Janice McClelland

At the CHBTC Annual General Meeting in April, Jean Kerins, our very capable and active Vice President, will be ready to step into the President's shoes (and will be so nominated) and I will move into the position of Past President on the Caledon Executive Board. There'll be other volunteers coming forward to newly stand for the Executive, so I invite you to attend our Hike and AGM on Sunday April 11 th to enjoy the trail, then participate in the AGM election process and help us accomplish the business of the Club.

It has been a privilege serving you and this Trail in our section. How quickly those four years have gone and how much we have achieved together! My sincere thanks to the Executive Board members, past and present, over the past 4 years, for their creative energies and dedication.

A few retrospective notes - In 2006 when I started my initial term as President, we had our first editions of the Cal E News, produced by Vic Davis and Roy Parry . That fall, the Caledon Club hosted the BTC AGM – over 70 Caledon volunteers worked as a team and were warmly applauded for hosting a well organized event.

Who can forget Sept 2007 when, together with Bob Owen and staff from the Ministry of Natural Resources, we opened the new Ring Kiln Side Trail - a trail that has gained fame, leading you to mysterious ruins, hidden along the edge of the Escarpment. That trail opening occurred after the winter excitement of a helicopter (organized by Carol Sheppard, our Landowner Relations Director) flying an 800 lb steel grate from the Credit Valley railroad line to the kiln site and dropping it perfectly onto the chimney top!

We built trail, and muscle, in 2007 as we carried thousands of wheelbarrow loads of gravel, with the assistance of the Upper Canada College grade 9 students, for the rehabilitation of one kilometer of the main Trail in the Badlands area, under the direction of our Trail Building and Maintenance Co-ordinator, Ross McLean. Ross was on the job before the first volunteer in the morning and send out e mail progress reports in the evening!

Lynda Noppe, the Club's initial Volunteer Coordinator, encouraged us to plan our first Volunteer Social in June 2007 at the Belfountain Conservation Area celebrating volunteer accomplishments. We haven't looked back since. Our Volunteer Social has become a relaxed, summer hike/picnic that we look forward to every year. (Mark June 6, 2010 in your calendar for the 2010 Volunteer Social!)

It was also in July 2007 that I completed an end to end of the entire Bruce Trail , under the leadership of Peter & Judy Leeney in their “Living on the Edge” hikes. It was indeed a privilege to learn about the entirety of the Bruce Trail “on foot”.

There was the first CHBTC Hike Leader Training in 2007 and our first CHBTC First Aid training in 2008, organized by Hike Co-ordinator, Vic Davis.

250 people participated in our Bruce Trail Day 2008 at the Forks of the Credit . Many families joined Gary Hall's popular walk for families and children. Gary 's volunteer contributions to our Executive, including his photography and publicity efforts, linking the Club with the Hills of Headwaters, have helped “put us on the map” for local communities and tourists.

In 2008 and 2009 we seemed to find our feet in terms of fundraising, (which is a more recent activity for Bruce Trail Clubs), by initially joining with the Dufferin Highlands Club and sponsoring a train tour on the Credit Valley Explorer. Nancy Early helped organize the event and Diane McKenzie, with her winning ways, ably convinced participants to buy tickets on our prizes, improving our profits that went to BTC land purchase!

In 2009, we unveiled the interpretative sign honouring BTC pioneer, Philip Gosling, and thanks to Dave & Sally Moule & family, and to Carol Sheppard and our landowners, we were able to move over 4+ km of main Trail in the “south Hockley” off road and into scenic woods and fields. It is good to celebrate accomplishments and our Sept 27, 2009 unveiling and hike on the off-road section, followed by a barbecue/corn roast – smoothly organized by our Social Convenors Irene Christie and Jean Trask - was a highpoint in my four years as President.

New Years Day 2010 my husband, Don and I hiked in to view the two new bridges that Club volunteers built in the Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve, under the organization efforts of Colleen Darrell, Dave Sarginson and Laurence Christie.

There are the donations that the Club has been able to make to the BTC to aid in land purchase and the grants that Jean Kerins and Gerry Fox pioneered to help the Club build and maintain trail. It was the clarity of always knowing where the Club stood financially due to the skills of our Treasurer, Irmgard Richter.

There were the awards that the Executive helped to make happen – to the very deserving Barry Westhouse and Trevor Stock for BTC Honorary Memberships, to Ross McLean, Carol Sheppard & Albert McMaster for BTC Volunteers of the Year, to Dave Moule for the Calypso Orchid Environmental Award, to Laurence Christie and Dave Platt for Ontario Volunteer Service awards, not to mention our Club awards named after Barry Westhouse and Isabel East.

What makes leading a Club so good – it's the way people volunteer, give of their time and skills and care about the Trail. And there is our common cause – a conservation corridor that contains the trail, allowing people to interact with nature, maintain wellness as we walk, to learn new things as we volunteer.

I hope that we have been able to integrate trail maintenance and building as an activity that all members need to engage in during the year and that with every hiking step, we thank the trail captains (unseen, unsung heroes) and the Land Stewards who make it happen. It has been a pleasure knowing that all our Support Volunteers, the Social Committee, Membership Committee, Hike Leaders and Tuesday Hikers (organized by Marilyn Ross) could be relied on, that we were developing a working partnership with the teachers at the Belfountain School, (isn't it interesting to learn about flying squirrels!) and that we are part of a conservation network that includes the MNR, Conservation Authorities, Alton Grange Assoc, other Trail Associations such as the Humber Valley Trail, Oak Ridges Trail Assoc, etc.

And now I can turn over the gavel knowing that we have newer Executive members who are taking on their roles with competence and enthusiasm. If you haven't met our Hike Coordinator, Joan Richard or the new Editor of the Caledon Comment, Jan Smith-Bull, come out to our AGM on April 11 th and say, “Hi”.

I was the young girl in Northern Ontario who walked through the bush with her Father and who gathered wildflowers and brought them home to her Mother in the Spring. As an adult, living in southern Ontario, the Bruce Trail has kept me in tune with nature (and also allowed me to meet the delightful man who would become my husband - thank you for that hike back in 1986 Barry Westhouse!) I'm happy to give back and will continue to do so, with a little “break” and in other capacities.

If you've thought of volunteering but haven't contacted the Club, please do so now. Life is too short to miss the joys of sharing your capacities with a like-minded group of energetic volunteers.