Charitable No 85521 5471 RR0001
Our People
The Ten Oaks Project is a community-based, charitable organization led by a volunteer board of directors with representation from the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Staff
Hannah McGechie - Volunteer and Programs Manager
Board of Directors
Celeste Ali-Akow - Director
Stuart Bell - Director
Doris Buss - Director
France Daviault - Director
Anna Fischer - Director
Bruce Hawkins - Director
Dawn Moore - Secretary & Vice-president, Ottawa
Beth O'Connor - Director
Chris Persaud - Vice-president, Toronto
Robert (Bobby) Ramsay - Treasurer
Brian Ray - Director
Lee Rose - President
Danielle Sutherland - Director
Lindsay Sweeney
Carson Tharris - Director
Director (2011-2013)
Celeste is a Toronto native but has called Ottawa her home for the past five years. She has recently finished her undergraduate degree in International Studies and Modern Languages at the University of Ottawa. She has many years of experience in activism, youth engagement, community development and events planning. As a result of being a participant in Project Acorn over the summer, Celeste is enthusiastic about actively participating in the Ten Oaks Project.
Currently, Celeste is an outreach volunteer at the AIDS Committee of Ottawa, sits on the board of directors of the University of Ottawa’s Ontario Public Interest Research Group and is on a planning committee organizing a Forum on Sex Work in Canada. During her spare time, Celeste enjoys cycling, Do It Yourself Projects, foreign cinema and having discussions on LGBTQ issues and possibilities for social change.
Stuart Bell (NCR)
Director (2010-2012)
Stuart grew up in Calgary. Cross-country skiing, hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains were very common activities in the Bell Clan. In high school Stuart was non-academic. Quiet and seemingly aloof, Stuart had a secret master plan: after high school he took off to backpack through Europe for six months. Arriving back in Calgary, Stuart's confidence had come of age, he soared to store manager with a budding juice bar company, and then fell into a management job with a major clothing retailer, before sensing another gap in his life, having found cardigans and denim altogether unfulfilling. He wished to help people in some sort of capacity that was near to their heart and yet within the health and fitness field. Stuart moved to Ottawa, focusing his attention on the field of massage therapy, and it seemed to be the perfect fit for matters of the heart, health and fitness. Stuart is now a registered massage therapist and has also completed additional training in Reiki Levels 1 and 2, HIV and the RMT, and more.
Stuart has an amazing dog named Tyson and enjoys hanging out with his friends. Together they cook meals and play board games like SORRY! Stuart can often be seen lifting weights, running along the Rideau Canal, with his nose in a book or on a yoga mat in the Byward Market. He's also an avid bowler and is looking to purchase his first pair of retro-chic bowling shoes.
Doris Buss (NCR)
Director (2010-2012)
Doris is a born and raised Calgarian who now calls Wakefield, Quebec home. Doris teaches in the Law Department at Carleton University where she works in the area of international human rights, particularly women's rights and lesbian and gay politics.
A new member of the Ten Oaks Project Board of Directors, Doris has a background in activist work on women's rights issues with the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) and sexuality rights with Amnesty International UK.
When not at her computer, Doris' passion is the outdoors. With her partner Jo and uber-bouncy dog, Tryfan, Doris spends as much time as she can hiking, camping, biking, skiing and, since moving to Quebec, canoeing (but nothing beyond the J-stroke ...yet).
Director (2011-2013)
A proud mom of two boys (12 and 10), you will most probably find France outside somewhere near water, or in a cold hockey arena cheering from the bleachers or as a right-winger on the ice. France currently works for The Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa as a Communications Officer, is involved in various community capacity building initiatives, and provides supports to local and provincial youth advocacy movements within child welfare.
France recently completed a graduate degree in International and Intercultural Communications while working full time and parenting two active kids. Apparently, she misses the craziness and chaos of the last two years, because now she is filling her “spare” time reconnecting with friends, training for her first duathlon, contemplating a PhD, and of course volunteering as a new Board Member with the Ten Oaks Project.
Director (2011-2013)
Originally from the small town of Elora, Ontario, Anna now lives in Toronto. She was first introduced to the Ten Oaks Project in 2011, when she volunteered at Camp Ten Oaks as their Camp Life Coordinator.
Anna holds an honours degree in Gender Studies from Queen’s University, as well as a Certificate in Sexual and Gender Diversity. Currently, she is the Director of Social Media for Food Day Canada, the largest locavore event in Canada. She loves local food, canoeing, and listening to CBC radio.
Bruce Hawkins (GTA)
Director (2010-2012)
Bruce is new to the Ten Oaks Project this year, and he arrives with great enthusiasm for the project. Bruce has a history of community involvement, achieved through both community development initiatives, and volunteering with many organizations. Most recently, Bruce has been involved as a member of the Fundraising and Events Committee with the LGBT Youth Line, a toll-free Ontario-wide peer-support phone line for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, 2-spirited, queer and questioning young people.
Currently, Bruce is a senior communications coordinator with the City of Toronto, where he provides communications support to a number of divisions at City Hall. Bruce has an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration Degree and a background in communications, marketing and media relations. Bruce is looking forward to working with board members, volunteers, participants and all those involved with the Ten Oaks Project.
Hannah McGechie
Volunteer and Programs Manager
Born and raised in Ottawa, Hannah has had the pleasure of working at the Ten Oaks Project for the past two years in different capacities. She helps plan Project Acorn and Camp Ten Oaks, supports the organization's many wonderful volunteers, and keeps the Ten Oaks office running. She comes from a background of working with queer families and criminalized women, restorative justice, community-based research, and social program development, with an undergraduate degree in criminology and psychology and a master's degree in social work.
When she’s not at the Ten Oaks Project, Hannah can be found basking in the glow of having finally finished her master's thesis, cooking and baking up a vegetarian storm, running craft nights with her friends, drinking wine and scheming with her feminist collective, and hanging out with her lovely partner and their two cats.
Dawn Moore (NCR)
Secretary & Vice-president, Ottawa (2010-2012)
Dawn first caught whiff of the sweet smell of pine needles warming in the sun as a toddler venturing into the woods at the family cottage in the Laurentians. Now (not so very) many years later, she is sweetly wrapped by white pine and hemlock in her Gatineau Hills hideaway shared with her wife, son, two dogs, chickens and most recently, Olive the pig.
After a year on the Ten Oaks Board serving as secretary, Dawn is excited to continue helping to make magic as the Vice-president for the National Capital Region. As a current Ten Oaks parent, Dawn has witnessed the wonder of Ten Oaks first hand and still savours the memory of her grinning son stepping off the bus after his first trip to camp. "Camp is so awesome" are words heard quite regularly in her household.
When she's not looking for fairies in the woods, Dawn can be found on a yoga mat, in a swimming pool, debating with a cast of eccentric Wakefield locals in an eclectic book club, baking bread while looking out over the hills or working for actual money at her job as a professor at Carleton University. She also builds a mean fire and falls down less and less on her snowboard.
Beth O'Connor (GTA)
Director (2010-2012)
Beth is new to the board of the Ten Oaks Project but not new to the world of working with youth. As an undergrad, she volunteered with marginalized youth as an after-school tutor at the Regent Park Boys & Girls Club in Toronto, and facilitated workshops on violence against women for high-school students as part of her work with the Metro Action
Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) in Toronto. As a social worker, Beth worked at Jessie's Centre for Teenagers (now renamed The June Callwood Centre for Women and Families), a drop-in centre for teenage mothers and their children in Toronto, and for a short time, volunteered at Holy Cross Hospice in Gabarone, Botswana, where she worked with HIV/AIDS-affected orphans and vulnerable children. Although her day job nowconsists of working on social housing as a Senior Policy Advisor with the Government of Ontario, Beth's passion for working with youth-especially marginalized youth-is alive and well. Her passion for camp is a little less so, dating back to a traumatic weekend at Brownies camp when she was too homesick to enjoy the s'mores, but she hopes her work with Ten Oaks will change all of that.
Beth holds an honours B.A. in English, Equity Studies, and Women's Studies (University of Toronto, 2004), an honours Bachelor of Social Work (University of Windsor, 2005), and an M.A. in Women's Studies (York University, 2009). Beth can usually be found buying advance tickets for Hot Docs, travelling south of the border to visit her large family, plotting the next feminist revolution with her friends, spending time with her big sister, or walking on creaky hardwood floors at old bookstores, browsing the latest American literature. She loves good food (it helps that her brother's a professional chef), good wine, and good company, and thinks an ideal night is having a bunch of friends over for all of the above with a couple of board games thrown in. Beth is proud to call herself "queer spawn" (a term she heard for the first time upon joining the board), and is really excited to work on the CampCurl fundraiser for the Ten Oaks Project.
Chris Persaud (GTA)
Vice-president, Toronto (2010-2012)
Chris's first community outreach began when he was a camp counsellor at a special needs day camp with the City of Toronto. Since then, Chris graduated as a Human Services Counsellor and has gained ten years experience in mental health, including the last seven years working in housing and support. Chris is currently a Program Manager in Toronto at Habitat Services, an agency which contributes to the quality of life of consumer/survivors of the mental health system by improving housing standards and providing supports. Most recently, he has been working on community-based research projects on topics such as employment barriers for low income tenants and currently is working on a study which will develop a peer support model for mental health community housing.
Chris is an advocate of diversity, GLBTQ rights, social justice and works from a grassroots
perspective. He looks forward to working with the Ten Oaks Project because he wants to make a difference by fostering communities that accept and support all individuals.
Robert (Bobby) Ramsay (NCR)
Treasurer (2010-2012)
Bobby is a good ol' Southern boy from Birmingham, Alabama, who has landed in Ottawa quite to his surprise. He comes to the Ten Oaks Project from the labour movement, having worked for six years with CUPE Local 3902 at the University of Toronto. Currently, he is a Professional Officer with the Canadian Association of University Teachers. Bobby holds degrees from Davidson College, Georgetown University, and the University of Toronto.
Bobby and his husband Denny are the continually awestruck fathers of two boys, Dominic (3) and Oscar (2). The dads enjoy peace and quiet, and the boys enjoy running, screaming and breaking things. Somehow it works.
Brian Ray (NCR)
Director (2010-2012)
Brian Ray is a social geographer who is interested in the diverse ways that urban people organize their everyday lives in multi-ethnic cities. For the most part, Brian's work examines different aspects of immigrant integration in North American and European cities. Beyond the fields of immigration and cultural diversity, his research also examines the socio-cultural meaning of neighborhood spaces for marginalized groups and geographies of gender and sexuality.
Brian arrived at the University of Ottawa in July 2004 after several years in the United States where he worked in Washington (DC) at the Migration Policy Institute as a researcher/policy analyst examining immigrant integration and public policy. Brian holds a PhD in social geography from Queen's University (Kingston), an MA from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies degree from the University of Waterloo.
Lee Rose (NCR)
President (2010-2012)
Lee joined the board of the Ten Oaks Project in 2008 and has worked in a number of portfolios including marketing and communications and donor relations before somehow ending up in the president’s chair. In his day job, he’s the director of communications for a national nonprofit organization based in Ottawa. Lee holds an honours degree in English Literature (University of Ottawa, 2002) and is a self-described CanLit and Québec cheese junkie. In his mind the perfect threesome includes a good book, a glass of red wine and a hunk of stinky cheese from la belle province.
Lee has extensive experience working with children and youth in a range of camp settings. In the summer of 2006 he took a leave of absence from his job in the city to return to camp as a section head at Camp Wabikon, a co-ed residential camp for children aged 6-17 in Temagami, Ontario where he mastered the fine art of gymp bracelet making. Lee is proud to identify as an army brat, and was actively involved in developing programs and activities for children of military families. When he's not busy writing or designing a layout, Lee enjoys spending time with his Realtor-Partner Karine and their three children – Jacob (8), Philippe-Alexandre (4), and Michaela (2); chasing after his runaway dog; cycling; or wishing he was paddling a canoe on Lake Temagami.
Danielle Sutherland (GTA)
Director (2010-2012)
Danielle has been involved with the Ten Oaks Project for more than three years; including three summers as a JAC Camp Counselor at Camp Ten Oaks and two years of being one of the co-Leaders of the Project Acorn Youth Advisory Committee. Danielle is a recent graduate of Ryerson University's Masters of Social Work Program (2010) and Carleton University's Bachelor of Social Work (2009). At Ryerson for her MSW, Danielle interviewed eight youth for her major research paper), which resulted in a research paper and documentary: Can Queerspawn be an Identity?: Eight Youth with LGBTQ Parents Talk About Their Identity. Danielle has been an advocate for more spaces and communities for children and youth with LGBTQ parents and she feels like she has found a great fit in being involved with the Ten Oaks Project. When Danielle is not volunteering with the Ten Oaks Project, or any other organization that works with LGBTQ communities, she is spending time with her partner and dreaming about the day when she will be also spending time and playing with a four-legged-furry-puppy friend.
Director (2011-2013)
Lindsay comes to Ten Oaks with a Degree in Drama from the University of Windsor and a love for summer camps. Growing up in Southern Ontario, she has attended and taught at summer camps including a Harry Potter summer camp. Now based in Toronto, she has extensive experience working with youth and brings 4 years experience as a professional fundraiser within the LGBT community including work with the LGBT Youth Line and the LGBT Giving Network. Currently Lindsay is employed with Houselink Community Homes as their Manager of Fund Development.
Carson Tharris (NCR)
Director (2010-2012)
Carson grew up in camping and knows first hand the profound impact it can have in helping youth grow. He brings a strong background in recreation and the camping industry with the YMCA, Project CANOE and most recently as an administration manager for the Tim Horton Children's Foundation. Throughout these experiences, he has had a variety of perspectives on what makes a successful camp program. After studying politics and Canadian studies at Trent University, Carson returned home to the national capital region, where he now lives on the Ottawa River with his husband.
Carson feels very strongly about all youth having access to a quality camp experience. He has worked with a variety of youth and has been able to see the powerful transformational effect that an outdoor experience can create. He continues to strive to create safe spaces for all youth in camps through his work and as a speaker at the Ontario Camps Association conferences.