Announcing:
the 2009 ECO HEROES!
North Ontario’s first Eco Hero Contest has successfully wrapped! We
received lots of wonderful nominations with lots of encouraging initiatives
happening all over the region. A jury consisting of Graham Saunders, Kirstin
Muth, Jacomyn Gerbrandy and Hubert Den Draak had a tough time selecting the
winners and finally decided on the following names:
First Prize: JEANIE GAUDETTE, nominated by Sharon Loghrin
and Gina McNally.
Jeannie is a grade 2 school teacher in Murillo. She introduces all kinds
of environmental initiatives and makes them part of every-day life. Her kids
are happily busy recycling and composting pretty much everything in school,
as well as planting flowers, plants an bushes.
Jeannie also runs a very active environmental club for students from grade
4 to 8. They have environmental contests and organize all kinds of fund raisers
that involve the whole school, students and their parents.
And lastly, Jeannie lives what she teaches, making her a perfect role model and Eco
Hero.
Second Prize: LAURA OGDEN, nominated by Leeya Bobrowksi-Vogt.
Laura works at the Lakehead Social Planning Council in Thunder Bay. She rides
her bike to work year round, introducing recycling and composting
bins in the workplace, and –a nice touch– always has a few
reusable shopping bags handy to lend out to colleagues and friends when
they go shopping so they don’t have to use those dreadful plastic
bags.
She must be doing something right, because her nomination form says that
all of her colleagues are impressed and following her example (not sure if
they all ride their bikes through the Thunder Bay winter, though…).
Third Prize: GARY PEAKCOCK, a husband and father in Neebing,
nominated by his daughter Tracy. Tracy’s parents own a hobby farm with
lots of animals and big gardens that Gary takes care of in the most ecological-friendly
way possible. He cuts back on water consumption by using rain water only
for the live stock and gardens, he doesn’t use any chemical fertilizers
or pesticides, feeds the whole family with what he grows, is energy conscious,
uses solar light and CFLs where possible – the list just goes on.
Tracy writes she is grateful for her dad teaching her all these good traits
and says “Please pick my father because he has worked his butt off
and deserves some appreciation!”
We’d also like to mention the RED ROCK MUNICIPAL COUNCIL who
were nominated by Gerrald Sarassin. Unfortunately they didn’t qualify
because this contest is for individuals only, but this council also needs
some appreciation.
They developed and implemented a Sustainability Plan for the town which involves
green building techniques, investing in wind and solar energy, planting a
wide variety of trees, a recycling system, the list is very impressive. I
hope that many other towns will have a good look at what’s happening
there even though this town, too, is suffering badly as a result of the current
economic downturn.
Honorary Mentions go to (in random order):
Lucy Lavoie and Dr. Ken Deacon,
Fred and Katrina Mueller,
Larry and Diana Bockus,
Kyla Turner,
Janice Horgos,
Mary Donaghy and
the entire Red Rock Municipal Council.
We thank our sponsors for playing such an important role in making this contest the success it was, as well as our jury members Graham Saunder and Kirstin Muth for donating their time and good judgment in the jurying process!
Also a big thanks to you all who participated in this contest. The Eco Hero Contest will be back next year! We will get schools involved to help us find the young Eco Heroes of the future.
