Sally Henry Memorial Award Winner—2006
Pat Moynihan-Morris
by Marian Macdonald and Susanne Stark
The Sally Henry Memorial Award 2006 Winner is Pat Moynihan-Morris.
Pat graduated from Brescia College at the University of Western Ontario and freelanced for most of her career in many areas of the Home Economics field.
Initially Pat Moynihan-Morris was part of the “Creative Cookery Team”, giving food and appliance demonstrations to not-for-profit organizations in southwestern Ontario. This gave her excellent experience in organizing, preparing and cooking “on the road” which was invaluable in later years!
Pat gained corporate experience at INGLIS appliances working with the engineers on gas and convection ovens. This was followed by a year on contract with CAMCO appliances.
Since then her freelance activities have covered a broad scope: recipe development, teaching night school cooking classes and organizing booths to promote products for food companies at consumer and trade shows.
She spent considerable time supporting the recent CTFI (Consumer Trends Forum International) Conference here this past February. She worked on the gift bags, organized contacts and set up tours. She also organized the welcoming committee and assisted at the welcome reception. Her enthusiasm and skills were an asset to the Royal Winter Fair for many years when she organized the food stage. She is still involved in the jam, jelly and pickle judging accessing the skills of her professional colleagues.
On the home front, Pat has been a leader in both Brownies and Girl Guides. She volunteered in the school library for an amazing 12 years and was given a special award by the school. She organized hot dog lunches once a month for the whole school that her children attended.
Pat is also a strong supporter of her church. She is the one who always makes scones for events held by the Senior Citizens group. At Christmas, the church selects a “family in need” She personally buys gifts for one of the children of the family. She is also the one who fills the “Shoe Boxes” with small gifts and toiletries that the church provides for their women’s shelter at Christmas. In addition the church has an annual rummage sale which she always organizes!
This brief outline really illustrates her spirit as well as her diverse interests and enthusiasm in making contributions to other facets of her community.
Pat embodies the attributes that Sally reflected and the foundation of the Sally Henry Award: professionalism, community contribution both within and outside the Home Economics profession and a timeless spirit of volunteerism and service. Pat creates opportunities for people within her network. She is a community builder.
Pat is volunteerism and service. She is always volunteering to support someone’s passion. That is the heart of this nomination. She brings her natural action orientation and continuous spirit to everyone around her, and they not only benefit from her resourcefulness, they benefit from the resourcefulness of her incredible network. As we develop recipes for Kraft North America, Pat taps into her network of Home Economists and food professionals to provide additional value added information. And she always gives credit to the people for the information.
No project it too complicated. Pat is an uncomplicator, a doer and a team builder.
Her natural volunteerism and service orientation and the fact that she genuinely cares about people builds her network of resources. In this way she is a powerful community builder and connector and has created opportunities for many of her colleagues in the association.
Congratulations Pat.