Elorm Anyadi, International Alumni Award Recipent
2019 Alumni Awards
In November 2019, the Cape Breton University Alumni Association (CBUAA) celebrated its Annual Alumni Awards at a beautiful and inspirational dinner held on the CBU campus. Each year, these awards are presented to deserving graduates and friends of the University who are making extraordinary contributions to their profession, field of study, volunteer organization, community (local or global), Cape Breton University or CBUAA.
And the award winners are:
Beverly Romeo-Beehler, Auditor General for the city of Toronto, who has been the lead investigator in several nationally recognized investigations related to the safety of Canadians, among many other accolades and awards.
Elorm Anyadi, International Alumni Award recipent, who first moved to Canada from Ghana and has developed a passion, not only for CBU but for the community that he now calls home.
Another newcomer to Cape Breton is Yianni Harbis, who came to CBU to study and play soccer but who has put down deep roots here in Cape Breton. Yianni has dedicated his career to helping small businesses thrive and flourish through his work at the Sydney Credit Union. Yianni and his wife, Jenna, are raising their twin girls in River Ryan.
In 2017, long-time CBU friend and volunteer, Darrell Flynn, lost his courageous battle with cancer. To ensure his legacy of commitment and volunteerism stayed strong, the Darrell Flynn Volunteer Award was established and the 2019 recipient was Patricia MacNeil. Patricia is a proud alumna and has served several years as a member of the Alumni Association, including one year as President and two years as Past President. Darrell would have been proud.
Kelsea MacNeil, CBUAA President greeting guests during the 2019 Alumni Awards
A special part of the night was the acceptance speech from the Friend of CBU Award recipient, John Jerome Paul, who spoke the beautiful Mi'kmaw language. John is a member of the original CBU Mi' kmaw Advisory Board and has been a friend of CBU for more than three decades. John has served as an important liaison between CBU and the Mi’kmaw community for several years.
That evening, the CBUAA announced a very special new member of the Alumni family. Fabian McKenzie, Head Coach of the women’s basketball team, was welcomed into the family as an honorary Alumni. Fabe has a long list of awards, designations and wins but when asked what he is most proud of, Fabe will tell you that it isn’t the awards and titles he has won, it is seeing his past student-athletes become successful in their careers or start families of their own.
And perhaps, most inspirational that night was when Alyssa MacLeod, Community Service Award recipient, spoke about her life, her hardships and how she has defied all odds of her cerebral palsy to encourage, inspire and teach others that they can achieve anything. When sitting back and letting hardships take over her life would have been easiest, Alyssa MacLeod used the stage of Miss Canada International as her platform to break down barriers and raise awareness around disabilities.
The 2019 Alumni Awards were truly an awe-inspiring event and served to show that our CBU Alumni hold the University’s values of courage, cooperation and quality to the highest standard.
Pictured from left to right: Kelsea MacNeil, President of the CBU Alumni Association; Elorm Anyadi, recipient of the International Alumni Award; John Jerome Paul, Friend of CBU Award; Beverly Romeo-Beehler, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award; Alyssa MacLeod, recipient of the Community Service Award; Patrica MacNeil, recipient of the Darrell Flynn Volunteer Award; Yianni Harbis, recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award; Fabian McKenzie, Honorary Alumni and CBU President, David Dingwall.
To find out more about supporting Cape Breton University, visit www.cbu.ca/alumni