To each participant who agreed to be interviewed and stayed with the project, thank you for your patience, courtesy, and trust that the project would actually come to fruition. Your generosity in sharing your part in the rich history of women's activism in Atlantic Canada will go on giving to younger activists who need the reinforcement of your example, all thanks to the wonders of web technology that many of us could not have foreseen, "back in the day."
The contributions of the three commentators, Dr. Shauna Butterwick, Dr. Leona English, and Dr. Patricia Gouthro, remind me why adult educators in Canada are such a special breed of people.
I would like to recognize the many women who recommended names of potential interviewees:
For Newfoundland and Labrador: Linda Cullum, Erin Keough, Willeen Keough, Luanne Leamon, Leslie MacLeod, Katherine McManus, Sylvia Manning, Dorothy Robbins, Gerry Rogers, and Grace Stapleton.
For Nova Scotia: Annabel Bruce, Jane Dawson, Leona English, Kathleen Flanagan, Marie Gillen, Patricia Gouthro, Lucille Harper, Joan Hicks, Kathy Moggridge, Brigitte Neumann, Doreen Parsons, and Stella Lord.
For Prince Edward Island: Marie Burge, Martha Gabriel, Becky Tramley, and Ann Wheatley.
For New Brunswick, Pat Belier, Mary Blatherwick, Margaret Conrad, Gwen Davies, Karen Dunnett, Jo-Anne Elder, Penny Ericson, Anne Fawcett, Sandra Germain, Sydelle Grobe, Josephine Lynam, Barbara Malcolm, Rosella Melanson, Sue Rickards, Mary Lou Stirling, and Gail Taylor.
From British Columbia, Sheila Thompson sent her recommended names of Atlantic women.
In Ontario, Dr. Angela Miles and Dr. Paula Bourne at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, at the University of Toronto, provided helpful support to guide the design of the project in 2008; and in Ottawa, Ardith Toogood and Susan Russell of the Canadian Federation for University Women (CFUW) also gave me precious encouragement during the early stages.
Both Sydelle Grobe, then president of the Fredericton branch of the CFUW, and Josephine Lynam, long-time adult educator, mentor, and CFUW member, listened carefully to the earliest inklings of this project in 2007, gleaning its potential for reaching women of all generations at once. As I contacted other regional CFUW leaders for possible participants, this support was multiplied and strengthened.
The University of New Brunswick's Office of Research Services twice enabled me to pare off salary money over three years (approximately $35,000) to resource the project, following its rules for self-funded research.
Gail Taylor of Spiral for Change cooperative consulting in Saint John accepted my invitation to be editor. Her extensive skills in elegant writing, social activism, and unflinching but always supportive editing, were just what the project (and I) needed.
Erik Moore, director of the Electronic Text Centre at the University of New Brunswick, with Geoffrey Allen, Monica Currie, Vivian Unger, and Jennifer Whitney, are an awesome team with high standards and a sense of humour when it matters.
Three University of New Brunswick Faculty of Education secretaries responded with consistent courtesy when they heard my squeaks for help in keeping files in order, wrestling with file formats, and sending out letters. Wendy Jones, Teena MacDougall and Catherine McKinnon also transcribed several interviews or repaired my format errors, commenting spontaneously on how inspired they felt as younger women while reading the narratives.