By Andrew Macdonald
For the past 40 years, Conrad Brothers Ltd., a family-owned business that grew to be one of the largest rock quarries and transport companies in Nova Scotia, has sponsored the annual lobster dinner and silent auction for Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation.
This year, the event is taking place on June 14 at Fisherman’s Cove in Eastern Passage.
Conrad Brothers’ late co-founder Fraser Conrad began organizing the lobster event, and now his son, Kim Conrad, is involved. In April 2024, he and his two brothers sold the family firm to Ocean Contractors. owned by John Flemming.
Conrad Bros operated one of two rock quarries in Metro Halifax, ran a transport division and remediated contaminated soil.
I spoke to Kim Conrad about his enormous support of Dartmouth General, a hospital founded 50 years ago.
Dartmouth General Hospital founder Dr. Wylie Verge, left in trench coat, with Fraser Conrad in yellow, co-founder of Conrad Brothers at an earlier edition of the annual lobster supper at Dartmouth General Hospital. Dr. Verge died in 2016 and Fraser Conrad died 23 years ago. Dartmouth General photo
His father worked alongside Dartmouth General’s founding physician, Dr. Wylie Verge (1929 – 2016), to help get the annual lobster festival off the ground.
“Dad and Dr. Verge and the Shriners were involved with it. The Shriners teamed up with them, but Dad had been involved in the hospital before the first excavator dug the ground to pave the way for the hospital’s construction,” adds Kim. “My uncle Keith was involved, too.
Early on, the lobsters were sourced from a lobster pound operated by the Jack Goyetche family. Kim recalls that when he was young, he would tag along and be “given little duties We used to take them behind the Conrad Bros. office and cut them up. Back then, 200 attended. It went to 250, then 300.” The event, which always sells out, now attracts a crowd of 700.
Kim Conrad, at left facing the camera, at an early edition of Dartmouth General’s annual lobster supper. Now in its 40th year, the supper is set for June 14. Dartmouth General photo
Kim Conrad found an early invoice from the Jack Goyetche family in Oyster Pond when “the price then was $8 a pound, cooked and ready to go.
“We would collect them, and a bunch of us, including the Shriners, would get together, split the lobsters, bag them up and take them out to Akerley Campus, a vocational school then. It developed from there to the Dartmouth Sports Plex, where they have the antique things now. Then it got bigger, and we went on the ice surface after that. We had 700 people there.”
Covid changed things, and the lobster event was a drive-thru at Conrad Brothers and Al MacPhee was involved, giving us GM and Ford vehicles. We put 400 through (during) Covid — takeaway meals — and it worked really well,” adds Conrad.
Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation chair Cliff Moir and Gwen Haliburton at an earlier edition of the Foundation’s annual lobster supper. Dartmouth General photo
The lobster supper is now held at Fisherman’s Cove in Eastern Passage, and at that venue, Conrad Brothers donates gravel to upgrade the parking lot and smooth it out to host the hundreds and hundreds attending.
“The last couple of years, I have supplied the gravel and Atlantic Road Contractors, run by the Hickey boys Brad and Tom, send the grader down to touch up the parking lot. They were in desperate need of gravel; it’s a non-profit that runs Fisherman’s Cove,” explains Conrad.
“We do things. I use my friendships and partnerships with people for the auction itself. I usually gather up $25,000 in prizes, and we also donate $5,000 in gravel as an auction item. That created a rivalry between Ocean Contracting, Municipal/Dexter, and Atlantic Road, and they would bid against each other, and the $5,000 gravel load would go for $18,500.
Other silent auction items come from Danielle Chasey, with Scotia Metals donating a $5,000 item, and it would be bid up to $9,000.
“Atlantic Explosives, ‘blow your place up’, gives $7,500, and it always gets over the value. It is not giving unless you spend more, and the people and contractors are very generous. Nova Trucks gives a gift certificate towards a new truck, which can cost $250,000 to $300,000.”
“It’s a good event. It has changed and evolved with the new crew, I am kind of the old crew going out. The new crew has changed it up a bit. It is great, it is working and it is fun,” adds Conrad.
Tickets for what DGH Foundation considers to be the best ocean front lobster dinner experience in 40 years are
available by visiting dghfoundation.ca/lobster or calling (902) 460-4149.
From a cash perspective, he says the event early on generated $50,000, a figure that has grown to $300,000 net now. “The Murphys (J&W Murphy of Mersey Seafoods) are matching donations for this event in June of $150,000. Mersey Seafoods is now a co-owner of Bedford’s Fisherman’s Market, which will supply the cooked lobster, cutting them all up in its basement where it operates a fish plant, with retail on the ground floor level.
“What people like is that they can see what is going on with the money raised. Dartmouth General used to be the poor second cousin to Halifax hospitals, but, by jingles, the last capital campaign raised $15 million. It is impressive what has gone on at Dartmouth General. The (medical equipment) technology and the doctors that we have there are second to none.”
The lobster event involves a lot of volunteers. “It is a minimal administrative cost” to host the dinner and silent auction.
Prior to 50 years ago when Dartmouth General was a blueprint before it was built, “there was a lot of Scotch consumed between Dad (Fraser Conrad) and Dr. Verge on the concept of a hospital in Dartmouth. It was a community hospital in the beginning but now it is a regional hospital. People will come from Truro or the Musquodobits (and) down the South Shore.”
The lobster dinner and auction will raise funds that will go towards enhancing the DGH emergency department ultrasound program.
The dinner is an outdoor seafood event that features two freshly cooked lobsters on every plate, live entertainment, auctions and a balloon blitz that has been supporting DGH Foundation for 40 years.
Kim Conrad, son of Fraser Conrad and past president of Conrad Brothers Ltd., together with Denis Ryan, Nova Scotia’s beloved Irish Canadian folk musician, best known as a member of the popular Irish-Newfoundland band Ryan’s Fancy,
are co-chairs of DGH Foundation’s signature event.
“Every guest can be “shellfish” and enjoy lobster or steak their own way. Sail over from the Halifax Waterfront aboard the Kawartha Spirit, bring a car and park at Fisherman’s Cove or for those wanting to enjoy two tasty crustaceans at home, we offer a drive-thru take-out experience!” says the hospital foundation.
“Regardless of how you enjoy your dinner, it’s important to note that every dollar raised helps to enhance the DGH emergency department’s ultrasound program. Portable ultrasound units have been in use at DGH ED for over 20 years, making Dartmouth General one of the first in Atlantic Canada to embrace the technology that has ultimately changed the way healthcare is practiced in an ED,” the foundation states.
“Clinicians can perform ultrasound examinations directly at the patient’s bedside eliminating the need for transportation to a separate imaging facility. Having the equipment and training to perform ultrasounds quickly and easily at the point of care allows for a more rapid diagnosis, leading to faster treatment decisions and improved patient outcomes,” the foundation states.
