Halifax Communauté Nouvelles

Eighty-five-year-old Claire MacDonnell recently walked the runway to raise awareness and funds for mental health. She joined a team of 19 volunteer models who set their fears aside to strut their stuff in front of a sold out crowd. The 2nd annual Models for Mental Health event took place in New Glasgow earlier this month.

Five Maritime cities are gearing up to receive their quota of the 25,000 Syrian refugees expected to be arrive by the end of February. The Nova Scotia government estimates the province will welcome 20 to 30 Syrian families in the coming weeks.

Nova Scotia will be welcoming 20 to 30 Syrian families as part of the first wave of privately sponsored refugees expected to land in Canada in December. The sponsoring groups are mostly churches as well as the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia, said Immigration Minister Lena Diab at a news conference Wednesday.

An annual fundraiser is underway to help a special Cape Breton teen. MacKayla McGean’s parents are once again collecting bottles in their community of Florence, N.S. to help pay for their daughter’s growing needs. MacKayla, 19, was born without eyes or eye sockets, she has a non-functioning pituitary gland, and recently underwent back surgery for scoliosis.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport and the folks at St. John Ambulance have launched a new therapy dog program to comfort weary travellers. Starting Friday, seven volunteer dogs and their owners will be making regularly scheduled visits to the airport. The visits will take place on Tuesday and Friday afternoons.

We also need to begin to recognize another group who helped win the war, but have never been acknowledged — women volunteers. Women volunteered their time and energy to help win both wars. And volunteer they did — in the thousands. Between 1939 and 1945, women in places like Halifax, and across the country, rose to the challenge. Women volunteers provided medical care, respite and hospitality, working through such organizations as the Canadian Red Cross, the St. John Ambulance Brigade, Women’s Institute, IODE, WCTU, church groups and other collectives.