April 27 - Volunteer Weekly Email
Aaniin Everyone,
It has been a busy and fulfilling past week!
The annual traditional and prescribed burns happened in High Park last Thursday. The Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle, of which I am a member, organized the ceremony, beginning with a Sunrise Ceremony and a Sacred Fire. Drummers, singers, and dancers joined us to honour the Ancestors, land and all relations.
Our third annual Turtles on the Move Parade was a joyous event even with rain during the first part of the gathering. We are so grateful to all of the volunteers who supported the event and to all of you who were able to join us!
BIIDAASIGE PARK, HOME SMITH, WOODBINE, HUMBER BAY PARKS:
Currently, there is no sign-up sheet for these parks because we don't have any protected nests there. Once nesting season begins, they will be added to the schedule sign up sheet. Since these are new parks, we are not sure where nests with hatchlings that overwintered would be located. If this is one of your parks, we ask if it is possible to sign up for sheets for currently active parks. Otherwise you can scout these new parks anywhere near water. We are also getting signage in the parks so we can begin receiving calls on our Hotline about any nesting turtles or hatchlings.
ORIENTATION SHIFT WITH MENTOR:
Please feel free to either reach out via Signal to connect with a Mentor for an orientation, or text the Hotline asking for the Mentor's phone number to get connected for the shift.
SIGNAL:
Please remember to download the Signal App. Some of you still haven't.
downloaded the App yet. You will receive an invite. Please check the app to see if you received an invite.
All returning volunteers on Signal have been added, except for those who haven't downloaded the App yet.
We are still adding new volunteers. Please be patient; adding people to my contact list and then adding you all to Signal takes time. Signal also requires me to verify that I am human after adding two or three volunteers.
REMINDERS OF UPCOMING TRAININGS OR MEETINGS:
Indigenous Ways of Knowing Training: ZOOM LINK FOR ALL DATES
April 28th: 7pm to 9pm
This is the last date until mid May.
***Unfortunately, if you log into Zoom late, you may not be admitted as it is difficult to admit attendees while I am in presentation mode
Returning Volunteers Meeting: ZOOM LINK FOR ALL DATES
April 27th: 7pm to 8/8:30pm
April 30th: 8pm to 9pm ***PLEASE NOTE CHANGE IN START TIME
Because I double-booked myself again, I need to start the meet at 8pm on April 30th
VOLUNTEER CENTRAL ON WEBSITE:
You can now access the Schedule, Map, Incident Form, Manual (still a work in progress), Data Collection Forms and Weekly emails. We will soon post a calendar with training dates and events. You can also find Volunteer Central on our website under the Volunteer tab.
Website page for Volunteer Central: CLICK HERE
The password: miigwetch
Please do not share this with anyone
We hope you all have a lovely week!
Carolynne and Jenny
