Big Canoe Project is excited to be hosting its fourth annual spring fundraiser at the Meaford Hall on April 19th, supported by the Meaford Culture Foundation. Proceeds will be used to continue our free paddling program with new Canadians in partnership with Y Grey Bruce Language Settlement Services.

The evening's program begins with an eco fair in the Galleries with info booths from Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, Georgian Bay Forever, Escarpment Corridor Alliance, Beaver River Watershed Initiative, local climate action groups, Bagidawaad Alliance and more. Doors open at 7, and the short film, Gchi Jimaan Jiime, second spoton the night's playbill, screens at 8 so lots of time to connect with great initiatives in South Georgian Bay.

Gchi Jimaan Jiime, filmed over the course of a two day big canoe ceremonial journey around Neyaashiinigmiing, captures the wisdom and spirit of Elder Justin Johnston as he travelled the waters making offerings for the return of the whitefish and the health of the Great Lakes.

The keynote speakers for the evening will give us a deep dive (literally) into the health of these vast bodies of freshwater we're lucky enough to call home. Producer Yvonne Drebert and Director/Cinematographer Zach Melnick are the founders of Inspired Planet Productions. From their home on the beautiful Saugeen Peninsula, the husband-and-wife team have created more than 40 hours of nature and history documentary spanning two decades, including the 2021 Canadian Screen Award nominated series, Striking Balance.

Driven by a profound concern for the global decline of freshwater ecosystems, Drebert and Melnick have embarked on a dedicated mission into the underwater world. Using cutting-edge ROVs, they immerse themselves in rarely seen aquatic environments, capturing extraordinary wildlife behaviours, and even discovering the occasional shipwreck. Their upcoming documentary All Too Clear explores how quadrillions of tiny invasive mussels have re-engineered the Great Lakes at a scale not seen since the glaciers. Organisms of all kinds - from the tiniest plankton to the largest fish - are vanishing, creating vast biological deserts. From dazzling shallow water worlds that look more like the Caribbean than the Great Lakes, to the wreck of the steamer Africa, a wreck they discovered this past summer completely entombed in mussels, 300 feet beneath the surface.

Tickets ($25) can be purchased online or at the Meaford Hall box office. Big Canoe Project is a not-for-profit that offers big canoe tours while collecting citizen science water quality data. bigcanoeproject.org Please send an email to Tom at info@bigcanoeproject.org if you'd like to set up a booth in the hallways at this exciting event.