Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Wild About Nature Gala

Friday, May 28 I got to go to my first ever Gala! The Haliburton Highlands Land Trust held it's annual Gala - a fundraising event to support the Trust, and an opportunity to celebrate Haliburton County's "Enviro-Heroes". The evening was titled "Wild About Nature". Money was raised through silent auctions, raffles and a loonie auction and the Minden Community Centre was packed! There was a fabulous buffet catered by Bonnie View Inn and The Wild Orchid. There were five awards given. Under the section of Business - The Haliburton Highlands Water Trails was recognized for "developing a set of far-reaching education, outreach and stewardship initiatives". Under Education, the Haliburton-Muskoka Children's Water Festival and Friends of Ecological and Environmental Learning were rewarded. In Stewardship, Jerry Walker, a well-known Haliburton County man and business man was noted for his extensive work with Ducks Unlimited and tireless efforts mapping and identifying wetlands in Haliburton County. In the section of Arts, Mary Anne Barkhouse and Michael Belmore, local yet far known multi-disciplinary artists were awarded. Their work has been and is being displayed in museums such as The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Toronto Sculpture Garden, University of Western Ontario and The Smithsonian's National Museum of the America Indian. For the division of Health, Sue Shikaze won for her vision and dedication to projects such as Share the Road, and the cycling coalition. Sue's vision for a healthy and active community is pushing us forward!

It was a great evening and I wish I had attended before! Good music, good food - great people! It was very inspiring to get to meet even more of Haliburton County's extraordinary human resources!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Exciting News!

Wow - I have two announcements today!
1. The Haliburton Highlands Land Trust has received a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for $91,500 over 3 years to hire staff who will increase the organization's capacity to carry out its mission to protect the natural heritage of Haliburton County. That is incredible news and well deserved of a very hard working and committed group of volunteers. Congratulations everyone!
2. HCDC (Haliburton County Development Corporation) announced yesterday that they are providing a grant of $1,700 to FoRT (Friends of the Rail Trail) to assist the group in costs associated with promoting their Rambles programs and developing a website. This is a huge boost to a very small group and on behalf of the Executive - thank you so much HCDC!!

For those wondering how Haliburton County is coming with Spring - it has been rolling along at breakneck speed! Buds are just starting to appear but once they start, it doesn't take long for trees to take on that beautiful lime fresh green they have in Spring time. It is so exciting to watch everything come to life again - I never want to go inside! I cannot believe how early boats have been going into the lakes this year! I was out at Boshkung Lake the other day and there was a line up at the boat launch - unheard of in April. If predictions come true, there will be a lot of beach and boat time this summer. We sure deserve it after the cool, wet summer last year! 600 lakes and counting.....no better place to be!