“Oh, I just lend a pair of hands and make sure the children don’t go wandering off and get eaten by bears,” says Cheryl Freeman, modestly showing off some of the work she’s been doing in her spare time these days helping Greenways Land Trust take care of the new saplings that have been planted out on Baikie Island.
After moving to Campbell River from Coquitlam three years ago, Cheryl wanted to do something that was the polar opposite from what she’d done her whole life while finding a way to give back to the new community she would call home.
She’d spent her entire career inside offices as an accountant. So she wanted to get out into nature.
“It’s my new home, and it’s where we’re going to be until we’re not breathing anymore, so why not help out? It’s really, really rewarding, and, like I said, it gets me out when I’ve been cooped up for 30 years in an office.”
And she couldn’t have asked for a better group to get involved with, she says.
“Greenways people are so wonderful,” she says. “They’ve got the experience, they’ve got the knowledge, they’ve got the experience, they’ve got the tools, but then when someone like me comes along and has none of that, they’ve got the patience to show me and let me help them, too.”
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