Betty Ann Cormier is humbled and honoured to receive Cape Breton University’s inaugural Harry and Elizabeth Boardmore Builder Award in Sydney on November 6th.
November 12, 2025
-by Beverley Phillips
Betty Ann Cormier, known for her skill in and advocacy for Cheticamp-style rug hooking, won Cape Breton University’s inaugural Harry and Elizabeth Boardmore Builder Award at a gala celebration in Sydney on November 6th.
Six Creative Arts Awards have been created this year to help celebrate CBU’s 50th anniversary. As noted on the CBU website, the Harry and Elizabeth Boardmore Builder Award “recognizes an individual who has initiated creative arts projects/programming on campus or in the community. Exemplifying a deep commitment to student engagement in the arts, this award winner has contributed greatly to the development of novel creative arts opportunities designed to reach a wide and engaged audience. Builders produce new and exciting creative arts deliverables exploring innovation in method, application, and content.”
Cormier fits the bill. She has been a tireless advocate for Cheticamp-style rug hooking, an art form that has been seen as dying. At its height, hundreds of men and women used this unique technique to make artistic rugs. That number has fallen to less than 60, according to a study from 2023. Cormier initiated the Cheticamp Hook and Rug Making Experience, or CHARME school, in an effort to revive it, and she had students from around North America come to Cheticamp for a week this past September to learn from her and her team. With the success of that week of classes, planning for next year’s school is already underway.
“I was quite surprised!” she said with a laugh when asked how she felt when she found out she won.
It was only ten days before the event that she learned she was nominated for the award. “I don’t know who did it,” she said, “but I’d like to thank them.”
And because it was rather short notice, she wasn’t able to be at the gala to accept it in person. “I was already booked for an event,” Cormier said, “so I asked a friend to pick it up for me should I win.”
And sure enough, her friend had to do the honours. Cormier picked up the honour two days later at a multicultural festival in Sydney.
“I’m humbled and honoured,” said Cormier. “But I feel bad that there is only one name on the award. All the work I’m doing, I’m not doing by myself. There are the rug hookers of the past, and all those who are still doing it, and those who help teach. It belongs to the rug hooking community. I’m proud to receive this on their behalf.”
The rug hooking community is very proud of what Cormier has accomplished, and well-wishes have been flooding in on social media sites.
“We are only just beginning,” Cormier continued. “There is so much to be done and so many possibilities. Our group has 11 different projects we are considering for 2026. We need to decide what we can manage to do.”
One thing they are managing to do is start some mentoring groups and classes. At the end of the month, two teachers will be mentoring 10 to 12-year-olds for eight weeks in the art and craft of Cheticamp-style rug hooking. In the new year, there will be beginner classes for adults. It will be four classes encompassing design, making hooks, dyeing the wool, and finally, beginning to hook a rug.
To find out more about the youth mentoring programs, you can get in touch with Brenda Doucet, Yvette LeLievre, or school representative Jessica LeBrun Aucoin at NDA school. For the adult classes, contact Lucienne LeFort or Raymonde Doucet.
