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Wye Marsh gets ‘world-class’ upgrade with $108K Trillium grant

‘We are now in the game,’ says display hall project manager on children-focused interactive units during celebration of 2022 Resilient Communities funding

If you haven’t been to the Wye Marsh recently then the Ontario Trillium Foundation has $108,000 worth of reasons why you should check it out.

The celebration of a 2022 Resilient Communities Fund grant was held Friday at the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre in Midland, with speeches from dignitaries recognizing completed upgrades to the facility.

“We are proud to support organizations like yours,” said Tammy Deschambault of the Ontario Trillium Foundation grant review team, “and know that the Resilient Communities Grant for revitalizing your display hall so visitors can engage in environmental stewardship will go a long way towards doing just that – now and into the future.”

Three new interactive exhibits were installed this spring highlighting key areas of focus for the centre: an ‘importance of pollinators’ display; a showcase of the beauty and wonder of eggs and nests; and the ecosystem cycle of a fallen tree within nature.

The display hall revitalization was a visualization come to realization from project manager Tom Goldsmith, who shared to the audience of volunteers and guests that he had been enamoured by nature since he was four years old.

“For the last seven years I’ve watched people walk in, look around, and walk back out again; and now (with the revitalized display hall) we’re seeing people start to engage,” said Goldsmith.

Goldsmith said that through the contribution from the OTF funding: “This display hall is a truly world-class display hall, something truly worth seeing.”

He added that because the exhibits were constructed as modular by design, partnerships and engagement with other museums could potentially allow for the swapping in and out of display hall parts.

“We are now in the game. We now have things that we can trade, move and work with,” he told the audience.

Once the ceremony had concluded, families trickled into the display hall with many children immediately rushing to the exhibits.

“All of our fixtures – our turtle tanks, our cabinets – are low so that children can access them,” said Goldsmith. “It needs to be important to adults, but children are really where we’ve got to strike these young minds and get them involved.”

Goldsmith added that the three completed upgrades were just phase one of a longer project being planned for the future.

Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop was on hand to congratulate the Friends of the Wye Marsh in their achievement. She shared memories of bringing her family to the centre in her youth and as a parent herself, and even took part in engaging with the displays during her visit.

“I love OTF funding,” Dunlop told the crowd. “When I get to make those phone calls, it’s absolutely incredible. It’s that little bit of money that helps an organization over the finish line, something that they wanted to do but didn’t quite have the money to do. It’s so vast as well; we’re seeing it here today at the Wye Marsh.”

The Ontario Trillium Foundation is an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations. Last year, over $110M was invested into 1,022 community projects and partnerships to build healthy and vibrant communities and strengthen the impact of Ontario’s non-profit sector.

The Friends of Wye Marsh is a not-for-profit charitable organization responsible for operating the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre, located at 16160 Hwy. 12 E. in Midland, and taking care of 3,000 acres of provincially significant wetlands and federal forests located at the mouth of the Wye River.

Further information on the Wildlife Centre is available on the Wye Marsh website.


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Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

About the Author: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Derek Howard covers Midland and Penetanguishene area civic issues under the Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the Government of Canada.
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