Rotary Club of Guelph Centennial Project
The Rotary Club of Guelph celebrated 100 years of community service in 2020 and chose a special project to uplift our community.
We have committed to turn the Rotary Forest by Guelph Lake into an exciting hub for our community in partnership with the GRCA, the GRCF and the Rotary Foundation.
The Rotary Club of Guelph’s Centennial project has four wonderful elements all focused on the benefits of active living, environmentalism, family time and education for youth and all ages.
The Rotary Forest was planted over a span of 15 years to transform a 100-acre area by Guelph Lake into a new terrific resource for our community, with trees that will clean our air and water, and link nearby forest habitat to create a corridor for wildlife.
The first aspect of our Centennial Project involves the GRCA’s new Nature Centre. As a proud sponsors of the New Nature Centre, our contribution will help the GRCA receive over 200,000 visitors each year.
The new Nature Centre will be the gathering place for all the visitors enjoying the park, where they can access information and take part in nature programs.
It will also be a warming centre and location for programs such as learn to ski and star walks.
The Centre will have modern learning spaces for the over 20,000 young people who will benefit each year from hands-on programs.
The second component is an accessible trail within the Rotary Forest.
The trail highlights beautiful points of interest and connects the Rotary Forest with the future Nature Centre within the park to support families seeking economical outdoor experiences, dog-walkers, fitness enthusiasts, newcomers to Canada and groups gathered for activities like hiking, biking and nature photography.
Additional amenities include benches placed at intervals along the trail, as well as interpretive and directional signage and kiosks.
The third aspect of our the Rotary Club of Guelph’s Centennial Project involves a trail link.
This new trail will provide a link from Victoria Road to the Rotary Forest.
Linking the city’s trail system to the Rotary Forest will ensure everyone can find their way to the Rotary Forest and beyond to our exciting fourth aspect…
The Fourth component is an exciting, education-oriented proposal that has two parts: A planetarium and an observatory.
Inspiring youth and all-ages with a glimpse of the universe will lead to greater interest and literacy in science. With the amount of light pollution in cities today, far too few people get to see and really appreciate what the night sky has to offer. We are providing the means to show people what’s up there. An observing site at Guelph Lake will provide the residents of Guelph with a chance to look through a telescope and see with their own eyes: planets, the moon, the sun, star clusters, double, triple and quadruple stars, planetary nebulae, galaxies and the list goes on.
Seeing them with your own eyes through a telescope is not at all the same as looking at pictures. When people look through a telescope at the moon or Saturn or most other objects the very first thing they say (almost without exception) is “Oh Wow!”. They’re able to learn the constellations and find any object they’d like. The “dark” won’t be something to be afraid of. It will be something that they’ll marvel at.
This project will give many young people a choice in life they may not realize is there.