AVON RIVER HERITAGE CENTRE
  • About
    • Avon River Heritage Society
    • Artifacts & Archives
    • The Avon River
    • Meet the People in our Neighbourhood >
      • Dawn Allen, August 21st, 2020
      • Sara Beanlands, July 22nd, 2021
      • Carolyn Connors, July 30th, 2020
      • Carolyn Connors, July 21st, 2021
      • Louis Coutinho, August 13th, 2020
      • Sean Coutinho, January 13th, 2021
      • Eva Evans, July 24th, 2020
      • Elizabeth Ferguson, July 27th, 2020
      • Nicholas Hughes, August 6th, 2020
      • Olwynn Hughes, August 11th, 2020
      • Kim Lake, January 18th & 21st, 2021
      • Trudy Lake, March 13th, 2022
      • Raymond Parker, August 12th, 2020
      • Raymond Parker, July 7th, 2021
      • Zacchary Paul, August 21st, 2021
      • Tacha Reed, August 27th, 2020
      • Allen Shaw, January 18th, 2021
      • Carolyn vanGurp, July 16th, 2020
      • Abraham Zebian, August 24th, 2020
    • Avondale Walking Tour
    • Fundraising
    • Book an Appointment
  • History
    • Natural History >
      • Highest Tides in the World
      • Tidal Bore
      • Avon Peninsula Ecology
      • Birds of the Avon
      • Marine and Freshwater Species of the Avon
      • Karst Environment
      • Gypsum
      • Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation Society >
        • Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation Society, Interview with President, Raymond Parker
        • Avon-Shore Seed Library
    • Mi'kmaq >
      • Mi'kmaq Birch Bark Canoes
      • Mi'kmaq of the Avon River >
        • Treaty Truckhouse 2 & Zacchary Paul
    • The Coming of the Europeans
    • The North American Colonies
    • Acadians >
      • Pisiquit
      • Acadians of the Avon River >
        • Babin
        • Breau
        • Cheverie
        • Forest
        • Landry
        • LeBlanc
        • Rivest
        • Thibodeau
        • Trahan
        • Vincent
        • Other Families
      • Village Thibodeau (Poplar Grove)
      • Acadian Families After Expulsion >
        • Broussard
        • Brun
        • Comeau
        • Deveau
        • Girouard
        • Johnson
        • Leger
        • Pellerin
        • Poitier
        • Robicheau
        • Suret
    • New England Planters >
      • New England Planters in Avondale >
        • Genealogy
        • Samuel Bentley
        • Benjamin Borden
        • John Chambers
        • James and John Harvie
        • Caleb Lake
        • James and Lydia Mosher
        • Nathaniel Reynolds
        • Benjamin Sanford
        • James Smith
        • Henry Tucker
        • James Weedon
    • Loyalists
    • African Nova Scotians
    • Local Home Histories >
      • 28 Chip Hill Road
      • 51 Avondale Road
      • 38 Avondale Road: The Clifford Mosher House
      • 58 Avondale Road
      • 60 Avondale Cross Road
      • 71 Avondale Road: The John A. Harvie House
      • 354 Belmont Road: The Yellow House
      • 603 Belmont Road: Wallace Point
      • 801 Avondale Road
      • The Acadia House
      • The Avondale Church
      • The Avondale Parsonage
      • The Church Farm
      • The Fred Robart House
      • The Henry Lyon House
      • The House Across From The Church
      • The John E.F. Mosher House
      • The Knowles Homestead
      • The Mounce Mansions >
        • Captain George R. Mounce House
        • The Thomas A. Mounce House (Honeymoon House) >
          • Interior of the Honeymoon House
      • The Mrs. Dunham Hotel
      • The Old Newton Mosher House
      • The Old Stone House >
        • The Mystery of the Fieldstone House
      • The Roley Mosher House
      • The W.H. Mosher House
    • The Avondale School
    • Avondale Wharf & The Landing
    • The Avon Spirit
    • Golden Age of Sail >
      • The Rise and Fall of the Golden Age of Sail in Newport
      • The Mosher Shipyards
      • Sailing Ships, Sugar, and Salt
      • Vessels of the Avon River
      • Shipbuilding Process
      • Shipbuilding Tools
      • Ship Directories
      • Kings Wharf
      • The Hamburg >
        • Obituary Capt. Andrew B. Coldwell
        • The Hamburg and Alice Coalfleet’s Diary
      • Captain George Richard Mounce Sr
      • Annie Armstrong Mounce Correspondence 1875-1892
      • Captain Daniel William Dexter & The Emma Payzant >
        • Captain Daniel William Dexter and Family, Interview with Debbie Siler, July 21st, 2021
        • Diary of Sarah Dexter, 1892-1893
      • The Rotundus
    • Community Orchard
    • Edmund McCarthy
  • Arts & Culture
    • The Great Little Art Show >
      • Great Little Art Show 2021 - Artists
      • Great Little Art Show 2021 - Artwork
      • Great Little Art Show 2022 - Artists
      • Great Little Art Show 2022 - Artwork
      • Great Little Art Show 2023
      • Great Little Art Show 2024 - Artists
      • Great Little Art Show 2024 - Artwork
      • Great Little Art Show 2025 - Artists
      • Great Little Art Show 2025 - Artwork
    • Artists Landing Art Gallery
    • Open Studio
    • Full Circle Festival >
      • Sofa Sundays
      • Solstice Market
    • Paint Avondale
    • Avondale Wharf Day
    • Honey Harvest Festival
  • Events Calendar
  • Planters Sea Chest Gift Shop
  • Lydia & Sally Cafe
  • Venue Rentals
  • Volunteer and Employment Opportunities
    • Summer Employment Opportunities
    • Volunteer Teams
    • New Horizons for Seniors
  • How to find us!

New Horizons for Seniors Call for Proposals

We are looking to the senior members of our community to gage interest in developing a project for the New Horizons for Seniors Program, making use of our space here at the museum and the Avon Spirit Shipyard.
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A recent visit to the LaHave Islands Marine Museum (where we discovered an Avondale connection!) left us inspired by what a group of retired community members could accomplish with access to our resources and funding support.

New Horizons for Seniors projects must be community driven and come from the elders, so we would like to hear your ideas. Are there any like minded folks in the area who have been looking to contribute their time and energy back into the community?

If this sounds like you and your friends then we want to hear your ideas! 

​Stop in to the museum anytime between 10 and 5, Wednesday through Sunday to chat about your idea or send us a note with your project pitch at [email protected].
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About New Horizons for Seniors

The New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP) is a federal grants and contributions program. It provides funding for projects that make a difference in the lives of seniors and in their communities.

Program objectives
  • Promote volunteerism among seniors and other generations
  • Engage seniors in the community through the mentoring of others
  • Expand awareness of elder abuse, including financial abuse
  • Support the social participation and inclusion of seniors
  • Provide capital assistance for new and existing community projects and programs for seniors

​Community-based projectsCommunity-based projects are eligible to receive up to $25,000 in grant funding for 1 year. Grants up to $25,000 for Community-based projects

The application period for the 2023/2024 Call for Proposal for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and the New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP) is scheduled for August 2024.
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The Vera Mae & the LaHave Islands Marine Museum

A recent visit to the LaHave Islands Marine Museum led to the discovery of an Avondale connection and inspired us to engage our community to start dreaming up their own ideas for a project that compliments our facility and the work we do here.

Here is a recap of this visit on July 17th of 2023, submitted by our Facility Manager and Artist in Residence, Tacha Reed.
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So what does a museum manager do on their day off? They visit a museum of course!


Actually we were headed to the south shore to put our toes in the ocean and get some relief from the ongoing heatwave and "relentless" (to quote the weather report) humidity. Unfortunately the moment we put our feet down on the sand at Crescent Beach the skies opened up and forced us back into our car.

I'm embarrassed to say, but for the first time ever when approaching the LaHave Islands Marine Museum (after doing this drive at least a few dozen times over the last decade, always one of us asking "should we stop?") we finally made the turn into the parking lot and started to explore a small boatshed while the rain passed.

I was immediately drawn to a barrel of cork, recognizing the material as the same used in the Rotundus life jacket that we have among our collection of local mementoes dedicated to the Avon River.

Reading through the interpretive material I was surprised to see that the restored Vera Mae boat beside me had made its way back to LaHave Islands courtesy of an "Avondale Historical" group (even more evidence that we should just call ourselves the Avondale Museum). Within a few moments I recognized the Avon Spirit Shipyard and the old barn that used to sit across the street from our museum. Right on cue, as if delivered by fate, a volunteer named Doug arrived to tell me all about the wonderful project taken on by local seniors back in 2006 thanks to funding from New Horizons for Seniors. Doug then encouraged us to further explore the museum, which has been located within the former Methodist church since 1978.

Now this is my kind of museum! Mementos of memories left behind by members of the community fill the space from floor to ceiling (over 4000 to be exact), with wonderful stories and artwork speckled throughout.

We could have spent hours there, but the museum actually became quite busy with visitors while we were there, so I was only able to capture a wee sampling of some of the items that caught my eye in this eclectic museum, nestled in a perfectly picturesque cove just past Crescent Beach in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.
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Avon River Heritage Centre, 17 Belmont Road, Avondale/Newport Landing, West Hants, Nova Scotia, B0N 2A0
Email us at [email protected]
Telephone us, May through October, at (902) 757-1718

The Avon River Heritage Society would like to thank the Municipality of West Hants and the Province of Nova Scotia for their generous support.

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