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Music award for former resident

The Royal Conservatory launched a new Thank A Teacher Award this year and a former Saltcoats resident Bernice (Bunny) Pearce was the inaugural recipient.
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Bernice (Bunny) Pearce and one-time student Perry Ehrlich.


The Royal Conservatory launched a new Thank A Teacher Award this year and a former Saltcoats resident Bernice (Bunny) Pearce was the inaugural recipient.

Sponsored by the SOCAN Foundation, the Thank A Teacher Award recognizes an outstanding music educator who enriches and inspires students through their ongoing commitment to music education.

Nearly 1,200 active and retired teachers were nominated, spanning 11 provinces and territories.

Pearce, who has resided in West Vancouver for more than 30-years, said the award was completely unexpected.

"Oh my gosh! I was dumbfounded. I had no idea at all," the 77-year-old Pearce told Yorkton This Week.

Pearce said she was told she was to receive the award after her schedule of final exams and festival appeared to threaten her ability to attend the presentation in Toronto earlier this month.
Even after being told she was the winner, Pearce said it took some time to accept it.
"Honestly I didn't even believe it," she said.

The winning entry was submitted by former student Perry Ehrlich. In a prepared release he said, "Mrs. Pearce inspired me to be the best I could be; to work hard; to be humble about my successes and to learn from my failures; and to have confidence in life. She also taught me that one of my greatest gifts is to pass on the love of music to others as a vehicle for building self-esteem." Ehrlich, now a partner at a Richmond law firm, Kahn Zack Ehrlich Lithwick, also founded Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance!, a Vancouver-based summer musical Theatre camp.

The nomination letter touched Pearce.

"I couldn't imagine such beautiful letters were sent in," she said, adding she has always tried to make students feel good, with gifts at Christmas, rides from school when needed. " I think you get what you give."

The award is one Pearce is proud to have been selected for, adding the new award is a good one for music teachers in general.

"I think it's really important the Conservatory started this," she said. " It's special not only for me, but all of the teachers."

Pearce said she has taught music because she enjoys doing it.

"I love doing it. I really do love doing it," she said, adding her students make it all worthwhile. "A lot of them worked hard. I try to instil to really enjoy it."

Pearce, who noted she feels Saltcoats and Yorkton "are still home", began her path toward teaching music after herself taking lessons as a youth at Saltcoats.

"The train came into Saltcoats at 10 in the morning. Mom and I would get on it and go into Yorkton for lessons," she said, adding "in the summer we drove."

Pearce said she began teaching music close to a half century ago in Saltcoats.

"I had a few students. It was twenty-five cents a lesson in those days," she said.

Pearce would grow her teaching by expanding into Yorkton, where she worked closely with the school board.

"The school board in Yorkton was very supportive. They let me have the kids out of school in half-hour blocks," she said.

When Pearce moved to British Columbia she kept teaching, and has kept at it right up until today. She said she has no idea how many students she has had, but added it is in the hundreds, if not beyond 1,000.

Even at 77, she said she has close to 40 students.

"I do it every day except Sunday," she said, adding with pride "four students are going to provincials (in B.C.) this year."

As the winner of the Thank A Teacher Award, Pearce receives $5,000 courtesy of the SOCAN Foundation. She was also presented with the award in Toronto May 13, at the Royal Conservatory as part of The Promise of Music, a day-long music education symposium for artists, educators, business leaders and policy makers, emphasizing the critical importance of music to the cognitive, social and creative development of children and youths.

"As champions of Canadian music and music education in Canada, we congratulate Bunny Pearce on being awarded the inaugural Thank A Teacher Award, as it is a testament to the passion she provokes in her music students," said Stan Meissner, President of the SOCAN Foundation, in a prepared release.

Of the nearly 1,200 nominations for the Thank A Teacher Award, the top 100 were reviewed by a jury of Royal Conservatory staff and narrowed to ten finalists. The winner was chosen by a second jury.