SPRINGHILL, N.S. – Never underestimate the power of paint.
“People said, ‘the mayor thinks paint will fix everything,’” said Pam Mood, the mayor of Yarmouth. “I said, ‘darn right it does.’”
Mood spoke at the Springhill and Area Chamber of Commerce annual general April 24 at the Dr. Carson & Marion Murray Community Centre in Springhill.
Upon becoming mayor in 2012, Mood witnessed first-hand how the cancellation of the ferry service between Yarmouth and Maine decimated her town, plunging it into a state of despair and disrepair.
“We lost our ferry. We lost tens of thousands of people coming over on an international link to spend money, to buy summer homes, and to pay taxes,” said Mood. “Businesses closed because without customers you couldn’t survive. Our whole Main Street was boarded up. It was a barren downtown.”
Mood, an RCMP officer with the Yarmouth Drug Section until 2001, is also an international speaker and leadership expert who delivers workshops on leadership, communications, and community engagement.
Those skills came to in handy when, a few years later, it was announced ferry service would be restored to Yarmouth.
“I walked to my CAO’s office and I said, ‘we need to have a town hall meeting,’ and he said ‘why,’ and I said, ‘because the ferry is coming back.’”
The CAO suggested they have the meeting in the town council chamber.
“I said ‘no, we’ll do it at the civic centre.’”
It was suggested by somebody they set up about 30 seats.
“I turned to the guy and said, ‘set up 400 seats.’ They were laughing,” said Mood. “We did that, and this is what happened, 500 people showed up.”
Knowing the future of her town was on the line and there would be no second chances, Mood posed one simple question to the 500 people who attended the meeting
“My question to the community was, ‘What are you as an organization, a business or an individual willing to put on the table to move your community forward.’
Mood also set the ground rules at the meeting, which included no finger-pointing and no blaming others.
“I told them if you’re going to come in here and be negative, you’re in the wrong room. If you’re going to be negative, just leave.”
The first man to the microphone was negative.
“He kept talking, so we turned his microphone off.”
Things went better after that.
“Everybody was pledging what they will do,” said Mood.
More than 50 different teams emerged from the meeting, including a cannon crew that set off a cannon when the ferry approached, along with a flag team, gardening crews, and street cleaning crews.
“They were out cleaning up the streets. Nobody asked them, they were just out cleaning up the streets,” said Mood. “They were scraping gum off the streets. They had a whole team of gum scrapers. It was crazy.”
Painting crews also emerged from the meeting.
“If you couldn’t help paint a building, you didn’t have to paint it, you could bring muffins out to feed the people who were painting,” said Mood. “Nobody was trying to outdo anybody, we just said ‘we’re a community and we know what we can be if we do it together.’ None of us could have done it alone.”
Besides the power of paint, Mood also believes in the potential of people living in small towns.
“We need to understand the power of small communities, but we also have to erase the small-town mentality,” said Mood. “Don’t think for one second that the rest of world is looking for big-city living. They’re looking for exactly what we have, we just have to dress it up a little bit.”
A rising tide lifts all boats, and Mood said communities throughout Nova Scotia need to work together to make Nova Scotia great.
“The world is going to see Canada first, they’re going to see Nova Scotia second, and then they’re going to find Cumberland County. That’s the way it works, but you have to shine your light.”
She said Nova Scotia has the ingredients - milk, eggs, butter, cocoa – that, when put together, bake a great cake.
“Sometimes we fight with each other and battle because we don’t understand we are so much better together,” said Mood.
She says attitude is everything.
“When people would call me Suzie Sunshine, the mayor with rose-coloured glasses,’ I’d just smile and say, ‘that’s right.’”
Mood has rid the town of the colours grey and beige, and implemented several municipal programs encouraging people to create lively-coloured store fronts.
“Now people say, ‘you’re not allowed to pick grey or beige because the mayor will paint over it.’ You’re darn right I will,” said Mood.
