By Trevor Julian, Executive Director and Wendy Heidebrecht Jossa & Ed Engstrom, Co-Chairs
It has become our tradition at this time of year to take a moment to thank the people who make our Friends of Kananaskis family work. Thank you, to the members of our team, board, partners, volunteers, and donors who have graced us with partnership, insight, energy and support.
When it comes to people to thank, we start with our enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers! THANK YOU to the 366 volunteers who filled 692 shifts and dedicated 3,165 hours to helping build and maintain Kananaskis Country’s trails and to cleaning up 50 km of Highway 40.
Our volunteer Crew Leaders put in extra hours towards first aid certification and participating in our annual Crew Leader Training, and help ensure we deliver trail days that are well organized, safe, productive and fun. Thanks to our tireless and hardworking 2023 Crew Leaders:
Derek Ryder • Ghulam Jamro • Tim Giese • Karl Bauer • Nolan Rempel • John Kerkhoven • Greg Thompson • Dwayne Brown • Eric Trouillot • Ken Davies • Denis Pelletier
Our 1,500+ members make our organization thrive and push us to continuously do our best. Every one of you deserves our unending thanks.
We extend our thanks and appreciation to the staff of Alberta Forestry and Parks (AFP). The Friends operate in partnership with Parks: providing volunteer labour, advice, and collaborative assistance.
We would like to begin by thanking Todd Loewen, Minister of Forestry and Parks and Patrick Malkin, his Chief of Staff. Their support and willingness to meet with the Friends of Kananaskis this past year has been wonderful.
A big thank you to Michael Roycroft, Director of Kananaskis Country Region for his ongoing support of the Friends; Debbie Mucha, Kananaskis West Area Manager, for her help on various initiatives we have presented; Andrew Schoepf, Area Manager East Kananaskis, and Alaric Fish, Area Manager, Specialized Facilities & Trails, Kananaskis Region, for supporting our work at the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park.
Helping oversee our partnership with Public Land, we thank Alexandra Miller-Tait, Brad Jones, Recreation, Education and Partnerships Manager, and Jeff Wright, Recreation Management Specialist, for their leadership in creating trail stewardship opportunities in the Kananaskis Country and Sibbald Public Land Use Zones and for supporting our work in the Elbow and Sheep valleys in 2023.
We thank the people we probably spend the most time working with, the trails staff: James Cieslak, Trails and Wayfinding Lead, Alex Mueller, Bow Valley Trails Supervisor, Jody Cairns, PLPP Trails Supervisor, Kyle Jacobson, Elbow District Trails Supervisor, Chris Andersen, Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park Trails Specialist, and Matteo Calloni, Recreation, Education and Partnerships Field Supervisor. Each one of these folks have amazing, hardworking trail crews, whom we also thank. Thanks to all of those folks who keep Kananaskis trails fabulous.
Our Interpretive Trail Signage program wouldn’t be possible without the help from Interpretation & Public Education Coordinators Julie Ryan and Tangle McClaron who gracefully craft educational messaging that enhance visitor knowledge and experience. We also draw on expertise from Parks’ Ecology staff, including John Paczkowski and Sean Konkolics (their Ecology team are the on-going supplier of awesome wildlife camera images you see each month in the newsletter), and Scott Jevons. Scott is the AEP GIS Specialist, and has helped us with numerous maps.
We have had the privilege to have Jody Cairns and Debbie Mucha serve as Alberta Parks Liaisons with our Board this past year. They have brought us insight, wisdom and assistance; our Board was better for their presence.
There are numerous other full time and seasonal AFPT staff who have helped us too. We give thanks to all of these hard working folks, every one of whom help keep our Kananaskis wonderful.
We have to thank our incredible supporters and donors:
Calgary Foundation has become one of our most significant supporters. They have provided funding to assist in interpretive trail work, support for our trail stewardship program and new strategic plan, and implementing of the Human Use Management project in partnership with the Town of Canmore and Kananaskis.
Alberta Government – for supporting our Trail Stewardship program.
SkiUphill RunUphill for supporting our Trail Stewardship program.
Columbia Sportswear for helping outfit our crew leaders with great gear for the trail and providing some great prizes for our volunteers.
Banff Canmore Community Foundation for supporting our Trail Stewardship program
The Dr. Janice L. Pasieka Foundation
The DWCR Family Fund at the Calgary Foundation
The Bergen Foundation
There are numerous Organizations, Clubs and Businesses who support us, including; Lumina Consulting Ltd, Suncor Energy, Pillar Capital Corp, Kananaskis Improvement District, Edmonton Community Foundation, Patagonia Elements Inc, Alberta TrailNet, Rundle Mountain Cycling Club, Spin Sisters, Second Sixties Outdoor Club, Calgary Weekend Hikers Club, Seniors’ Outdoor Club of Calgary, West Winds Senior Hiking & Outdoor Club, Kananaskis Lakes Association, Enbridge, Valhalla Pure Outfitters, McElhanney, Evergreen Senior Outdoor Club, Calgary Ski Club, Trail Sports, MnM Outdoor Club, Rebound Cycle, Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre, along with several other great supporters – thanks for your generosity!
There’s a long list of individuals who provided us with donations – your ongoing support is always valued and appreciated – THANK YOU.
As the Board, we would like to say a special thanks, to our new Executive Director, Trevor Julian who joined us in July 2023. Trevor jumped into the trail season and spent many days working with volunteers in the parks and public lands. Since the summer, Trevor has been building and maintaining relationships with our partners and working with Tim and Bruce on planning for 2024. We are pleased with how Trevor has embraced his role as the Executive Director of the Friends of Kananaskis.
Also contributing to the organization’s success, Tim Johnson, Program Coordinator, is instrumental in working with our partners and the hundreds of volunteers and members, to deliver our programs and the many projects and communications that help us achieve our mandate.
We had the pleasure of having Bruce Gleig on our team for a second year as Trail Care Supervisor. Bruce’s passion for working on trails and good humour with the volunteers made every trail day a good day. Thanks for your hard work and for adding lots of TLC to trails throughout Kananaskis.
Rounding out the FKC Staff Team in 2023 was Amanda Kjersner, our summer trail care staff member who we thank for being an integral part of ensuring the success of our trail days, as well as doing a lot of behind-the-scenes trail assessment and mapping work.
Our finances are kept in good order thanks to Michael Sovereign (with Sovereign Cloud Accounting), thanks for your efforts to improve our financial management.
Hiding quietly behind the scenes, Karen Irvine provides valuable proofreading of our monthly newsletters. And thank you Derek Ryder for your help in writing the newsletters including supplying all the beautiful photos of K-Country, and keeping tabs on the Friend’s social media channels, fielding media interviews and responding to all the myriad questions we get about Kananaskis Country.
We thank the members of the Friends Advisory Council: Don Cockerton, Gillean Daffern, Tony Daffern, Jamie McPhail, Dave Nielsen, David Shultz, Alf Skrastins, Kayla Simpson, Kevin Smith, and Manika Suri. Each has a long-standing commitment to support the Friends and provides deep knowledge of the importance of trails to K-Country visitors. We are thankful for access to their time, and their kind and prompt wisdom.
We want to thank all the members of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Kananaskis – 2023 serving Board members Sam Debree, Kimberly Haddow, Kevin Jones, Chris Kean, Amanda Kelly, Connor Meagher, Janice Pasieka, Derek Ryder, and Lloyd Suchet. Our Board members put in many hours to make sure things run smoothly, and they each deserve a big thank you.
Finally, a special thanks to our Co-Chairs, Wendy Heidebrecht Jossa and Ed Engstrom. Wendy and Ed ensure the Board is running smoothly and help advance our mission. Thanks for your leadership Wendy and Ed!