When Heidi Matthews was named the Town of Erin’s 2013 Wellington Volunteer Appreciation Award recipient for her work with an assortment of local environmental organizations, her reaction was to share the limelight.
“I look at this award as a reflection of the people I work with,” she said.
But make no mistake about it, making the world a better place, starting in her own small corner, is a personal passion for this motivated mother of five.
She moved to the village of Erin with her husband Jim about 25 years ago, after growing up in Quebec and Brampton.
“I think it was an evolution in the sense that my first calling, sort of, was social justice,” Matthews said, noting she first became interested in issues of ecology and equity during university and her early married life.
“As time went on, I realized they were inseparable. That social justice was deeply connected with ecological justice.”
Before becoming involved with local organizations, Matthews worked with Development and Peace, the official international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada.
“Their mandate is not local, it’s the global south,” she said, explaining the organization focuses on educating Canadians about issues that affect the people of the planet’s less-affluent southern hemisphere and on partnering with organizations attempting to affect positive change in the region.
“So it was not us telling them how to fix their problems, it was us asking them ‘What are your problems and what can we do in the north to help?’”
Working with Development and Peace taught Matthews “you can’t separate poverty from the environment” because of the natural connection between the two.
“Ecological injustice is about the human species perceiving the earth as an infinite source of resources – ours for the taking, as well as a limitless waste dump for all our pollution and discarded widgets. This perception must be changed.
“People need to be reminded that we are but one species among many and that our lives depend more on theirs than theirs depends on us. It is about recognizing something of the sacred in everything,” she states.
Matthews notes that connection between economy and environment is “not so obvious in Erin, because Erin is a pretty affluent area.” However, she points out, it’s an ideal starting point for those wishing to affect change on issues that affect the entire world.
“Erin is an interesting place. There’s a lot of hidden talent that exists here,” she said.
Some of that hidden talent came forward after a showing of the climate change documentary Awakening the Dreamer in the community in 2007.
“There was a group of women who decided just showing the movie wasn’t enough, that there had to be some action too.”
Out of the showing of the film, the Climate Change Action Group of Erin (CCAG) was born. The group took the “action” element of their name very seriously.
“We decided we didn’t want to be the kind of group that talked all the time – that just had meetings – that’s why it was called the Climate Change Action Group. So we picked specific initiatives that a small group could implement.”
One such initiative, organized with the help of local organic farmer Cathy Hansen, was a called “Taking a healthy Bite out of Climate Change.” The curriculum-based program was designed to teach students about the benefit of organic food and how it could be a part of the solution to climate change.
Among the exercises planned for Grade 7 students at whom the program was aimed was a trip to the grocery store, where they picked up various foods imported from around the globe. After illustrating through lesson plans the lengthy routes much of the food supply takes to reach local tables, Matthews said one student summed up the issue quite succinctly.
“He looks at us and says, ‘Who thought up that system?’” said Matthews.
She added, “We used to be pretty content to eat things that were local and buy only a few imported foods. Now we buy mostly imported, and treat local food as if it’s something unique and rare.”
Another exercise the students enjoyed involved making a pizza out of totally organic local food.
“And they said, this is so good, because they helped create it as well.”
The program helped children realize they could find good food that didn’t come from a long way off, was grown without chemicals, “and you can do this in your backyard.”
Matthews feels the most successful program initiated by Erin’s CCAG was the Fast Forward Environmental Film Fest, which for the past four years has presented five films per year on worldwide environmental challenges.
The films, which provide an environmental perspective on a wide range of topics, regularly attracts anywhere from about 80 to 140 people.
“That’s outstanding for a community this size,” said Matthews, explaining the festival offers the opportunity to educate many people on the issues of climate change.
“Lots of people don’t know what’s happening in their backyard, because not everybody reads the paper, not everybody gets the paper, so they don’t always know and by the time they do, it’s too late to do anything.”
Matthews says one of the CCAG’s goals was to educate, “and I think the films were a very successful way of educating people on water, on soil on transportation,” and other topics such as the oil sands.
“Climate change is a pretty broad topic, so sometimes you have to bring it down to a smaller level so people can manage it,” she said.
“When you talk about flooding in Bangladesh it’s a little bit hard for people to relate to, (but) what happened in Calgary is a lot closer to home so people will think, ‘Oh, this is starting to hit close to home,’ so we need to start doing something, rather than just talk about it and we can’t always wait for the politicians to do something …
“The film festival has been absolutely tremendous,” she adds, noting attendance numbers were highest in the initial year of the festival and “sort of ebb and flow” depending on factors ranging from the time of year to the film on offer.
However, she points out the festival has experienced an up swell in attendance recently, something she attributes partially to the establishment of the Transition Erin project.
Transition Erin is a grassroots community group committed to fostering resilience, increasing sustainability and enhancing the quality of life for the people of Erin.
Matthews was thrilled when her community applied for “Transition Town” status, which it obtained in May after a year of groundwork.
Transition Towns are part of an environmental and social movement, which originated in England based on the principals of “permaculture,” which is essentially a design focus on sustainability in areas such as architecture, agriculture and natural ecosystems.
Affecting change through government channels can be frustrating and time consuming, says Matthews.
“So you work on the personal, you work on the community. That’s where Transition Erin comes in – it works on the community scale,” she said.
“It’s a fabulous initiative. I’m so excited about it because with the Climate Change Action Group there was such a small number of us carrying it that you could only do small things; but the evolution is Climate Change Action Group still exists on its own but it has a strong connection with Transition Erin and Transition Erin is a network of working groups.”
While the various working groups that make up Transition Erin are autonomous to a certain extent, they report back to the main committee “so that everyone knows what’s going on,” explained Matthews.
Some Transition Erin working groups have taken on areas such as “permaculture” or “re-skilling,” while others are working through political activism.
With the Town of Erin undergoing a Servicing and Settlement Master Plan process to address water and wastewater needs, Matthews feels Transition Erin can play an important role.
“There’s a wastewater treatment group that’s trying to present as many alternatives and options as possible to council, for how we’re going to treat our waste and waste water,” she said, noting “a tried and true waste treatment plant” comes up over and over during discussions.
“That’s not the only option,” she stated.
The Sustainable Development group, which Matthews chairs with Jay Mowat, is working to create a vision for any new developments in the municipality.
The group is currently refining a checklist they plan to ask Erin council to use to evaluate applications for development.
“It has been a steep learning curve with regards to planning legislation and how to create a sustainable and resilient subdivision,” Matthews said.
Other groups are working on initiatives that are both progressive, and “really fun,” Matthews points out.
The re-skilling group, for example, held free school last fall, at which community members volunteered to share their knowledge particularly topics ranging from composting and knot-tying, to non-violent civil disobedience.
The latter session, was an eye-opener for Matthews.
“I didn’t realize there was a definitive line between doing just protesting and taking a chance that you might be arrested.”
Being an active volunteer on so many fronts can be daunting, and Matthews is quick to credit her husband for his role.
“I could not do half of what I do if he wasn’t supportive,” she said, noting when she is away at conferences and community events, “He has to mind the home front, because kids need to be chauffeured, pets need to be fed or whatever.”
She also notes, “I’m blessed that I don’t’ have to have a job to pay my bills, so that gives me some time.”
Matthews says she is motivated by some very personal factors.
“For me it’s definitely faith based. It’s what I’m called to do,” she said.
“It’s also something my children can see,” she said.
“When they see me doing this sort of work locally it teaches them that they have the power to change things – that things don’t have to stay the way they are. If they are wrong, then they need to be changed.”
With her children, as with her community initiatives, Matthews stresses the idea of offering opportunity for change in a positive fashion.
“People need to be aware of how serious the crisis is, but I don’t think fear motivates people to do the right thing,” she said.
“I think falling in love with the environment is probably a better way to do things than making people afraid.”
