Greetings Wellington Water Watchers,

As you have likely seen, we are enjoying unprecedented media coverage on the local Nestlé issues such as this great editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay. 



We are being heard and we will continue to grow our message and keep the pressure up. Thanks for all your support in our collective work. We stand together for the protection of our precious waters! There are many ways you can help out this month. Please have a look below to learn about a few of them......

Good Growth Guelph – Town Hall - Today, Thursday Sept. 8, 7:00 pm.

We invite you to join the Wellington Water Watchers at an important public meeting about regional Smart Growth. On Thursday September 8th, 7:00 – 9:30PM, in the Guelph City Hall meeting rooms, we will be preparing recommendations for the consideration of the Guelph Planning Committee regarding the provincial Growth and Greenbelt Plans. This is our last chance to speak up and tell the Province to preserve the natural heritage and character of our communities, while still accommodating the growth they attract.

GOOD GROWTH GUELPH TOWN HALL

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th

7:00 – 9:30PM

CITY HALL MEETING ROOMS

1 CARDEN ST., GUELPH

RSVP at: http://wellingtonwaterwatchers.nationbuilder.com/good_growth_guelph

Join Maude Barlow for a discussion of Canada’s water crisis

Thursday September 22, 7:00 pm

Harcourt United Church

87 Dean Ave., Guelph.

Pack Guelph Council Chambers: Monday Sept. 26. 6:30 pm. 

Calling all Water Watchers! Please help us pack Council Chambers on September 26, 6:30 pm. City Hall. A motion will be put forward to express council’s concern that the Nestlé (Aberfoyle) permit to take water is not in the best interest of the City of Guelph and the watershed shared by the City of Guelph. We encourage you to consider making a 5 minute delegation on why you support this motion. Delegation requests must be submitted by emailing [email protected] before the previous Friday (Sept. 23). We would be happy to coach anyone considering this. Please email [email protected].

See the article on James Gordon's motion. 

In addition, there will be delegations to the city regarding the city's growth plans and the potential to expand the Greenbelt and include Guelph's urban river corridors. Two great reasons to be present!

September Volunteer Opportunities

Now Accepting Applications.....

We are looking for 42 passionate, organized, and energetic volunteers to help with our "Water Chats" outreach initiative and fundraiser.
Title:  "Water Chats" Coordinators
Time frame: Fall 2016 for approximately 3 months
Time commitment: 1-2 hours per week at the outset building up to 3-4 hours per week

What is the "Water Chat" Project? This project is an ambitious initiative for wide outreach on water protection in Wellington County and fundraising to help us keep our campaign on full steam. Right now we are enjoying unprecedented media coverage on the Nestlé issue and it is time for us to ramp things up by getting more and more people aware and taking action. You as our "Water Chats" Coordinator would be taking a lead role in helping us achieve these goals.

With this model, 42 volunteer "Water Chats" Coordinators host kitchen parties to talk about why water protection matters and what you can do to help. The first of these involves a host and 5 invited guests getting together to discuss water issues and have tea, coffee, beer, or any form of water you enjoy. Those 5 guests then have two weeks to host their own kitchen party but this time only 4 guests are invited, and so on. So, the size of each "Water Chats" shrinks but the number of chats that are being held expands exponentially because each guest becomes a host to their own water chat. A series ends with the final "Water Chats" of only one host and one guest getting together.

As a Water Chat Leader, you would be responsible for providing e-mail support and follow-up to a series of approximately 200 "Water Chats" of 5 or less guests each.  You would also be tracking attendance and donations using a platform that can be accessed via the internet.  We need volunteer leaders who are organized and committed to see that a series of "Water Chats" runs to completion over the 2.5 month period.

We are looking for volunteers who are:   

-       Comfortable and capable of working independently

-       Very organized with exceptional communications skills

-       Interested in learning our Customer Relationships Management (CRM) system called Nationbuilder

-       Interested and experienced in working with people

-       Passionate about protecting our water!

Training and support are provided.

All applicants should please send a letter of interest to [email protected].   

Planning for the 2Rivers Festival 2017   The sixth annual 2Rivers Festival will happen in spring/summer 2017. We are currently seeking interested volunteers to join our steering committee. This past year, just over 600 people attended the 16 days of festival events and activities during the months of May and June 2016. We are excited that the festival was so well received by our community! If you enjoyed the festival and would like to offer your ideas and energy towards making next year's festival even better, please consider becoming a volunteer trainee on our steering committee. Please contact Leanne Johns at [email protected] to learn more. Nature on our Banks  Goldenrod are now in full bloom and will continue to the first frost in early October. It is worth a trip to look at these every few days.  They can be found in some schoolyard naturalization sites, most old fields or the manicured edges of parks.  Goldenrod attract many insects which make observing them so interesting.  These include Monarchs, bees  and spiders.  The children’s picture book On One Flower is a great resource to use before or after a goldenrod field trip. False Dragonhead, Fringed-topped Bottle Gentian, Brook Lobelia, and White Snakeroot bloom. Beavers get busy cutting trees for their winter food supply.  Look for loose piles of branches near their lodge.   Eastern Chipmunks, Eastern Grey Squirrels, and Red Squirrels are also busy storing food for the winter. from "Step Outside".

Bluebelt in the Greenbelt Growing the Greenbelt As a member of the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance, Wellington Water Watchers continues to urge the Province to grow the Greenbelt to protect source water, urban river valleys and prime agricultural land in Wellington County. As citizens of the upper portion of the Grand River watershed, we have a responsibility to protect source water for future generations not only within Wellington County, but also in the downstream communities of Brant, Six Nations and all others adjacent to the Grand. TAKE ACTION The Province is still accepting comments about proposed changes to the Greenbelt and Growth Plans until September 30th. Please take a moment to make your voice heard on the matter. Use the following link to send or edit a prewritten email to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, urging them to grow the Greenbelt into outer ring municipalities including Wellington County.

 

Other ways to Help.....

Doing the work to safeguard our water requires all hands on deck. We are all WATER WATCHERS! 
Please give of your time or money generously. Make us stronger. Make us more powerful. And let’s defend our waters together.
If you are richer in time then money, please

VOLUNTEER

If you are richer in money than time, please 

DONATE

With sincere thanks in advance!