<![CDATA[Connecting Albert County - News]]>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:31:06 -0300Weebly<![CDATA[Service Canada Community Café –Register NOW!]]>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 17:10:11 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/service-canada-community-cafe-register-nowAre you a community organization or service delivery partner looking to better support your clients? Join Service Canada’s Citizen Service Specialists for concise, virtual information sessions designed specifically for frontline staff and community leaders.

Important Note: These sessions are for community partners and organizations, not for individual clients.

Upcoming Schedule & Registration
SIN Safety, Education Savings (RESP/CLB), & My Service Canada Account ​
Income-Tested Benefits
Demystifying eligibility and application processes for low-income supports, including the GIS, Canada Dental Care Plan, and the new Canada Disability Benefit. ​
How to Join
Registration: Click the individual links above to sign up for each session. You will receive a Microsoft Teams/Zoom link from ESDC upon registration.

Questions or Invites? To add a colleague to the mailing list or ask a question, or get the registration link directly, please email the Citizen Services Specialist Team:
bill.gregory@servicecanada.gc.ca
ossie.pineau@servicecanada.gc.ca]]><![CDATA[The Albert County Royal Canadian Legion Branch #32 Shares Gratitude]]>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:27:01 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/the-albert-county-royal-canadian-legion-branch-32-shares-gratitude
Submitted by Richard Langer, President, Albert County Royal Canadian Legion Branch #32 

Albert County Royal Canadian Legion Branch #32 would like to thank our volunteers, story tellers, historical gallery staff and garden party volunteers for making the 100th Anniversary on Canada Day such a major success. The Branch would also like to thank Shane Douthwright, Kyle Johnson and Todd Geldart for their wonderful musical entertainment. Also we want to acknowledge and thank the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Hillbilly Run volunteers for their generous financial contribution to this event. And a special shout out to Eliot Hill, Barb Haire and Kim Langer for all their efforts to help make this event successful. Also, we would like to thank all our members and friends who participated by joining us at the event.  ​

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]]><![CDATA[Friends of the Tigers: Introducing the Caledonia Comets]]>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:12:10 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/friends-of-the-tigers-introducing-the-caledonia-cometsSubmitted by Matthew MacBeth, Teacher, Caledonia Regional High School

Friends of the Tigers is excited to introduce the Caledonia Comets, a new youth volleyball program serving the Fundy-Albert community.

The Caledonia Comets will provide local youth with opportunities to learn, play, and belong through accessible volleyball programming for athletes from U12 through U18.

Programming will include:
U12 – Grades 5 & 6
U14 – Grades 7 & 8
U16 – Grades 9 & 10
U18 – Grades 11 & 12

Across these age groups, athletes will have access to Grassroots development, Tripleball opportunities where appropriate, and House League play focused on building skills, understanding the game, and gaining experience through regular organized play.

Our goal is to create a welcoming volleyball community close to home, where young athletes can develop their skills, build confidence, make new connections, and grow their love of the sport.

More information about registration, schedules, and upcoming programming will be shared soon.

​Caledonia Comets — A Place to Learn, Play, and Belong.


]]><![CDATA[Board Member Profile: Kayla Dormer of The Lucky Rabbit Fine Craft
Entrepreneurship Thrives in Albert County]]>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:06:14 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/board-member-profile-kayla-dormer-of-the-lucky-rabbit-fine-craftentrepreneurship-thrives-in-albert-countyPictureKayla Dormer, of Lucky Rabbit Fine Craft, Riverview
In 2025 twenty-seven-year-old Kayla Dormer, who had spent five years previously working with Glass Roots Gallery, started her own craft boutique in Riverview.

“Lucky Rabbit Fine Craft was born out of an appreciation of and love for local artists. We wanted to create a place where artists could sell their work and be represented. We function as a connector between artist and customer.

 “I worked at Glass Roots Gallery when they were here in Riverview. I got to meet a lot of talented artists, got to know a lot about the business of running an art gallery.

“Our focus is all things Maritime. We feature more than fifty artists that make quality goods and products from all across Atlantic Canada. We are a hub for local art. We feature pottery, blown glass, paintings, wood products, a range of crafts, jewelry, paintings, prints, and cards.

“Our products are what makes us unique. We are always bringing in new artists, new products, and every product that we carry is completely handmade and so is one of a kind.” One of the many struggles of starting a business is knowing when to start, especially when you are young. Fortunately, Kayla had a mentor in Sara Phelan, owner of Evalu-8 Evolve in Riverview.

“There's a lot to learn. I was super lucky to have a business coach when I started, Sara Phelan. She was an immense help in getting started. There is a lot of learning to do as a young entrepreneur, and a lot of learning from experience and other people. The next step for Kayla will be expanding her business with an online store to extend the connection between local artists to buyers across the country.

“We're in the process of opening an online store, where all of our products will be represented on our website, and they will be available for shipping throughout Canada, so that is going to be a huge next step for us. And something we look forward to.

​“Everybody is supportive here in the community, wanting to support local. Everybody is just very kind, and I have been met with nothing but support and well wishes.”


]]><![CDATA[The Albert County Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Gala is Returning: Here is What You Need to Know]]>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:01:27 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/the-albert-county-chamber-of-commerce-business-excellence-gala-is-returning-here-is-what-you-need-to-knowPicture
On October 1st, The Albert County Chamber of Commerce will host the Business Excellence Gala and Awards Ceremony at the Holy Whale in Riverview from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The Business Excellence awards are designed to celebrate local business, give businesses an opportunity to network, and celebrate the local community.

Chamber president Eric Lawson says, “for many years the Business Excellence Gala and Awards have been the major annual event for the Chamber of Commerce.

“We will have an awards ceremony that will be a really nice networking evening. There will be appetizers and drinks, a DJ, an event photographer, and a Master of Ceremonies. We want attendees to have fun while recognizing business excellence.”

The event will be documented on the Albert County Chamber of Commerce website and in the River View magazine in the weeks following October 1st.

Says Lawson, “we are looking forward to bringing back the Gala after a hiatus last year. And I think that if there is anything I really want to stress, it is that it is not just the recognition of the awards. That is important, but it is also a networking evening, and it is also a social evening.

The last Gala was held in October of 2024, at Hopewell Rocks.

​Tickets are available to purchase online from the Chamber’s website at www.albertcountychamber.com. Tickets are $75.00, or $65.00 with the purchase of three or more.
]]><![CDATA[How the Albert County Chamber of Commerce is Helping and Promoting Small Businesses Across the County]]>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:55:50 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/how-the-albert-county-chamber-of-commerce-is-helping-and-promoting-small-businesses-across-the-countyPicture Annick Butland, former ACCC president, addressing the 2023 Business Excellence Gala and Awards. Image by Danica Sherry.
The Albert County Chamber of Commerce represents small businesses in Albert County. Founded in 1998, the Chamber’s mission is to foster economic growth and a vibrant business community.

According to former president Annick Robichaud Butland, the goal of the Chamber is to “support business and industry. It gives a chance for networking, both with other businesses in the county and by affiliation with other Chambers and similar organizations.”

The current president is Eric Lawson of Riverview, owner of the River Views community magazine. Robichaud Butland was a long-time board member of the Chamber, serving as president until 2025, and continuing to serve on the board until recently.
Another role of the Chamber is to connect with governments across various levels to advocate for local businesses and make sure their voices are heard. Says Lawson, “we believe we can have an impact in particular at the municipal level.”

Notes Robichaud Butland, “during the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses needed even more support; however, even in normal economic times, businesses still need support in part due to the seasonal economy of Albert County. It is important for them to be able to exchange best practices: how do they face challenges such as seasonality, pandemics, staffing, housing for their staff?

“It's not just one or two businesses that are dealing with those challenges; it's important for them to be supported, and that's critical to a thriving community.”

Another benefit is the connection between members: “I would always put preference to Albert County-based businesses that were enrolled as a member before I would go and shop outside of those memberships. Hopefully, it acts as a driver for some business at your door. This creates a positive feedback loop that can increase customers for your business.”

Lawson describes the Chamber as welcoming and always looking for new members and new board members. “Our board is volunteer based with meetings every month. Our membership fees are $150 a year. The Chamber has more than 120 members from all over the county.

Every organization faces its challenges; one of those facing The Albert County Chamber of Commerce is communication with members: “One of the biggest challenges is communicating all the things that the board is doing, events that they were participating in and representation in various organizations,” says Lawson. We are always looking for ways to improve the Chamber and to strengthen our partnerships, to have innovative programs and new ideas.”

Lawson adds, “to try to address that we conducted outreach in the form of a survey this past summer.” He adds with a smile, “I know, everyone is tired of surveys! But we had not reached out to our members in that way for a few years, so we wanted to ensure that we are hearing from members about what they would like to see us doing more of, and what we can be doing better.”

​If you want to learn more or provide input on what you would like to see from your Chamber, contact Eric Lawson by email: viewofthetides@gmail.com or 506-863-7324.
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]]><![CDATA[CAC in Conversation: Getting to Know the Albert County Chamber of Commerce]]>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:44:05 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/cac-in-conversation-getting-to-know-the-albert-county-chamber-of-commercePicture
 Submitted by Melody Land, Part-Time Coordinator, Connecting Albert County

The Albert County Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Connecting Albert County in sponsoring this publication. In addition to our regular content, the ACCC supplied multiple articles and stories due the efforts of Sarah Burtt, their Administrative Summer Student. We thank them for their commitment to the community and for their partnership.

As a part of our new session of CAC: In Conversation, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Eric Lawson, volunteer president of the Albert County Chamber of Commerce, and Sarah Burtt, the Chamber’s summer administrative assistant. We talked about who they are, what brought them to the Chamber, and the important role the organization plays in supporting local businesses.

Eric’s connection to Albert County goes back many years. Originally from Newfoundland, his family moved to the area when he was seven, and Albert County became home. Although work later took Eric and his family to Central Canada for a number of years, the East Coast eventually called them back.

That return eventually led Eric to the Chamber. After interviewing former Chamber president Annick Butland for a story in his community newspaper, the “River Views”, Eric was encouraged to join the board. Two years later, he is serving as president.
For Eric, the Chamber’s role is particularly important because of the number of small and family-owned businesses in our region.

“We have a lot of small SMEs, a lot of them mom and pop, family owned and operated, many of them seasonal, many of them related directly or indirectly to tourism,” he explained.

He sees the Albert County Chamber as an important voice for these businesses and as part of a larger network of chambers throughout the province and Atlantic Canada.

Sarah’s connection to Albert County is even more straightforward—she was born here and has lived here most of her life. She is currently a third-year commerce student and joined the Chamber this summer to gain local work experience connected to her future career interests in finance or accounting.

Her summer with the Chamber has given her opportunities to do things she had not experienced before, including writing articles and learning more about local businesses.

One of the things that surprised Sarah most was just how interconnected the Chamber’s membership is.

“I’ve looked at like 100 members [on] the members list. I am surprised I’ve recognized a lot of them,” she said.

And the membership is diverse. It includes tourism businesses, gift shops, craft businesses, hotels, mechanics, coaches and many other types of small and medium-sized enterprises.

That diversity is one of the things that makes a local Chamber valuable. It provides opportunities for businesses to connect, share knowledge and build relationships. As Eric pointed out, those in-person connections can be particularly meaningful.

The Chamber also provides advocacy for local businesses and is looking at expanding its training opportunities for members. One potential area of training is the impact of artificial intelligence on small businesses—how it can be used effectively, what the benefits are and what pitfalls businesses should be aware of.

Another major focus this year is the Chamber’s Business Excellence Awards Gala, which will take place in October.

For Eric, there is also a desire to bring back more promotion of individual Chamber members, using resources such
as the Chamber’s website and local media to help tell the stories of the businesses that contribute so much to our communities.

One thing became very clear during our conversation: the Chamber of Commerce is about much more than a membership list or an annual awards gala. At its heart, it is about people—local business owners, entrepreneurs, employees and community members who are all connected through the work they do.

That is one of the most valuable things about doing these conversations. We often know the businesses in our community, but we don't always know the people behind them or the organizations working behind the scenes to support them. Connecting Albert County looks forward to seeing what the Albert County Chamber of Commerce continues to build, to continued partnership with them, and to celebrating the businesses and people who help make our community such a 
great place to live, work and grow. 
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]]><![CDATA[The Road with Two Names]]>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:04:35 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/the-road-with-two-namesSubmitted by James Wilson, Contributing Author

Road names are usually something on which there is universal agreement and when that is not the case it hints at an interesting history waiting to be discovered. Such is the case with the Niagara Road, or as the locals know it, the Nigarry Road (Nigary? Nygary?). 

The road with an identity crisis equally amuses and confounds those who first learn of it. 

An obvious question emerges: how did we get here?

​The answer to that question is a matter of debate whenever it is raised but I would like to examine four common theories. 
Theory #1 – It has always been the Niagara Road and ‘Nigarry’ is a mispronunciation.

Let us start with the simplest theory first - ‘Nigarry’ is the result of generations of locals slowly shifting the pronunciation of the name till it bears only a passing resemblance to how its spelled.

What is interesting is this exact thing has happened before in New Brunswick. The community of ‘Geary’ was originally called ‘New Niagara’ before it was progressively shortened to its current form.  

This theory is further supported by ‘Nigarry’ not being a word in any of the languages I’ve checked.

The main problem with this theory is proving one usage is older than the other. Many old maps either don’t include the road or don’t label it. It is also directly contradicted by people who claim they have seen official maps with some variation of ‘Nigarry’ on it.

While this theory is believable due to it requiring the fewest assumptions its not totally proven.

Theory #2 – The name is the result of a printers error.

This theory is related to the previous one. Some claim ‘Nigarry’ is the result of a map being printed with the wrong name which resulted in the locals adopting it as the correct pronunciation and never going back to the old name when the maps were corrected. 

It isn’t out of the realm of possibility, as sometimes errors creep into official documents, especially if the information was conveyed verbally or a note taker had particularly bad penmanship. That is, after all, how we ended up with the ‘Steeves’ Family rather than the ‘Stief’ Family and how Moncton lost the k in its name. 

Further, Albert County folk can be stubborn about names. The causeway between Riverview and Moncton isn’t a causeway any more and has a new name but you’d be hard-pressed to find a local who knows it. However, one would think that if this error was prevalent enough to alter what people were calling the road that there would be a lot of maps surviving that show it. All I’ve been able to confirm is if such a map exists it is from after the year 1900.

Theory #3 – The government put up the wrong sign.

It wouldn’t be New Brunswick if there wasn’t at least one theory suggesting the government screwed up somehow! As the story goes, when the government was moving away from using rural route numbers they put up the Niagara sign in the wrong place. Silly government.

This theory is supported by there being a Nigarry Road near Memramcook which the locals supposedly call the Niagara Road. Of course narrowing down when this happened is tricky. The current green signs with white letters were rolled out in the 70s and 80s. Prior to this some roads lacked any signs at all.  

It's easy to imagine a local referring to the road as ‘Nigarry’ for their whole life only for a sign to go up reading ‘Niagara’ and reach the conclusion the wrong sign was put up by a distant and uncaring government.

#4 – There once was a man named Gary…

Perhaps my favourite theory is that the name ‘Nigarry’ derives from people referring to the road as the one ‘nigh Gary’s house’!

Now, I’m not going to discount this theory entirely since its happened in history before. The name of the city of Istanbul in Turkey literally means ‘to the city’ and was a common answer travellers gave when asked where they were going since it was the only city in the area. 

The problem with this theory centres around the name Gary. Gary was not a common given name in English until the mid-1900s and several people have stated they had grandparents born in the early 1900s who remembered the road already having its nickname. That said, variants of the name Gary as a surname were a bit more common. However, the 1862 walling map of Albert County doesn’t have anyone with a Gary-esque surname in the right area so they would have had to have moved in after this date. 

Why do we keep calling it the Nigarry Road?

Separate from the question of how the road ended up with two names is the question of why the informal version continues to survive. 

As mentioned previously Albert County folk are stubborn about names and perhaps that is all there is to it. However, I would like to propose that the road’s name is an example of a shibboleth – a word to identify insiders and outsiders. If a person says ‘Niagara Road’ perhaps they are a local or perhaps not but if they they say ‘Nigarry Road’ you have some confidence that this person has been in the area for a while. 

In support of this view it should be noted that while many people think the sign is wrong, there has been little in the way of effort to change it because ‘Nigarry’ only serves its function as a shibboleth if its an alternative only locals know about. 

So there you have it! Four theories on how the Nigarry Road ended up with an identity crisis and why at the end of the day we might just like it that way!
]]><![CDATA[Isaac & Blewett at Oulton Hall!]]>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:47:59 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/isaac-blewett-at-oulton-hallArticle & Image Submitted by Tim Isaac, Musician & Artist

No-one can describe a vibe quite like Jim Blewett:  

‘Finally we’re going to play again with Sara, Ian and Chris. 

We’ve been playing with a bunch of different cats this summer and really getting off on it. And we’re really looking forward to playing with this crew. They bring that steppy flat-out feel, and I love to watch Sara’s face as she plays and gets into it, man let me tell you. We’re going to be at Oulton Hall on Saturday Aug.29. It’s old school, we can’t play at the Harvey Hall right now so Oulton Hall is where shows are being held, so music is still alive in Albert County, thanks to the Harvey Hall volunteers. We really are looking forward to it and it’s gonna be a blast, so come on down to the country and check it out.’  ​
Isaac & Blewett with Ian Duncan (pipes and whistles), Sara Liptay (violin), Chris Mersereau (percussion) 

Where: The Oulton Hall at the Riverside-Albert fairgrounds
When: 7:00 Saturday Aug.29
​Tickets: www.harveyhall.org $30 (a portion going to the restoration of Harvey Hall)  
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]]><![CDATA[Kiwanis Search for Members]]>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:12:11 GMThttps://www.connectingalbertcounty.org/news/kiwanis-search-for-membersPicture
The Hillsborough Kiwanis has been in the community 80 years, and throughout that time has had lots of development and growth. We are growing again and are currently looking for new members!



Come join our organization - all are welcome!

For more information, reach out to us via email at:

hillsboroughkiwanisrentals@gmail.com

or

Find us on Facebook @hillsboroughkiwaniscommunitycenter
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