Setting the table in our community of care
Beaver Valley Destination Stewardship believes that community itself is the table at which discussions about tourism take place. Everyone who calls the watershed “home” is at that table, including residents and businesses, local governments, and community groups.
Kate Russell, Community Catalyst
Kate is a freelance writer and grant author who actively sets the community table so that collaborators can come together.
Her deep roots in cultural asset mapping and community storytelling, combined with her sense of “neighbour as a verb”, make the events she organizes meaningful, authentic, and impactful.
Kate grew up outside of Flesherton, where the headwaters of the Beaver River watershed (Boyne River tributaries) and Rocky Saugeen watershed diverge.
Always a wanderer in local wild places on the family farm, she explores her surroundings with a keen eye and curious heart – always ready to put her hands to work to benefit community.Â
A lifelong learner, Kate has evolved through print journalism, documentary film production, and local museum curation.
Together with her BVDS colleagues, she participated in the ACTivate program with Gros Morne Institute for Sustainable Tourism (GMIST) and the Coady Institute of St.FX University in 2024.
This asset-based community-led approach precipitated in the creation of an Indigenous-led “Workshops Outdoors On Destination Stewardship” (WOODS) project supported by the Community Foundation Grey Bruce.
As part of this project, Kate coordinated four “Walk & Talks”, including community conversations and story mapping for attendees.
Building incrementally on that success, the BVDS Core Team formed a collaborative with Osprey Museum and Bagida’waad Alliance to create and deliver a TWOEYEDS (Tour Workshops Of Ecological Youth Energize Destination Stewardship) project.
With support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Community Foundation Grey Bruce, Kate brought the Aki Guardian Indigenous youth to the watershed to develop and host six distinct TWOEYEDS Experiences.
This series of themed “Walk & Shares”, using the two-eyed lens of Indigenous-informed and Western knowledge resources, was an opportunity for community groups to contribute and receive perspective using these ways of seeing.
Kate is currently adding to her skill set with instructor and local outdoor specialist Robert Bowles in the Ontario Master Naturalist Course through Lakehead University.
This adds to her local knowledge gained as curator at the South Grey Museum, which she now brings to the Osprey Museum heritage sites and all the visitor experiences still to come.
Kate is also the current Poet Laureate (2025-2028) for the Town of Collingwood.
Kate’s Personal Intentions
Connect our community of care to nature with practical action
Build friendships that support a personal practice of two-eyed seeing
Give a voice to our environment – land, water, habitat and nature’s creatures
Neighbour as a verb with all our relations
