Mr. August is ready for his close up.
You know what makes Scott Kennie so darn crush~able?
Besides the fact that he’s married to ‘the one and only Natalie Hartford‘? (His words) It could be that he’s a reality show junkie like someone else we know. Who? Me? Never! Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s one of the funniest, sweetest, most real men I’ve ever met online. Some day, we need to meet in person because he and Natalie are just too much fun.
Before we get into the heart of Scott, here are his beauty pageant deets:
Scott is 41, an Aquarius with one son (who stands 6’8″ tall!), he has one dog who owns him, Tess, and his favorite season is Fall. In this photo Scott is wearing his formal wear, which he sported for his wedding to Natalie. Come the weekend, he opts for a more casual appearance.
When Scott isn’t working as a ‘keyboard jockey’ with a title longer than the entire works of Shakespeare, he can be found helping out with the environment. Here he is recycling an old pair of boots and, um something else.
To relax, Scott participates in practically every sport ever conceived for both the winter and summer Olympics. Seriously, this guy is active!
Here are a few of his favorites depending on the season~
- Winter: snowmobiling, skiing, skating, snowshoeing, swimming
- Spring: diet/exercise in prep for spring trip to Punta Cana, golf, canoe
- Summer: Golfing, stock car races, beach, fishing, canoeing kayaking, hiking, atving, camping, camp fires, biking, river tubing, swimming.
- Fall: Hunting, hiking
I’m exhausted just reading that list. Seriously.
When I asked Scott if he were to star in his own show or movie, what would be his role? The answer wasn’t what I expected.
Scott: The movie would be called the Book Club! It’s about a wife that hosts a weekly book club in her home and the husband in his best efforts to “lay-low” in Hubby’s Corner constantly interrupts the book club with zany observations and heckling comments while he does maintenance tasks around the house.
Guess who would play him? Vince Vaughn. Yeah, I can totally see that. By the way, if you’ve never read one of Scott’s ‘Hubby’s Corner‘ posts on Natalie’s blog, you should remedy that. Just don’t read anything while drinking a beverage. That goes for most of what Natalie posts as well.
If given the choice between a cowboy hat, a baseball cap, or a tiara, Scott doesn’t play favorites. In fact, he gives equal love to all headwear.
Cowboy hat…
baseball cap…
tiara…
…and this thing. He sure can rock a hat!
Aside from being frikkin’ hilarious, and quite possibly the most romantic guy I’ve ever known, Scott is devoted to his family. Not only to his son and lovely wife, Natalie, but to his sweet Mamma K.
Three years ago Mamma K. was stolen from Scott’s life due to the selfishness of one drunk driver. Since then, Scott and Natalie have made it their purpose to help eradicate drunk driving in Canada. I’ll let Scott tell you a little about his mom and the legacy she left.
Mamma K: Mom and I were real close…mostly because we were a lot alike. Both were mischievous and full of laughs and humor. Not afraid to laugh at ourselves. Mamma K worked by day at the Saint John Regional Hospital in the Oncology wing as a Patient Service Worker, which basically means she cleaned rooms and washrooms.
She always enjoyed meeting the people on her floor and their families. She would go above and beyond her job by coming in early to cook some special breakfast foods, fetch pillows, nurses and chat them up. She would often be upset at the news of a patient that lost their battle and often received postcards, cards and letters from the families of patients for years afterward.
After Mom’s death, the hospital administration did a couple things to honor her…they ran the flag half-mast which, up till that point, they had only ever done for dignitaries; and they created an employee recognition award that gets awarded to a patient service worker that exemplifies a similar work ethic as Mamma K and the recipient is elected by the peers annually.
Mamma K’s other passion was being a union executive. She always wanted to fight for what was right and to create a better workplace for the employers and employees. She was well respected by both. After Mom’s death we met union members, representatives, executives from all across Canada. Her local created a bi-annual scholarship in her name.
And lastly she was an awesome mother, grandmother, sister, friend, and colleague.
I love hearing about Mamma K and Scott’s love for her. Please check out Natalie’s Friday posts where she writes about ways we can be more involved in stopping drunk driving. This was her post from Wednesday, a touching tribute to the lady we all now know as Mamma K. Bring a tissue. Just saying.
Because Scott and Natalie are awesome and don’t just sit around feeling sorry for themselves, they decided to take action. They recently walked in MADD Canada’s Strides for Change to raise money and awareness, but they also have decided to get involved with their chapter of MADD. Again, I’ll let Scott explain.
Natalie and I have decided to get more formally involved with our local MADD chapter; the Greater Fredericton MADD Canada Chapter. We have put our names forward to become board members at the September annual general meeting. Once on the board, we look forward to working hand-in-hand with the current members to continue creating awareness about impaired driving. On the horizon, we have a ton of ideas that we look forward to working on and implementing: a short-term and long-term strategic communications plans, a social media strategy (web, Facebook, Twitter), stronger victim services and a victims’ outreach campaign, building a stronger board and volunteer base while continuing to increase public awareness through a number of events.
Since the crash happened in Saint John in 2009, MADD Saint John stood by our sides at every court date, gave us support and guidance on procedures, support avenues, judicial system, etc. They sponsored 4 members of our family to attend the National Victims Conference over the last 2 years. Their involvement and support has been invaluable. So we want to get involved with MADD Greater Fredericton and give back what we can and make a difference in Mamma K’s honor and in the hopes that our efforts might save a life or make a difference in a victim’s post-crash experience.
The call to action would be to push for random breath testing. It has been proven that random breath testing reduces impaired driving accidents and related costs by up to 50% in the first year of implementation. Canada and the US are two of the last similarly sized countries in the world to implement random breath testing. People have a common misconception that random means police will randomly pull somebody over and that isn’t the case. It’s more like what I’d call selective breath sampling.
Random breath testing would enable police to perform breath demands at road check stops. The argument has been put out there that random breath testing is a Charter of Rights and Freedom’s violation but…to me… driving is not a right, it’s a privilege! And if you want play by the rules and possibly have your breath tested at check stops then that’s the price of driving on safer roads…maybe you’ll (and others) will live long enough to exercise your other rights!
Scott’s passion for saving lives reminds me to be a better person. There have been times when I’ve wanted to have a drink with friends, but would think of Natalie’s posts and refrained since I knew I’d be driving soon.
If their words, their commitment can make even the smallest impact on someone, then that’s a step forward. A life saved.
When I asked Scott what was the takeaway he wanted the readers to get from this post, this was his reply,
Leave your mark on the world – not a grease stain! Laugh as much as you can every day and live life like it should be lived. Love and respect your life – love and respect your wife!
I just love this guy!
So go out there, leave your mark, laugh often, find love, share your bliss.
Because I know you’re clamoring for more pics of Scott, here’s a little eye candy for all of you. But first, who’s your ‘Real Life’ hero? Is there someone in your life who works hard to make a difference, even if it’s by just bringing a smile to your face when life gets you down? Share with us! Tell us who inspires you to be a better person. Or, if you’re the one doing the inspiring, we need to know.
Tameri Etherton 