Barbara Bohlin
District 18 Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes
Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary
Rescue and rehab centre volunteer
For the past eight years, Barbara Bohlin has been volunteering at the Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary in Haliburton, where she moved 21 years ago after teaching in Toronto schools for three decades. She helps rescue, rehabilitate and release wild animals, including foxes, coyotes, porcupines and orphaned deer fawns. Her weekly tasks involve feeding, preparing formulas, cleaning, monitoring, administering medication and assisting with wound care, in addition to helping with fundraising efforts.
Bohlin finds the work incredibly rewarding, because it offers continuous learning about wildlife care through collaboration with other rescue organizations.
“I loved my career, every day of it, and I’ve always enjoyed animals, especially wildlife. My husband and I have been great wilderness travellers and outdoor canoeists, and we’ve seen a lot of wildlife, so we have respect for them. As a teacher, I always had animals in my classroom, so children, especially [those who lived] in apartments, that couldn’t have pets could learn about the value and life of animals, and how to look after them and respect them.”
One of Bohlin’s proudest moments came last spring when a young fox arrived at the sanctuary with a broken back leg. Thanks to donations, the sanctuary was able to use their X-ray machine to assess the injury. Realizing it was a complicated break, Bohlin drove the fox to a wildlife vet in Orangeville who performed surgery, inserting pins and plates to save the leg. Bohlin assisted during the procedure and helped care for the fox afterward. Against the odds, the fox survived, thrived and was eventually released – one of her most rewarding and memorable experiences.
“There’s nothing better than releasing an animal you’ve cared for. I get joy from the animals and seeing them thrive,” Bohlin says. The impact of community is another big benefit of her role. “You build relationships with others who greatly care about the environment and our animals. In Haliburton, there are so many people who volunteer that make this a thriving community. Every single person plays a role and contributes, and I consider them changemakers. No matter how much time or how many days a week you have, you make a difference. And change isn’t always the big momentous change. It’s the day-to-day, week-to-week things that make an organization or group better, stronger and more effective. Everybody counts.”
Margaret Beaudette
Sustainable Milton
Grassroots environmental organization volunteer
District 15 Halton
Margaret Beaudette, a retired French immersion teacher in Milton, has witnessed the city’s rapid expansion. She saw its population surge from 30,000 in the 1980s to more than 100,000 today, following the construction of a water pipeline from Lake Ontario. Milton is now one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada.
Concerned with the rate of growth and its impact on water quality, Beaudette realized there weren’t any sustainability plans in place – she wanted to get involved. Her advocacy around water protection led to her involvement with local environmental issues. In 2019, just before the pandemic, she became a founding member of Sustainable Milton, volunteering on the events team to raise awareness about environmental initiatives and gather like-minded people to advocate for climate action.
As part of Sustainable Milton, Beaudette is involved with many local initiatives. Recently, she volunteered at the Halton Children’s Water Festival, leading educational activities about invasive species. Sustainable Milton also plants native gardens in community spaces, partnering with the urban Indigenous group Grandmother’s Voice. They’ve worked on projects like building and installing bat houses, with the help of high school students and a bat expert who gave a community talk. At the Milton Public Library, they manage a community garden filled with native plants, giving away free plants during events. “In my own yard, we stopped mowing a big part of our yard and have allowed it to become naturalized,” Beaudette says. “We have little garden areas within the yard that we’ve planted with native plants.”
“In my own small way, my work gives me satisfaction, happiness, that I’m doing the right thing,” she says. “That I’m not just sitting back and complaining about the problems but trying to be part of the solution.”
“I’m at the end of the baby boomers,” Beaudette says. “It seems that everything that was good and convenient came about during the time I was working, but now as a retired person, we’re seeing all the negative results of all that. There are people who blame my generation for the problems, and my response is we didn’t know any better. All these inventions like plastic things that made our lives easier, we didn’t realize what a toll it was having on the planet. Now that I know better, I’m doing better, and I’m trying to get others to do better.”
Jane Matthews
Local hospital (undisclosed for confidentiality reasons)
Patient partner
District 23 North York
Jane Matthews has been a “patient partner” at her local hospital since 2017, serving as a trusted volunteer adviser to healthcare professionals. With a 30-plus-year career in education, including roles as a teacher and board-wide computer consultant, she realized she could use her transferable skills to work with hospital administrators to develop and refine initiatives that benefit patient recovery and care.
“It’s a mandated role. Hospitals need to ensure they’re somehow getting input from the community,” Matthews says. “The patient and family perspectives can be missed when staff are focused on the clinical and legal sides. Sometimes they make choices that, from the patient’s side, can be counterproductive.”
As part of the hospital’s patient-partner community, Matthews makes sure that patient and family perspectives are considered when shaping organizational policies and procedures. She usually sits at the table in conversations with managers, directors and administrative staff as new initiatives develop, or when challenging initiatives are in review. “We’re counted on to raise points and say, ‘Yes, but from the patient’s side, this is how it might look.’”
Matthews was drawn to this role after her own surgery at the hospital and became a patient partner after a chance encounter with a staff member during her first visit. While discussing the challenges of wayfinding for new patients, the staff member recognized Matthews’s insightful perspective and encouraged her to apply for the volunteer role. “I realized that this was a public health organization. I was in public education. I was curious about how the world was working 15 or so years after retiring, and it was in my community.”
Matthews has played a key role in implementing digital tools at her hospital. “That’s not out of line with the computer stuff I’d started back almost 40 years ago,” she says. Recently, she contributed to the implementation of MyChart, a widely used app that allows patients to manage appointments, update medical information and complete pre-appointment questionnaires, improving the experience for both patients and healthcare staff. She also helped introduce bedside iPads for patients to access tailored health educational resources. Currently, she’s collaborating on revising the mental health unit’s discharge survey to better capture patient feedback and improve services. She appreciates working across departments, like pharmacy and mental health, because it allows her to gather insights that bridge different areas of healthcare. “Being able to cross silos is very interesting. That’s something I’ve really appreciated – having the flexibility to make connections and ideas.”
“What I love is it’s a community of people who are younger than me. It’s exciting to see the very smart minds who are in their 30s and 40s really making a difference. I think if I were sticking to my 70-year-old cadre, I wouldn’t be as aware of that. It’s nice to be treated as a peer. If you’re interested in learning about health literacy and healthcare system literacy, there’s nothing better than this.”
How members are involved in their communities
Dieter Brueckner
District 20 Frontenac, Lennox & Addington
“I support Fair Vote Canada financially, have distributed leaflets for them, manned a table at a local outdoor arts festival, and corresponded with political folks, both personally and as a member of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation’s local communications and political action committee about electoral reform.”
Christine Hammond
District 30 Northumberland
“I helped start Supper’s Ready, a once-a-week meal at Trinity St. Andrew’s Church. It’s made a difference to those who were hungry and those who need socialization. We serve between 80 and 100 people every Wednesday night from September to the end of June.”
George Heighington
District 24 Scarborough and East York
“I’m delivering the Bluffs Monitor, the last standing newspaper in Scarborough, once a month. I volunteer to deliver 100 copies because I need to walk. The paper is free. I used to pick it up in the stores all the time, but then I thought, no, my neighbours need to see this, and I volunteered. I like working with print.”
Joanna Oosthoek
District 10 Bruce, Grey, Dufferin
“I belong to deaf associations in Canada and in the United States advocating for accessibility.”
Janet Knight
District 17 Simcoe County
“I advocate for people who are disabled.”
Marg Booze
District 49 The Prairies
“I volunteer with Jammies from Grammies. We provide pyjamas for children and the elderly in nursing homes.”
