Canadian Rivers Day - June 11, 2006

Canadian Rivers Day was celebrated by Ottawa Riverkeeper and Canada Heritage Rivers System with a paddle from Victoria Island to Petrie Island. This celebration was a success thanks to the participation of over 150 people in 41 boats including 3 voyageur canoes.

This day was only improved when Chief William Commenda shared his vision of Mother Earth with us, Meredith Brown, our Riverkeeper, reminded us the importance of our Mighty River, Becky Mason shared her experience. The door prizes were an excellent- a special Thank you to Dot for not only suggesting the door prize draw but also for donating the beautiful paddle.

The voyageur canoes were made available at a low cost by Armand Ducharme and Alastair Baird. Nine extra canoes for Rivers Day were provided with help from the Bill Mason Centre and West Carleton Secondary School Outdoor Education Program (both of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board). A special thanks to Dan Zuro the outdoor ed teacher at WCSS for the loan. Don Haines helped by picking up and dropping off the canoes with his trailer and Sheena Adamson brought the pfds, paddles etc from the Outdoor Centre. We would like also to thank Dagmar and Don with the Y canoe club.

We also would like to thank Al Tweedle and the Friends of Petrie Island for sharing his knowledge of Petrie Island. We would like also to thank Dagmar with the Y canoe club for bringing all those extras boats!