Al MacPherson, Volunteer of the Year

The Trans Canada Trail is one of the largest volunteer projects ever under taken in Canada. Each year we honour a Volunteer of the Year who has made an exceptional contribution to the Trail.

At the AGM, Valerie Pringle announced this year’s Volunteer of the Year –Al Macpherson of Lindsay,ON.

Al has been involved with the Trail since its early years when, as adirector of the Ontario Trail Council, he attended the founding conference ofthe Trans Canada Trail in Banff and helped chart the Trail’s route acrossOntario. Today, he is a member of the Trans Canada Trail Ontario board and adriving force behind a 44-km section of the Trail in the Kawartha Lakes area insouthern Ontario.

Al has a wealth of knowledge about recreational trails and he is committed to volunteerism and community involvement, which has driven the success of the Kawartha Trans Canada Trail. It has developed an innovative model for community partners to “adopt” sections of the trail. By involving service and church groups,municipalities and college and schools as “managing partners”, it has close to 200 active volunteers and powerful links in the community.

Al is a trail visionary. He believes trails can be much more than physical routes on the ground. : With four primary schools, two secondary schools and Fleming College backing on the Trail, Al is working hard to make the Trail a resource for learning. He has played a pivotal role in the development of primary school curriculum that gets students out on the Trail for physical education, geography and biology classes.