Marie-Hélène Labrie
2009
Our Award of merit winner this year is someone who we have all watched grow up in the Ayrshire breed. From a dynamic, driven family their energy and passion was certainly passed along.
An incredible promoter and very personable after her presence at a few Ayrshire events there was no one who hadn’t heard about her favourite cow which resulted in her nickname, Wilma.
This is a woman who works very hard to expand the Ayrshire breed; she visits members in her area on a regular basis and promotes registrations, classifications and memberships. She seeks out new Ayrshire owners and makes sure that they have all the information that they need. She also is constantly promoting and registering breeders for the Synergy programme, which provides another increase in registrations, classification, and milk recording, all leading to more accurate genetic evaluations for the Ayrshire breed.
Our winner has been a director for Ayrshire Quebec for the past several years, and is currently the Vice President, she was also a National Director, and has been on the Marketing committee. All this while working a job off the farm, working on the farm, starting a family and smiling, she infects everybody with her positive energy, and relentless good attitude, truly a driven woman.
The recent successful Ayrshire Quebec youth workshop, and the previous one would not have been possible without her tireless work. She not only was a primary organizer, she also was a chauffeur.
This is a woman of vision who looks to the future and doesn’t get stuck in the past. Her focus on youth provides leadership both for today and tomorrow. She is a woman who is dedicated to the dairy industry in general and the Ayrshire breed in particular.