25 minute read
OUR LOCAL HEROES
local heroes
BY EMILY DICKSON, JEFF ROLLINGS & NICOLA ROSS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROSEMARY HASNER
As Neil Morris, one of this year’s Local Heroes, reflects in these pages, “Of all the different philosophies and religions, one prevailing theme is about service to others.” Indeed, we are blessed in these hills to have so many people who embrace that concept. Community service beats inside them like a second heart.
Our local heroes this year hold a diverse range of interests, from keeping us warm and fed, to making our communities more livable and selfreliant. Others are creating spaces where our evolving population can get to know each other, and still another is helping to ease our exit when the time comes. They’re an accomplished bunch, and they’re doing important things. We are lucky to have them among us.
sister act
MALINI AND HEMANI SINGH
When sisters Malini and Hemani Singh found out they had won the Community Arts Volunteer Award, one of Orangeville’s annual Arts and Culture Awards, they didn’t believe it was real. “Our dad woke us up and told us that we had won. I thought he was joking!” laughs younger sibling Hemani.
The talented pair received the accolade for promoting classical Indian dance, music and culture both at their school and in the community at large. Malini, 18, a recent graduate of Orangeville District Secondary School, explains how she began training in dance when she was just five years old and fell in love with the art form. Hemani, now 14 and also at ODSS, joined her older sister in dance when she was about 10. The two have been performing together at temples, religious events and festivals in both Dufferin County and Peel Region.
The Singh family has called Orangeville home for the past six years, and the girls have been the driving force behind a number of multicultural events at their schools and beyond. “It’s really important to promote diversity and celebrate different cultures,” says Malini, who was an active member of the school’s Diversity Student Association and enlisted fellow students to participate in making rangoli – floor art created with coloured sand – to celebrate Holi, an ancient Hindu spring festival.
While Malini’s passion is dance and choreography, Hemani is musically gifted and received her elementary school’s music award. She loves to sing and plays the western flute and the harmonium. And she recently began learning the bansuri, a bamboo flute that originated in India. “It’s really hard,” she giggled, as she shyly demonstrated how to position your fingers on the long, elegant instrument.
This year, Hemani and Malini volunteered at the Dufferin County Multicultural Event, held at the Museum of Dufferin, where they performed Kathak and Bharatanatyam classical dances. The two were happy to participate in the festival and promote their heritage. “You’ve got to keep your culture alive,” explains Hemani. “Even if there aren’t a lot of people in your area who celebrate that culture, you should promote it and be proud.”
Though the sisters have been performing in public since they were quite young, they say they still get the jitters before a big show. “Before the event, we have to practise every day for weeks,” Malini says. No mean feat considering the two have their studies to worry about, on top of parttime jobs.
Now that Malini is attending university, where she is focusing on child and youth studies with a view to becoming a children’s lawyer, she doesn’t have quite as much time to dedicate to dance. Still, she intends to continue to train and perform. Hemani, on the other hand, wants to work with her hands and has developed a strong interest in welding after taking part in a welding camp at school.
Proud father Vishal Singh is thrilled his daughters received the award and hopes it will inspire more young people to promote multiculturalism: “It’s so wonderful to see all the talented individuals around our community, and I wish to see even more, especially the youth.”
habit of the heart · neil morris
It’s midmorning on a Monday at the Coywolf Coffee shop in Inglewood. As the place slowly fills with patrons, more than half approach the table where Neil Morris is sitting – just to say hello.
Neil is the 2022 recipient of Caledon’s Community Champion Award for both his longtime participation as a member of the Bethell Hospice volunteer team and his involvement in a wide range of Caledon environmental initiatives.
Along with his wife, Janice, an animal welfare advocate who works to rescue and adopt dogs from northeastern Quebec, Neil moved to Inglewood in 1998.
When Bethell Hospice first opened near their home in 2010, Neil says plenty of women volunteered, but not so many men. Janice’s father had recently died – “It was my first adult experience with death,” says Neil – and it inspired him to sign up for the 40hour training program to become a hospice volunteer.
Neil’s main role at Bethell is on the maintenance team, but that has evolved into working in the kitchen and at reception, among other things. During the pandemic, he often found himself jumping in to cover shifts for others. Overall, he says, “the goal is to support the staff and try to be a positive influence.”
As a side hustle, Neil collects the crop from apple trees on the Bethell grounds, making jellies that the hospice sells to raise funds. “Learning how to make apple jelly might be my biggest achievement,” he quips, adding this touching note: “It’s a way for people to have a little piece of the hospice.”
Though Neil believes his work at Bethell is his most important volunteer role, and the one he’s most proud of, over the years the selfemployed environmental consultant has also given time to more than 10 mostly environmental causes. The most rewarding, he recalls, was his nineyear stint on Caledon’s Environmental Advisory Committee, including four years as chair, and his work as a Bruce Trail maintenance volunteer, which he has been carrying out since 2000.
Neil says he would always encourage people to keep an open mind about volunteering. His first experience was donating blood as a teenager, and he says, “From the minute I took that step, it has added to the way I understand the world.”
Later he adds, “One observation I’ve had is that in all the different philosophies and religions, one prevailing theme is service to others. It gives you a better sense of the world, and of yourself.
Stuart Lazier (left) and Tony Arrell at the official opening of the Village Green.
Common Ground
stuart lazier and tony arrell
What happens when Tony Arrell, a communityminded farmer and investment adviser, hooks up with Stuart Lazier, a likeminded real estate magnate? Creemore’s brandspanking new, $4.5million Village Green, that’s what.
The project, which the duo initially thought would take a couple of years to complete, opened last summer, exactly four years after they came up with the idea. The complex process involved partnering with the Creemore Horticultural Society, which already maintained gardens on part of the proposed site, persuading the TD Bank to donate an adjacent property, creating a community foundation, forming an organizing committee, consulting with the public, hiring consultants to guide them through the project, as well as architects to design it and contractors to build it, and last but not least, raising a ton of money.
Despite his history in the real estate business, Stuart says, “Building a park is so different. Most people just see a pretty park. But it’s a much more significant project.”
Part of what made the Village Green different for the businessminded pair was involving the local residents. Their advisers, a company called Small, assisted with this process. Public meetings helped them integrate the views of some 650 people – and transform the project into a communitywide undertaking.
The green links Creemore’s existing Station on the Green community centre with the public gardens and the village’s main commercial district. The Station on the Green replicates a train station, and the Village Green also recognizes the village’s past with pathways that follow the route of the Hamilton & NorthWestern Railway, which ran through the village. Along the paths, aspects of village history are etched into granite pavers that suggest railway ties, and the new stage is reminiscent of a train platform.
Like so many grassroots initiatives, this one had its share of challenges. But the result has been hugely rewarding, not only for Stuart and Tony, but also for residents of Creemore, the townships of Clearview and Mulmur, where the two men live, and beyond. The project involved more than 60 volunteers and about 300 donors who gave anywhere from a few bucks to more than $100,000.
“We believe in giving back to our communities,” says Tony. And they’ve definitely done that. The green has already hosted many events, such as Fall Equinox and the Copper Kettle Festival. In warmer weather, kids use the splash pad, and the permanent table tennis setup is the busiest spot in the park.
Uses like these allow Stuart and Tony to believe they got it right. “It has been successful because the community has embraced the park,” says Stuart. But the two also recognize that the time will be the true test. Says Tony, “Success would be that five years from now it’s still a popular meeting place.” To ensure this outcome, they are continuing to raise funds – to create an endowment that will enable hiring a manager to organize events yearround and to fund future initiatives.
In this way, the Creemore Village Green should continue to be a communitybuilding place where longtime residents rub shoulders with newcomers, weekenders and visitors.
stitches in time
basia and shannon knowlton
Basia Knowlton likes to say she was born with a crochet hook in her hand.
Six years ago, frustrated after failing to sell any of her many creations at a disappointing craft show, Basia decided to string a line between the trees in her Orangeville front yard, hang her goods on it and simply give them all away.
So began what has evolved into a mission to keep people warm, fed and looked after.
Dubbed “Warmth for the Winter,” the line in Basia’s front yard has grown to include not only her own work, but also mitts, hats, scarves and winter coats donated by others. Everything is free for those in need. As a single mother of three, Basia says, “I’ve had hard times in my past, and I just want to pay it back … So here, people don’t have to explain themselves, they don’t have to beg. It’s nonjudgmental.”
Basia’s charitable efforts have grown beyond the Warmth for the Winter project. She added what she calls her Food Bank Moose, to collect nonperishable food donations. Last year that effort resulted in about a halfdozen trips to deliver food to the Orangeville Food Bank. In another Basia project, she collects $2 donations to sponsor squares in blankets that, once made, go to organizations such as Family Transition Place, the Orangeville Legion and Orangeville’s new men’s shelter. Her goal is to produce one blanket a month. And if all that weren’t enough, this year she has also been creating and selling coasters and earrings in the colours of Ukraine, with the proceeds going to support the wartorn country.
If you think of Basia as the Batman of community service, then surely her daughter Shannon is Robin. The dynamic duo undertake all their projects together. In addition to working at all the craft shows, Shannon takes particular responsibility for creating bracelets and scrunchies, and contributes a critical element to the design process: “I pick the colours for stuff.”
Sadly, people have occasionally taken advantage of Basia and Shannon’s efforts to help. A few have taken much more than they need, including one group that totally cleaned out the place last year. Basia suspects they planned to sell the merchandise online. Though security cameras might help, Basia can’t afford a good system, and even with cameras, there’s a limited amount that can be done. Still, she takes a considered view: “Three bad eggs, but you help 100 people.”
Basia and Shannon accept cash donations, which are used to purchase things like bags, hangers and yarn, but Basia asks that people not donate yarn itself. “Too often,” she says, “it smells like Grandma’s attic, or Grandma’s basement, or Grandma’s ashtray.”
Warmth for the Winter, aka “the lady with the line,” is located at 46 Centre Street in Orangeville.
Unity in diversity · ALTHEA ALLI
Althea Alli grew up in a world where multiculturalism was the norm. With Guyanese roots, she was raised in Toronto and Brampton, but her extended family was a mélange of backgrounds, including Indian, Chinese and Portuguese. “My nickname growing up was ‘United Nations,’” she laughs. “Looking at us, you’d never know we were all related.”
In 2013, Althea and her young family made the decision to move to Shelburne. Making the transition from large, diverse cities like Toronto and Brampton was a challenge at first, but the move ultimately spurred Althea to spearhead a number of community initiatives and become a driving force behind Shelburne’s multicultural events.
She began reaching out by hosting markets so local businesses grounded in various cultures could connect with the community, and she became involved in the town’s fall fair board and the Fiddle Parade. She also spent time at her children’s school, volunteering in the classroom and talking to kids about diversity and inclusion.
Then in 2017 she approached Shelburne council and pitched the idea of a multicultural festival. “The first one was ... small,” she chuckles, describing how the 2018 event was held in one room in the town library. “But the following year I needed a bigger space because so many people wanted to participate. The size had doubled!”
After going online for two years because of the pandemic, the event was back in person this past June – and bigger and better than ever. Held at the Museum of Dufferin, the celebration saw the rolling hills of Mulmur come alive with the sounds of Caribbean steelpan and African drums, classical dances from India, performances by Scottish and Irish dancers, and more. The event brought together people from across Dufferin County who trace their roots to many places around the world, as well as representatives of Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ communities. There was even a cricket match.
“I was just blown away that so many people wanted to share their culture, their art, their music, their food,” Althea explains. “It was an incredible day. I remember after the festival was done, I sat back with my mom and I got quite emotional, saying how one little idea, one humble beginning can grow and touch so many lives. I was very honoured.”
Althea was delighted when the event was named the 2022 winner of the award for creative cultural event at Orangeville’s annual Arts and Culture Awards, and she has no doubt the festival will continue to grow and flourish As evidence of that commitment, Alli’s endeavour became a registered nonprofit, the Dufferin County Multicultural Foundation, in 2022.
Althea, a former youth shelter director, ultimately does this for her family, so they can feel at home as they grow up in Shelburne and Headwaters. “I don’t want my children or any children to feel like outsiders in their own community,” she says. “Everybody should be able to feel a sense of pride and respect. That is my number 1 motivator. I want diversity to be seen as something to celebrate, and a great way to do that is through food, art and entertainment. Rhythm, music and food are a common language that every country understands. It’s what unites us!”
Invested in community
Gord Gallaugher
These days, Gord Gallaugher is bestknown as a founding director, president and chair of the Dufferin Community Foundation, but he credits his long – and very active – participation in local politics and community service with setting the stage for this initiative: “I would never have done the foundation without my experience in public life.”
Gord’s involvement in the community should come as no surprise. For more than 150 years, six generations of the Gallaugher family have called Mulmur home – and a history of the township abounds with the names of family members who engaged in civic works.
Gord himself spent 12 years on Mulmur Township council, including six years as mayor, and on Dufferin County council, where he served as warden. These positions also required him to sit on many committees and boards, dealing with fire, library, police, hospital and other health care concerns. This service “educated me on what the social needs of the community are,” he says, and his knowledge of these needs sparked him to envision the Dufferin Community Foundation.
The community foundation concept works like this: a pool of money is donated, creating an endowment fund; this fund is then invested and the return on the investment is granted to charities and other qualifying organizations year after year, while the capital is preserved forever.
The DCF was launched in 2018 after three years of planning. Already, about $1.5 million has been donated and invested. In 2023, the foundation expects to disburse about $50,000 among Dufferin charities. Though Gord has contributed to many important community issues over the years, he sees his work with the foundation as the part of his legacy that will have the greatest longterm impact.
In 2014, the University of Guelph agriculture grad retired from a career in agribusiness and as a parttime beef cattle farmer. He also worked parttime in his wife Sandra’s travel businesses in Shelburne and Orangeville. Since retiring, Gord estimates that his involvement with the community foundation takes up about 50 per cent of his working time. But his strong commitment to community service doesn’t stop there. He is active in Headwaters Communities in Action, and he also does some work at the Shelburne Public Library and at Trinity United Church. “I don’t have a lot of hobbies,” he says. “It gives me a reason to get up in the morning.”
Gord may have retired from farming – “My farming these days is limited to a supersize garden, though I sell a few raspberries and Christmas trees,” he says – but the next generation of the Gallaugher family carries on in Mulmur. One of Gord’s two sons works at Honda but lives on family land; the other farms full time on both the farm where Gord lives and the original family farm next door.
Of his years of public service, Gord says, “You get the best education one can ever get in a democratic country. You learn how systems work, and you learn what to do to implement change.”
COURTESY GORD GALLAUGHER
Our Keele River Adventure
BERNADETTE HARDAKER
In that last breath between late autumn and the bleakness of early winter, 2021, my husband Rob and I landed on the same photospread in our favourite magazine, In The Hills. “The Keele River – fast and friendly whitewater carving a turquoise path through dramatic ranges of the Mackenzie Mountains – ideal for novice to intermediate paddlers,” boasted our local Arctic outfitter, Canoe North Adventures.
“We have to do this,” Rob said with great certainty. “Now! We’re not getting any younger.”
“Okay, let’s do it! We’ll stop by Al and Lin’s pottery shop after we finish our Hockley valley hike.”
We pulled into The Farmhouse Pottery on Hockley Road where, after four decades, Al Pace still throws his signature pieces in stoneware. He and his wife and paddling partner, Lin Ward, were planning their 30th summer of Arctic canoe trips. “We’re ready to give you our money!” To their credit they didn’t take our deposit on the spot.
Soon afterwards we shared a glass of wine and traded campfire stories, what would become a constant on the trip to come.
“Are we nuts to be doing this? We’re pensioners. We lily-dip on lakes. We haven’t done serious whitewater paddling for decades.”
“You’ll do fine,” Al assured us. “The Keele River is ideal for developing skills and getting back into form.”
“Next we’ll do the Nahanni River and then the Horton River,” Rob added enthusiastically.
“Hold on. Let’s master the Keele first.” Surprise, now I’m the prudent one.
THE AUTHOR AND HER HUSBAND ROB STRANG ON THE KEELE RIVER
The Keele River flows 410 kilometres northeasterly from its mountain source near the border of Yukon and the Northwest Territories, emptying into the Mackenzie River 50 kilometres south of the Sahtu Dene community of Tulita. We would fly in by floatplane, landing at the confluence of the Natla and Keele Rivers to paddle 310 kilometres over 12 days. We would be the first trip of the 2022 season and the first trip since COVID shut down travel, a group of eleven trippers and three guides, with Al at the helm flanked by experienced young guides set to lead their own trips later in the season.
Over the winter the emails flew back and forth. Equipment lists. Waivers. Itineraries. Insurance. Flight plans. Food allergies. Surprise appetizers? Yes, we were each tasked with bringing the provisions for a mystery appetizer to serve our fellow canoe trippers. Bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers baked in a Dutch oven turned out to be a big hit. (Just don’t risk airport security plucking cream cheese from your carry-on. Fortunately, Yellowknife was well supplied.)
— June, 2022. We fly from the NWT capital to Norman Wells, where southerners struck in 1920 the oil Dene Elders had always known was there. Our 20-something guides, Maddy and Connor, meet us, and under their close watch we turn in our smartphones, select our paddles, and repack our gear into 60-litre plastic barrels on the extended deck of the rustic timberframe lodge and outfitting centre. At dinner that night 20 of us, staff and guests alike, enjoy the first of many excellent meals – and a briefing of what tomorrow brings. Emphasis on brief. Canoe North Adventures guides believe in bite-sized bits of what’s to come.
The next morning we help load the North-Wright Airways Twin Otter and single-engine Pilatus Porter with seven canoes and the gear to fill them. My heart leaps with the roar of the twin engines as our floatplane takes off from DOT Lake. We’re here in the North. It’s really happening! Our pilot flies at peak level, the Mackenzie Mountains still snow speckled after a late spring. We learn the Keele is high – and fast. Just how fast? A very brisk 10 kph walking pace that seems much faster when we meet.
From the air we spot a caribou and a cow moose with calf. European couple Roz and Gary, behind us in the second plane, miss them. It becomes our mission to help them see the best of Canadian wildlife. Over the trip they see more moose; a gangly young wolf; osprey; and a pair of nesting Canada geese. Roz and Gary keep hoping for a grizzly bear. We are happy to see tracks only.
On day one, we are a motley crew of occasional paddlers ranging in age from 31 to 73 standing on a sandbar gazing at what seems like a raging mountain river. Anna from England is rendezvousing with her dad Phil from Toronto. Our daughter Katie, also from Toronto, is here with us. Will and Kate from Ottawa are returnees after honeymooning on a Canoe North Adventures trip with Al and Lin exactly 25 years ago! Kathy from Sudbury is our superstar, a super fit cycling granny who set up her first tent on this trip.
The guides quickly pair us off. Not as we expect.
Two of the three couples prefer to paddle together. The third declares their marriage is stronger if they remain separated! I am paired with Phil in the stern. This is unsettling. I only know that he led canoe trips in his younger days. But I am happily leaning over the spray skirt to pull my bow weight. I am not sure I am stern stuff anymore.
We number off and paddle in that order, snaking down the river, one after another following the lead canoe. There are some bumper boats in those first few hours as we shed the rust, learn new skills and terminology, and push sore arms to power into active eddies that don’t let up until we ground on the shore.
The Keele River has lots to share. Whoa – it’s wavy and lightning-fast from top to bottom. It bounces off the shore and back again to create continuous waves. It’s both powerful and kind. It will twirl you around in a moment if you let up. It’s noisy. Filled with glacial silt, it sings when you hold a paddle to your ear. It’s cold. Some of us plunge right in. Others wade. We all splash. But I’ve never been cleaner on a trip. It’s tricky. It widens out in spots and sends multiple braids across its course, challenging guides to pick the best route for the group to follow.
There are longstanding traditions on our Keele trip. After tents are set up, we gather near the river’s edge under the huge green expedition tarp to sit on folding camp chairs. Connor unpacks 14 handcrafted
Adventure Cups created in Al’s pottery studio during the winter months for what is to become our nightly gathering for Cocktail Hour. Maddy mixes and pours drinks with different names, all suspiciously green in colour. Al selects a specific cup with a unique animal motif for each guest – mine is the caribou. The next day, as if by magic, a caribou in full antler appears on the far shore. We hold our collective breath while it ferries across the channel to the other side, then walks up the creek bed further downstream, oblivious to our small presence on this vast land.
And what becomes our favourite pastime beyond card playing and whisky sipping after supper? Rock collecting. The river is generous with smooth gems – some spotted, some veined, grey, ochre, and even green. We trade and cull and boast of our best at an evening show and tell. Rock on!
Our weather over the entire trip is as spectacular as the scenery. Hot. Sunny. We’re so far north it’s never dark at night. Whether from the mountain we hike or the river we paddle, the view is the same – we are but floating specks. Tiny clumps of dwarf wildflowers pop up between river stones – brilliantly purple lupins and delicately violet-spotted roundleaf orchids. In contrast, carpets of dryas, yellow mountain avens past their bloom, explode into feathery seedheads like fairy fluff.
We have only one spot of weather – a short but furious thunderstorm that lasts an hour and leaves behind shreds of clouds and the river running half red with mud. With the smoke of Alaskan wildfires in the air and the slumping slopes of melting permafrost, the change in water colour seems almost biblical, a warning of the fragility of our planet. Connor’s drone confirms a small landslide into an upstream sidecreek is responsible.
By now we are well settled into the rhythm of the river, and I am reunited with Rob as my stern partner and rudder for days on end. I never conquer my apprehension over taking command, but I am content. The river teaches us our limits and I know mine. Our muscles are strong, our stroke is steady and our course is true. On our last day our daughter takes the stern, and we watch the muddy waters of the Mackenzie River dilute the turquoise waters of the Keele. Our hearts are full. We will never be the same. of abilities over three decades of guiding. What skill you lack they will teach; what confidence you need they will build; what desire you have they will excite. They will keep you safe during your trip of a lifetime.
Canada’s North encompasses 40% of our country’s landmass. I firmly believe you cannot know and truly understand this great land and its peoples if you have not crossed the 60th parallel. The Arctic is the canary in the coal mine for our planet. Visit it, appreciate it – and understand how we are all connected on this tiny orb we call home.
— Bernadette Hardaker is an Orangeville writer. She co-hosted Mackenzie Morning on CBC Inuvik from 1980 to 1983. Prior to paddling the Keele, she last saw the Mackenzie River in 1990 with her husband Rob Strang and their daughter Katie, then two years old.
Plan your escape!Call 519 941 6654
— Postscript: Months have passed since we left the Keele River. People ask how was it? Fantastic, we say. You need to do this. The Team at Canoe North Adventures, with Al and Lin at the helm, have accommodated all kinds of people with all kinds canoenorthadventures.com www.canoenorthadventures.com
