Greg and Gaëtane Archibald are Wolfville's Volunteers of the Year. Mayor Jodi MacKay announced the win at the Town's celebration of volunteers that was hosted at the Wolfville Farmers' Market on April 19.
Kicking-off National Volunteer Week, Mayor MacKay expressed thanks, on behalf of Council, for the countless hours and incredible efforts made by the volunteer community in Wolfville.
There were 13 nominees for Wolfville's Volunteer of the Year and each nominee has made Wolfville a better place to live, work, study and play.
2026 award winners Gaëtane and Greg manage of Valley After The Bell, a food security charity that provides food to school children on weekends. Greg also serves as the group’s accountant.
Valley After the Bell supports over 200 children at 15 schools throughout Kings and Hants Counties, trying to fill the gap for children who may be served by school breakfast and lunch programs, but come to school hungry on Monday mornings.
The program was started a number of years ago, but Greg and Gaëtane became managers when the Valley branch moved to the County Fair Mall two years ago. Their work is essential to the success of this operation.
In addition to coordinating the activities of over twenty volunteers, Greg and Gaëtane work to find the best prices for bulk purchases of food; travel to wherever they need to to get the best bargains; transport the food to the shelves in the space provided in County Fair Mall; help oversee the assembly line of volunteers for each week’s output of food packages; coordinate the distribution of food bags to the individual schools; organize special fundraisers and other events, including outreach to potential donors; and take shifts in the store on a regular basis, as well as filling in for sick or absent volunteers.
They do all this work without any financial compensation, each putting in well over thirty hours per week of their time. Put simply, they are the heart and soul of Valley After The Bell.
Greg and Gaëtane Archibald were nominated by Judy Swift.
