Friend of StFX Award

The Friend of StFX Award is awarded to a non-alumnus/alumna or an organization who has demonstrated a commitment of outstanding service to the Alumni Association and/or the University. The individual or organization has brought honour to StFX through significant contributions, and is an inspiration to StFX and the extended community.

Nomination Information

2024 Recipient

The Wheel Pizza & Sub Shop

Since 1980, Mike and Trish Hassin have been the proud owners of The Wheel Pizza and Sub Shop on Main Street in Antigonish. The son of Lebanese immigrants to Nova Scotia, Mike’s extraordinary work ethic has helped make The Wheel an Antigonish institution. He manages the day –to-day operations of the restaurant, while Trish handles the business end of things. Together, they have focused on creating a distinctive product that’s captured the hearts and tastebuds of Xaverians for nearly fifty years. 

No trip to Antigonish is complete without a visit to The Wheel, where the Hassin family has protected our collective sense of nostalgia by maintaining the same orange booths and photo-covered walls, the lost debit cards pinned to the wall behind the cash, and the paper towel-wrapped knife and fork. 

Tara Hassin, the younger of Mike and Trish’s two daughters, recalls being taken to the restaurant each evening, to “say goodnight to Daddy” as he manned the pizza ovens. She notes too that she and her sister would run the halls of MacIsaac and Lane and Bishop’s early each fall, sliding flyers under students’ doors and hoping to see and chat with one of the new first-years, who seemed awfully grown-up to the little girls. 

Generations of X-Men and X-Women have stopped by for an athletes’ special, to carbo-load before a big game. And they’ve slunk into those orange booths after a match, cradling sore knees and lamenting a loss. Through it all, The Wheel has been the hub, a gathering spot after an evening at the Golden X Inn, and the backdrop for countless romances ... and breakups. 

To many Xaverians, their memories of StFX are intertwined with memories of the Wheel. In recognition of Mike and Trish Hassin’s decades of exceptional service to the entire StFX community, the Alumni Association is proud to recognize them – and the Wheel Pizza and Sub Shop – as the recipient of this year’s Friend of StFX Award.