
A year of gifts, a lifetime of experiences

“The Bruce Trail allowed me to discover the beauty of southern Ontario, and develop new friendships with people who shared my passion for hiking and the outdoors.”
— Rosemary Petrie, Bruce Trail Conservancy Donor
My love for the outdoors began as a child in Britain after the war.
I first discovered the Bruce Trail more than 20 years ago when I took on an End-to-End as my millennium project. I look back on that time as my “year of gifts,” which actually extended to 22 months. The Bruce Trail allowed me to discover the beauty of southern Ontario, and develop new friendships with people who shared my passion for hiking and the outdoors.
The Bruce Trail Conservancy’s mission to preserve land permanently is a project close to my heart, and I am grateful to the original founders for their vision of the Trail. When the organization changed its name to reflect a stronger focus on conservation, it changed the slant from just a hiking organization to something broader. This was important to me. The need to have trees, healthy water and marshland is so essential for many reasons, and I feel it’s important we treasure them forever. We need to preserve nature in order to preserve us.
This is why I decided to include a gift in my will. I’ve experienced the benefits of nature in my own life, and wanted to support the Bruce Trail Conservancy’s mission to secure land permanently for others to enjoy. It’s a way to remember that the trail is there not just for today, but for our children and grandchildren.