Aimee Romard is one of the driving forces behind the wildly popular Coal Bowl, a high school basketball tournament in her hometown of New Waterford, N.S.
Aimee has never scored a basket, but you'll have a hard time finding someone more popular at the annual tournament.
“I love the experience the boys get to have for the week and I love being able to provide them with that,” says Aimee.
Aimee has spent countless hours helping the national event run smoothly.
“She's really the backbone of the tournament,” says Gary MacDonald, a Coal Bowl player.
Her effort is not lost on the young players on the hometown Breton Education Centre Bears.
“We appreciate it a ton,” says Gary. “It's amazing the work that she does. If it weren't for Ms. Romard, there probably wouldn't be a Coal Bowl.”
Aimee pretty much lives at the school during the week-long event, co-ordinating the opening and closing ceremonies, a variety show involving all 10 teams in the tournament, and a pageant for Grade 12 girls.
Outside of Coal Bowl, Aimee organizes the school's annual winter ball and safe grad, and is head of the yearbook, all while holding down a full-time teaching job at another school.
“She is the epitome of a volunteer,” says Jackie Poirier, Coal Bowl co-chair. “She pitches in and helps in any way possible. She spends hours and hours of her time making sure everything is done right.”
In 2013, the daughter of a fellow Coal Bowl volunteer died just a month before she was to graduate from BEC. Aimee ensured Barbara Burke's memory was front and centre at prom and graduation and then helped to build a blue bench, Barbara's favourite colour, as a gesture from her graduating class.
“For Aimee to take that time to do that for us and to do it for Barbara, it's indescribable. She was always a friend, Aimee's more like a relative now,” says Roselyn Burke, a Coal Bowl volunteer.
A BEC grad herself, Aimee says she loves seeing students have an experience they'll never forget.
“I see the benefit it brings to our town, to our students, to our community as a whole and I want it to be around and if that means I have to put in a little extra work, then I'm gonna do it,” says Aimee.
Congratulations Aimee Romard, our Maritimer of the Week!
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