Westmount Sports Park and Environmental Reserve, Waterloo, ON

7 May 2016

      About a year ago I was asked to join a committee to plan and implement the environmental part of the above facility. I was happy to accept and the journey from that first meeting to the official opening has been productive, exciting and fulfilling. In total I have about eighty hours of my time invested in it. One person at the City of Waterloo once joked to me, "You work here, you just don't get paid for it!"

     Part of the reserve contains a children's playground where, instead of having standard climbing equipment, we installed a stylized Belted Kingfisher Megaceryle alcyon, which the kids are free to climb on. This feature is made in Elmira, ON using wood harvested from Mennonite woodlots in an environmentally responsible way. 

       Not only do the children have a fine opportunity to play on a unique structure we hope that they also learn a little about the bird. 

     We designed an interactive sign with photographs I supplied. These species represent birds which can be regularly found in the area, so with a little diligence parents can help their children to track down and identify the species on the sign. A brief description of each bird is given below its image and when the kids push the button they hear my voice with a little more information about the bird and a recording of its song.

     Here I am standing next to the sign.

       In this picture I am joined by Miriam who had to listen to my wild enthusiasm after every meeting and who joined me in spirit along the way.

   

     You can well imagine that Eddie and Will, our two youngest grandchildren wanted to have their picture taken with grandpa.

     The City of Waterloo was extremely kind in recognizing my contribution to this project and this is a close up of the bottom of the centre panel.

     At the start of the official opening ceremony we were honoured to have a group of First Nations students lead the procession to the playground, where they brought greetings in their native tongue, acknowledged the land, offered an aboriginal prayer of reverence to the land and sang a Micmac welcome song to all present. This land was originally occupied by the Neutrals, a name given by early French explorers to the ten tribes of the Iroquois Nation. Other indigenous people who travelled in the lands adjacent to the Grand River, and hunted, trapped and farmed were the Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Huron, Petun, Erie and Susquehannock. I have not a bone of religiosity in my body, but it seemed to me that if we were to have prayer at this event, it was entirely appropriate that First Nations people should offer it, given their legendary respect for, and stewardship of, the land.

     All levels of government - municipal, provincial and federal were represented at the event and the following picture shows Bardash Chagger, a person I first met when she was the organizer of the Multicultural Festival, and is now a member of our Federal Government and is the Minister of State for Small Business. Congratulations Bardash!

     The nonchalant and dashing young fellow in the centre of the picture, hands thrust in his pockets, is Michael Drescher, Assistant Professor in the School Of Planning, Faculty of the Environment, University of Waterloo, for whom I do a weekly bird survey in the campus woodlot. It was delightful to have Michael take part in the day.
     The Mayor of Waterloo, Dave Jaworsky, was joined by his junior counterpart, Mayor Zoe, Both mayors participated in the formal ceremonies.

     As you can see Mayor Jaworsky had come dressed to plant some trees for Earth Day.   

     Here is another shot of Bardash Chagger, this time with Councillor Jeff Henry in whose ward the park resides.

     I was the last person to speak at the ceremony and was asked to give some thoughts on my personal love of birds and to leave some take-away thoughts for the participants. I hope I left them all inspired!

     The very last act was a presentation to me of a framed copy of the sign, half size, but still huge! I appreciated this gesture very much indeed and it will certainly find a place of honour in our house.

     The two people I worked with most at the City of Waterloo were Geri Quin and Karen Anderson - especially Geri. I cannot say enough about them. I looked forward to every meeting and they were fine, decent, committed, appreciative, hardworking colleagues. 

David, Geri, Karen, Mayor Jaworski, Councillor Henry.

     Five hundred native trees and shrubs were there to be planted and everyone pitched in with gusto.

     Here is Eddie, being helped by his dad, Richard.

      And Will...

     And Erin......

     And our First Nations friends....

     Erin is convinced that her Mom was exuding pheromones since the moment she started to plant her tree she was offered help by every guy in the immediate vicinity! Here is a shot of her before the horde descended.

     Various games were available for the kids, the most popular seeming to be bubble soccer. As you can see from the pictures below Will and Eddie were enjoying it.

     Marcelo Thierry used to work for me almost from the day he first arrived in Canada from Argentina. His boys then were just little guys and I got to know them all well. They are all part of a fine family. 
     On the left in the picture below is oldest son Marco, now in medical school. His dad, Marcelo is on the right.

        Number two son, Franco is pursuing a career in the culinary arts and is about to go back to school for some advanced learning.

     I very much appreciated that they drove from Toronto to be with me on this special day. I hope to see them again soon.
     Seeing this project come to fruition is one of the highlights of my life. Thanks to everyone who participated at any point along the way. The result is a fine new facility for the citizens of Waterloo.