Scholarship in honour of Maurice Beauregard

Zainab Al-Mehdar
Campbell’s Bay
February 1, 2022
Inspired by the late Maurice Beauregard’s love of serving and continuously advocating for the community, his family has created an annual graduation award for students in the Pontiac.
The memorial award is called the ‘Maurice Beauregard Community and Leadership Award’ and will be given to a graduating student from each of the three high schools in the Pontiac; Pontiac High School, École secondaire Sieur de Coulonge and Dr. Wilbert Keon School. It will be awarded to the student who has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and actively contributed to improving student life for their school community, explained Maurice’s wife, Kelly Beauregard.
The idea came to Kelly and her two sons Hunter and Carter as they reminisced about the days they went to different events and fundraisers with Maurice. They did so because they too enjoyed being involved in the community and so Hunter suggested holding a fundraiser ball tournament. From there the ideas kept snowballing. Kelly suggested why not give an award to Pontiac graduates, remembering how Maurice was always involved in these ceremonies handing out awards.
“Even though sometimes the topics are hard with the situation, you know, we don’t ever shy away from talking about Moe and he’s here all the time with us in spirit,” said Kelly.
As the idea was evolving, Hunter highlighted that there are a lot of students that contribute to bettering student life but go unnoticed, maybe they don’t get the highest grades or didn’t excel in a certain topic but they made a difference in their community and for him, that’s who should be getting the award.
“Hunter said ‘dad would never have won the highest mark but he would have been a recipient of this award.’ [He was] always involved always doing things like that. So I think that’s kind of how it all came about,” said Kelly.
The first recipients will be from the graduating classes of 2023. Kelly hopes the $500 acts as an incentive to encourage those students who volunteer their time to continue after they graduate in hopes they become the future leaders of the Pontiac.
It will be funded by a two-day three-pitch ball tournament, which will be held annually the last weekend of May in Campbell’s Bay. Their target goal of $1500 will be divided up into a $500 award for each graduate, and any additional funds raised will be donated to the Municipality of Campbell’s Bay to be reinvested into the ‘Parc Maurice Beauregard Park”. They chose to host a ball tournament not only because it’s their favourite sport but because to Kelly there was a sentimental value.
“If you’ve been to Campbell’s Bay, right in the heart of our town is a big ball field. And we all love ball whether we’re watching ball or playing and Hunter and Carter they’re at that age where they’re involved with ball. Maurice and I actually met on a ball field, it was kind of a funny story,” said Kelly.
Although Maurice loved to play he was not a professional at all, but he brought positive energy and whether they were winning or losing he was cheering from the stands and making everyone laugh. He was a “professional benchwarmer,” said Kelly, adding that if you ask anyone they have a story of Maurice with ball.
Maurice passed away on October 15, 2022, at the age of 43, so talking about him is still hard for his family but to turn these sad moments into happy ones Kelly chose the end of May weekend because it’s their anniversary. Instead of being sad, he’s not with them, Kelly explained she wanted to celebrate his life and do something that reminded them of Maurice. “It’s just to celebrate our memories of him and to be able to do something good for the community as well,” she said.
The event is going to be organized by a small committee, ‘Family and Friends of Maurice Beauregard.’ Kelly would like to highlight that it was a community effort and that it was through the efforts of the people closest to them that this will be possible.
The first ball tournament will be held on May 26 and 27.