Make a Difference Week 2021 Recap
Today, June 13th, marks the ending of Make a Difference Week. We wanted to give our tremendous thank you to everyone who collaborated, participated, attended events, followed our pages and supported us through the very first Vancouver Island MAD Week initiative! We thank you for all the big and small changes we have been able to make together to educate, collaborate and restore our beautiful natural environment in all its variations on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
Thank you to the Society For Ecological Restoration (SER) for organizing this program on behalf of the United Nations Make a Difference Week. We would not have been able to create this amazing collaboration of local organizations, community members and donators without their guidance and encouragement to get out into our ecosystems and make a difference.
Thank you to West Coast Refill, The Nulla Project, Society For Ecological Restoration (SER) - Western Canada, UVic Ecological Restoration Club for your contributions and donations!
Thank you to Metchosin Invasive Species Council, Oak Bay Municipality, Galiano Conservancy, Friends of North Saanich Parks, CRD Parks, Esquimalt Municipality, Greater Victoria Green Team, Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary Society, Biodiversity Galiano and the RNS program at UVic for connecting with us and rallying the community to participate in the amazing restoration events this week.
2021 is only the beginning. Each year we will be back to share events in one large, amazing movement to restore our degraded ecosystems. This work will be continuing throughout the year by all the incredible efforts of local organizations in our communities! The need for ecological restoration is great and the time is now.
Don’t forget to tune into the webinars (which will be posted shortly) we hosted with the passionate folks over at Elate Cosmetics, Surfrider Foundation Vancouver Island and Saanich Native Plants to hear how we can make a difference through our day to day choices, how we can contribute to our environment in more ways than one, and how to maintain our solidarity with each other as we transition into a more sustainable future.
Of utmost gratitude we have is for conducting these events on the unceded territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking, W̱SÁNEĆ and Hul'q'umi'num-speaking First Nations. Restoration is a part of reconciliation, and with respect and thanks we hope to connect in future events, initiatives, conversations and education along the way to decolonizing our environment and the field of restoration.
We can’t wait for the upcoming events in 2021. See you next year!
- Maddie, Rachel, Izzie and Nancy