The Rotary Club of Barrie and the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority have been building something together for 25 years. It started with repairs to a leaky Pancake Shack at Tiffin Conservation Centre and grew into one of the club’s most hands-on, enduring community commitments. Members have shown up not just with cheques, but with tools, skills, and a willingness to get their hands dirty across decades of projects: the Mama Bear Pond reconstruction, the Nine Mile Portage boardwalk, a butterfly pavilion and outdoor classroom at Fort Willow, tree planting honouring Afghanistan veterans, field trips for local students, and environmental education programs with Barrie schools. More recently, Ukrainian refugee children have taken field trips to the Centre as part of their welcome into this community. And of course, the Spring Tonic Maple Syrup Festival runs in direct partnership with the NVCA every spring, with profits shared between the two organizations. What looks like a pancake breakfast is also a 25-year environmental partnership. That’s Rotary.
At this year’s Annual Lumberjack Dinner, Dave Mills walked the room through that full history before the club presented a cheque for $23,700 from the Environmental Budget. The funds will go directly toward rain ponchos, an outdoor classroom and theatre, an all-terrain wheelchair-accessible vehicle, outdoor storage, tree planting, and Indigenous education and training, investments that expand access, deepen education, and make sure the natural spaces at Tiffin are there for everyone.
Twenty-five years in, the partnership is as strong as ever!