Honorary Members 2006
Brenda MacLaughlin and Gerard White...Below, Past President Wendy King presents Brenda MacLaughlin with her honorary membership

Both Honorary members are 2006 retirees with this past June being their final Grading Day.

Brenda MacLaughlin hails from Pictou County and has been a counselor for 18 years, an educator for 32 with 29 years at West Pictou District High school before moving to the new school, Northumberland Regional for her last three years.  Brenda began her involvement with NSSCA as a volunteer at the registration table at the 1992 Conference in Antigonish.  At that Annual Meeting, she was elected Secretary after being recruited, like many of us, by Betty Lou Scott. Unopposed at all elections after that point, she has served on the NSSCA executive for 20 years.  
She has been Conference Chair or Co-chair 4 times.   At the department level, she served on the committee to develop the Comprehensive Guidance program and was a pilot site.    Brenda is known for her kind spirit and gentle heart, her commitment to students and a passion for counseling and counseling issues that is unparalleled.   She always considered it a privilege to work with young people who opened their hearts to her and was often touched deeply by the gifts they have to bring hope to our world.

We are not the only ones who appreciate her though; she  Received "Teacher of the Year Award" from West Pictou District High in 1999 and  an "Excellence in Teaching Award" from the Chignecto Central Regional School Board in 2004.
Currently, Brenda lives in New Glasgow with her husband, Neil Weber, and their five furry animals who have adopted them.  In the community, she is very involved in her church and with community theatre through Acts Theatre Society.   Her future dream is to be effective in Pastoral Ministry

Gerard White
Honorary Lifetime Membership to the NSSCA

Gerard is a native of  Bateston, near Louisbourg, C.B. He lives in Halifax with his wife, the former Maureen Cann of New Waterford. They have two sons, Evan, a computer engineer and Jonathan, a Master?s student at Dalhousie. Twenty-five year old Jonathan, a diabetic, was the pride of family and friends this year when he completed the 11,000 km Tour D'Africa from Cairo to Cape Town  by bicycle (no, this was not a motorbike).
Gerard retired this year from his counseling position at Queen Elizabeth High School and now has more time to enjoy hockey, kayaking, wine making and using his carpentry skills. He was a dedicated member of the executive of the NSSCA and among other volunteer services, he was the Halifaxrep for the Encounters Canada Program for many years.
Gerard's first hand experience in a variety of careers was an asset to him in his counseling profession. He worked his way through St. F.X. with a lobster license in the days when lobsters were scarce and went for $1.75 a lb. Then, with his BBA he worked as an insurance agent. The unsavory job of repossessing cars did not sit well with Gerard, so he sought a Master's in Sociology from Dal. This was soon to be followed by a BEd in Industrial Arts from U of T and a decade or more of teaching in Labrador and St. John's before returning to NS. He attained a MEd in Counselling from Acadia in the late 80?s and truly enjoyed his work as guidance counselor at BC Silver and later Queen Elizabeth High.  Known especially for his generous and caring nature, as well as his dedication to the school counseling profession, Gerard is well deserving of the presentation of Honorary Lifetime Membership to the NSSCA.