TTLT's 25th Anniversary

TTLT is 25 years old!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate 25 years of conservation, nature connections, partnership, and learning and growing!

TTLT’s quarter century birthday celebration took place on Friday, October 17^th at the Highland Country Club in London, ON. The room was humming with over 100 people, including founding members, donors, current and past board and staff, long-time and new volunteers, as well as event sponsors, connecting in community, sharing stories, and dreaming of the future.

Stay tuned for a link to the e-store to purchase a variety of 25^th anniversary merch coming soon.

DISPLAYS

TTLT staff honoured this big birthday with incredible displays of memorabilia and symbolic pieces to represent the pillars of their work – Protect, Restore and Nurture – including a 25-year timeline, campaign promotional samples, photos of volunteers and donors, event posters, native plant bouquets (from TTLT nature reserves), other nostalgic pieces, and more.

KEYNOTE

John Lounds, Director of Business Development at the Centre for Land Conservation, was the keynote speaker and shared an engaging and inspirational account of TTLT’s incredible 25 years as well as a sneak peek at the next 25 to come. He highlighted that TTLT is in the top 25 land trusts across the country (out of over 150) and that the organization is poised to make the top 15!

MARY KERR RECOGNITION

A certificate of thanks to the late Mary Kerr Founding member, Bernie Vandenbelt, gave a whole-hearted honouring of founding member Mary Kerr, and presented a special certificate in her memory to two of her children. Bernie described Mary as “a force of nature and a force for nature” who never “waffled” from her commitment to nature and to whom it was very hard to say no!

JANE BOWLES RECOGNITION

The Jane Bowles Ecological Reserve sign Daria Koscinski, Executive Director of TTLT, also shared a special honour in recognition and memory of founding member Jane Bowles. Daria’s enchanting speech underlined Jane’s relentless commitment to nature, her incredible sense of humour, free-spirited nature, and her unique approach to environmentalism (including “eating the enemy” aka Garlic Mustard). Jane’s legacy was honoured with the unveiling of a new name for one of TTLT’s newest nature reserves: Jane Bowles Ecological Reserve, located in Elgin County.

SPECIAL THANKS

To our event sponsors: Lerners, Wild Birds Unlimited, Wilkinson Rogers LLP, and AGM

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos by Andrew Price and Carrie Freele

A table of display items labelled Protect Two men on either side of a woman, smiling at the camera A room full of people sitting at multiple round tables in a large dining room A man with greying hair speaking into a microphone at a podium A man with white hair looking at a large nature reserve sign A group of people, mostly older than 60, standing in two lines posing for the camera A table display showcasing a large print timeline Two young woman smiling and talking near a table of displays A woman looking at a large printed map of Perth, Middlesex, Oxford, and Elgin counties showing where nature reserves are Close up of a middle aged man standing at the microphone and podium A table of displays labelled Nurture Group of several young women and one man standing in two rows posing for a photo A man and a woman accepting a framed certificate from a man Two woman with white hair laughing and chatting at a round dinner table A large group of 15 people posing for a photo