HNC Volunteers of the Year 2001: Barb McKean & Doug McCallum

Barb McKean and Doug McCallum, HNC Volunteers of the Year for 2001

Barb McKean

Barb McKean is a long-time member and well-known local outdoor educator. Barb joined the HNC in 1977 on the advice of Bruce Duncan, a colleague when they both worked for the Grand River Conservation Authority. Since that time she has been a part of many different Club activities.

The HNC has had various junior and teen clubs going all the way back to the 1920s, but the current Junior Naturalists' Club was founded in 1986 in partnership with the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Since 1986, Barb has been the RBG co-ordinator for the Junior Naturalists' Club on top of her other RBG responsibilities, with many volunteer hours being put in to ensure that Junior Naturalist events run smoothly. Both RBG and the HNC realize the importance of exposing today's youngsters and youth to the wonders of nature. Incoming HNC President, Brian McHattie, can recall having his own eyes opened up to the world of nature on a hike that was led by Barb in 1987.

Barb has volunteered her time on a number of other Club activities including NatureFest and the Nature Walkathon, and has always been an important liaison between the RBG and HNC on Club projects, ideas and initiatives, helping maintain the special relationship our two organizations share.

Doug McCallum

The other recipient this year was past HNC president, Doug McCallum. With the help of John Struger's research (another past president), we have been able to determine that Doug has a family connection to the HNC dating back to the 1920s and '30s with an Aunt (Ruby Mills) that got Doug interested in birding and who was the first Secretary of the Hamilton Bird Preservation Society, the predecessor to the HNC. Doug was a member of the Junior Audubon Society, a group established and run by the Bird Preservation Society.

Doug joined the Board of Directors of the Club in the 1950s, during the time period that the Club changed from the Hamilton Nature Club to the Hamilton Naturalists' Club.

Past president Bob Elstone described Doug and what he brought to the Board during those turbulent times, as someone who was "very stable, faithful, dependable and a stalwart member...someone you could count on".

Doug re-joined the Board in 1988 as Vice-President. During his next six years on the Board, the HNC became much more active on a number of fronts, establishing a trend that continues to the present time.

Doug provided the leadership for the 70th anniversary fund-raising dinner in 1989, and the initiation of the Nature Walkathon for the Environment in 1991. He also guided the launch of the quarter million dollar Natural Areas Inventory project.

Naturefest was initiated in this period by Barb McKean at the RBG and the HNC joined in as a co-sponsor.

This was also when the Club became very active in the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan, successfully advocating for its strong focus on improving the habitat of fish and wildlife in Cootes Paradise and other parts of the harbour.

John Struger believes Doug was really instrumental in helping to lay the groundwork at an organizational level which allowed the HNC to enter a new age of activity which continues stronger than ever today.

"Doug encouraged all Directors to start thinking about their portfolios and how we could make better business decisions with respect to environmental activities that the Club was and should be involved in."

In the years since, Doug has continued to make himself and his legal expertise available to the Club. He has also volunteered his time to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists.