2024 is L.M. Montgomery’s 150th birthday! The L.M. Montgomery Institute (LMMI) at the University of Prince Edward Island is celebrating with 150 tributes – celebratory statements or greetings – that reflect upon personal connections to Montgomery or on an aspect of her life, work, or legacy.
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“Three cheers for Miss Shirley, winner of the Avery!” (Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 36). Anne Shirley is awarded a fictional Avery Scholarship. This week’s tributes are from some real-life Avery Scholars: Akila Thomas, Sarah Freeburn, Amy MacQuarrie, and Michaela Wipond. (The tribute from the 2022-2023 Avery Scholar, Isabelle McNeill, was featured in our Canada Day celebrations.) The Avery Scholarship is awarded annually to a returning UPEI undergraduate student. More information about the history, eligibility, and due date of the scholarship can be found here.
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Akila Thomas: 2023-2024 Avery Scholar
I distinctly recall the day I first encountered the enchanting world of L. M. Montgomery during my first Arts course at university. Since then, I've witnessed the profound impact of Montgomery's tales – the boundless joy they bring to hearts young and old, the intense passion they ignite, and the timeless wisdom they bestow. Before long, I, too, found myself in awe of Maud's literary prowess. Anne of Green Gables resonated deeply with me as a young international student navigating unfamiliar territories. I am deeply grateful for your words and the indelible imprint your stories have left on the world.
Happy Birthday to the beloved, the timeless, the incomparable L. M. Montgomery!
Akila Thomas is a 4th-year Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture student at the University of Prince Edward Island. She is the recipient of the 2023-2024 Avery Award.
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Sarah Freeburn: 2021-2022 Avery Scholar
Having moved to PEI several years ago, I was aware of the impact L.M. Montgomery and her work had on people around the world; however, I could not truly understand the passion until one of my university professors recommended I start the Emily series. The vivid descriptions and perpetual amazement Emily had for the physical world was unlike anything else I had read, and I was hooked. Following in the footsteps of many other Montgomery fans, I then set my sights on the Anne series, with another heroine who finds the beauty and wonder in the seemingly mundane world around her. The kinship that is embedded in these books between the characters and the world around them is aspirational and is something that will stick with me forever.
Sarah Freeburn graduated the University of Prince Edward Island with a degree in Diversity and Social Justice Studies and spends most of her free time gardening and reading.
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Amy MacQuarrie: 2019-2020 Avery Scholar
Every summer like clockwork I attended Anne of Green Gables: The Musical at the Confederation Centre of the Arts. Your work became synonymous with kindness, freedom, joy, womanhood, and rebellion and instantly connected with me as a young girl. My worn copies of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s books were given to me by my mother who has always inspired in me a love for reading. I never tire of visiting LMM’s writings and suspect I never will. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us, Maud. Happy Birthday!
Amy MacQuarrie is a former Avery scholar at UPEI and had the joy of researching Montgomery’s time as a teacher in PEI. Amy is currently completing her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at UNB Saint John.
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Michaela Wipond: 2018-2019 Avery Scholar
Like so many, Montgomery brought me to Prince Edward Island. A compulsive teenager from Calgary, Alberta, I enrolled at UPEI sure of only one thing: I had to see the land of which I’d been dreaming since I was a child. My parents thought I’d be home by Christmas. But, as Montgomery well knew, this land has a way of grabbing onto you and never letting go. When Montgomery brought me to the Island, she brought me to life. She introduced me to a community of scholars on whose shoulders I stand as I sit at my desk, far away from the coast, writing a dissertation about girls who love nature. As I’ve matured, so too has my understanding of Montgomery and her work, but my obsession has never waned. I have tried to move on to little avail; she—and her Island—are always and forever calling me home.
Michaela Wipond is a doctoral candidate in English at Queen’s University, specializing in ecofeminism and early twentieth-century girls’ novels.
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Back to School: Next week’s tributes will celebrate Montgomery and teachers.