Dr. Thomas Lees Memorial Award for HTPEI’s Volunteer of the Year 2007
Laura Dear
Laura Dear has been a cornerstone of Horse Trials PEI since she and her family moved to PEI. She is one of those rare individuals who participates fully and actively in an organization while juggling all the responsibilities that come with running her own business and raising a young family. We wish we could clone her.
Laura has competed two horses at Strathgartney over the years, and is anxiously waiting for her 2 year old to mature so that she will be back in competition at our Horse Trials. At the same time as she was actively competing, Laura organized cross country clinics and jump construction clinics at the Equestrian Park as well as flagging and numbering the cross country course for our Horse Trials. When she has not had a horse to ride, Laura has jumped into the most demanding task as Organizer of our Horse Trial. At the moment she is Secretary for all the Horse Trials organized by HTPEI for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. One of my enduring memories of Laura is at Strathgartney in May of 2006, seven months pregnant, with a hammer in her hand building cross country jumps. She literally never stops.
Laura has also been an active member of the Board of Directors for years, and served as President of HTPEI for a 2 year term as well as serving as our club representative to the Island Horse Council. In addition she has represented HTPEI at the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Eventing Committee, our national governing body.
Throughout all of Laura’s time with our club she has shown excellent judgement, and somehow always manages to be positive and have a smile on her face. She inspires confidence and radiates a love for eventing. She is truly a worthy recipient for the 2007 Dr. Thomas Lees Memorial volunteer of the year award for HTPEI. Thank you Laura.