Following is an excerpt from the June 2026 edition of "This Month in Hunstville".

2026 marks Dawn Mashinter’s fifteenth year as a real estate agent. And to mark this very impressive milestone I thought it was appropriate to share some of her amazing story.

I have had the honour and pleasure of knowing Dawn for 35 years, yes we met when we were 10 (ha! ha!). We have been co-workers, co-colleagues, co-clients and always dear friends. I have enjoyed being part of her journey when she married Wayne, then became a mom to here very talented son Evan and most recently she has become a grandmother. If any of you have been by the Mashinter homestead or have seen some of the pictures in my magazine you will also know that one of Dawn’s outstanding talents is her green thumb. Her gardens are stunning and she also has a real flair for decorating and design -- which I have counted on many times when choosing paint colours or the right piece of furniture.

She and I met when we were both in marketing sales and we shared an office at Avenue Road south of Wilson. We spent many days cheering each other on, critiquing our sales presentations, crying a little, and ringing a very large brass bell when we finally landed the sale! Avenue Road was bustling with beautiful shops, markets and small family-owned restaurants – we were fortunate to have that time together in Toronto during the 80’s. Life changes, so Dawn finally decided to move north permanently (she commuted from Kearney to Toronto for 3 years) and I also moved on and opened my own marketing business. We toyed with the idea of working together but decided that our friendship was more important and Mr. Evan’s arrival also sent Dawn’s life in a new direction. In 2002, I was able to purchase a cottage across the road from Wayne & Dawn and so we got to enjoy some lake time together until they relocated closer to Huntsville. By then Dawn had also decided to move on from working on national programs to more local sites and became a real estate agent.

I certainly don’t need to tell you about how talented, dedicated and hard-working Dawn Mashinter is as a realtor. Everywhere I go in Almaguin people know her and of her stellar reputation. She continues to grow, learn and push hard to be the best she can be in her business forays and also as a contributing member to her community.