Hi, my name's Chloe Hillier, and my watermark is McKay Lake. It's a small tucked away pond here in Ottawa, and not everyone really knows about it, but it's a really special place to me because I spent a lot of my time as a kid hanging out in that area and hanging out by the water. It was a place that we would hop on our bikes and head up to almost every day in the summer time. A bunch of friends of mine and I, no matter what was going on we'd wind up there. We'd spend all day there, and it was before cell phones, it was when we bought tons of candy at the Seven Eleven, and would wind up there eating our candy and reading magazines and hopping in and out of the water on a hot summer day. I spent years doing that every summer with a group of special friends, and it has a really meaningful place in my heart.
Now that I have my own kids, that connection with water as a kid is really special, to have the chance to be by the water and getting in and out of the water on a hot summer's day. I'm glad I had that, and it's important for me that my kids also have that.
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As of 2024, the Great Lakes Guide will be transitioning to Biinaagami.org. Biinaagami is a multimedia, change-provoking initiative rooted in Indigenous knowledge aiming to uplift voices and to connect people with their watershed.