who’s Who: Dr. Allison Walker: The Fungal Fun Gal! By Mike Butler Acadia University, Wolfville’s biggest employer, is known worldwide as a leader in education and it is a beautiful, essential piece to Wolfville’s notoriety. From Acadia, there have been many extraordinary people who’ve been a part of the Grapevine Who’s Who column. They’ve been leaders in their field and great contributors to the campus life and the future of its students. It’s always nice to have the opportunity to write about someone I’ve never met and know very little about what they study. So, Dr. Allison Walker was a…
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Who’s Who: Jim Murphy: A Deep Rooted Local! By Mike Butler If the name Jim Murphy doesn’t bring music to your ears right now, come September it sure will! Jim is part of the very busy board handling the organization and marketing for the 15th Deep Roots Festival in Wolfville. It’s gonna be a busy couple of weeks for Jim and his team but he was willing to lend me some time for this profile. Hear is a sweet little blurb about Jim Murphy! Jim was born and raised in Wolfville, went to Wolfville School, Horton High School, and then…
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