National champs
Tignish wins second Communities in Bloom title in five years
The Tignish delegation that attended the recent Communities in Bloom symposium and awards ceremony in Ottawa was still vibrating with excitement upon their return home.
The four-person delegation – Jamie McHugh, Karen GaudetGavin, Garth Davey and Roger Gaudet – went up on stage during a gala dinner to accept the town’s award as the winner of the class of champions small communities category. Communities in Bloom national judges visited Tignish in July and scored the town five blooms with a gold rating.
A gold rating requires a score of 90 per cent or higher. Tignish scored 908.5 out of 1,000 when its marks for tidiness, environmental awareness, heritage conservation, urban forestry, landscape and floral displays were tallied up.
The delegation went to Ottawa hoping to score five blooms and at least maintain the bronze rating it received when it won the national title for communities with populations under 1,000 in 2013.
This year they were in a cateorgy with populations of up to 4,500. Also in the running for the national title were Pugwash, N.S., Kinistino, Sask. and Ashcroft, B.C.
Gaudet said he was “pleasantly surprised” with the rating.
Gaudet-Gavin said recent improvements in the town, like the district heating project undertaken by Tignish Initiatives, the town’s work on a new lagoon, a splash pad for children at Bicentennial Park and a tree-planting project students undertook at Tignish Elementary School, caught the judges’ eyes.
The tree project earned the town special mention from the judges for youth involvement.
School principal Mike Ellsworth said he was pleased outside groups are recognizing the work students are doing in their community.
McHugh, who has been overseeing the town’s beautification efforts since 2004, said her heart started pounding as soon as the category was announced. And when it was announced, “The winner is, ‘The Town of Tignish,’ I was… ’Woohoo!’” she said, recalling her excitement.
“I wasn’t shocked that we won. I was more enthusiastic about the gold,” she explained.
“Garth and I were saying that all summer, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to win gold at the 150 in Ottawa?’ And we did.”
McHugh said much of the credit is due to community buy-in. She said residents are more aware now of Communities in Bloom than they were just a few years ago. She’s regularly asked landscaping questions and about trees.
“All summer long, if they see Judy (Doucette) and me working, or just Judy alone, or myself, out in the street, they stop and they want to talk about Communities in Bloom,” McHugh said. All that interest and pride, is “making Tignish a better place to live.”
Gaudet-Gavin said the judges took note of the pride residents take in their properties.
Having now won national titles in two categories, the next step for Tignish would be to compete in the international category.
“It’s a jump,” McHugh acknowledged, “but I know we have good bones within our program right now. We didn’t get gold for doing nothing.”
She is hoping the town will stick with Communities in Bloom either in competitive or non-competitive ways.