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When Jennifer Richardson and her family moved to Innisfil seven years ago, she never could have imagined how hard she would fall in love with the community.
That love is what has motivated her to get even more involved with the community and run for the Ward 3 councillor seat this fall.
“I love where I live,” she said. “We moved here in 2015 and from the moment we moved here, I’ve loved the community and loved being a part of it and getting to know people in the community. That’s where it all started for me, my love of living here.”
Though she’s still relatively new to the community, Richardson has immersed herself in the fabric of the ton with her involvement as a volunteer.
Both her boys attended Alcona Glen Elementary School where she was on Parent Council as co-chair and on the Parent Involvement Committee.
At the same time, she became a representative for Welcome Wagon, welcoming new families to the community.
"I really got to know the community—the people who were moving here and why they were moving here," she said.
She also became familiar with many local businesses and started running events like the Barrie Bridal Show and others at the local YMCA.
"I loved it because it allowed me to meet families in the community and work hand-in-hand with some of the local businesses," she said.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Welcome Wagon had to file for bankruptcy and Richardson missed meeting new people and interacting with the community, so she came up with creative ways to keep everyone connected.
“That’s when I started the Connecting Innisfil group (Facebook group) and through that I ran a couple different Innisfil-based community events,” she said.
Her first initiative was the Innisfil Graduate program, where residents were able to "adopt" a grad and purchase them a small congratulatory gift.
"Then from there, that summer we ran a couple different Bingo nights for the kids to help them meet up without actually meeting up," she said.
In the fall, she ran a Halloween house decorating contest and a "Light Up Innisfil" holiday event.
"(They were) just ways to bring our community together while still being safe with COVID," she said.
When she saw that restaurants needed some help early in COVID with indoor dining closed, she ran the "Innis-Full" event where she organized specials with the eateries and worked with the town with the "What’s Up for Dinner" app to allow for free delivery.
"It was about really showing restaurants some love," she said.
For the past two years, she ran the "Discover Innisfil Car Rally and Scavenger Hunt" for locals to embrace local landmarks and businesses.
" I really wanted people to be able to discover some of the cool things and hidden gems of Innisfil," she said.
Being as involved in the community as she is has helped Richardson get a better idea of what the people of Innisfil want to see from their council and if elected she hopes to be able to bring more events to the residents.
“One of the big things is community unity, so bringing everyone together,” she said. “I was really disappointed that there were no specific town Canada Day events. I look around and saw other towns doing it, so I know it’s not just that towns don’t do it. I’d love to see us form some sort of town events committee and have on members from the Rotary Club, Lions Club, and ICE Corp....Let’s work together, and not apart. I’m really passionate about that.”
Along with her love of bringing the community together, Richardson wants to keep Innisfil safe as well.
“Traffic safety is a big passion too,” she said. “My youngest just graduated from Alcona Glenn, so I’ve sat there on Swan Street parked early to have a parking spot because the parking is terrible there.
"I know we have an amazing Traffic Safety Committee that has worked super hard. I’d really love to be able to join that group and really work on making it safer around the schools. We need to give education to our community about safety. I’ve seen so many close calls and I’m so nervous something is going to happen. I want to really advocate for safety issues on the roads.”
Another key piece of Richardson’s platform is finding a way to bring more to Innisfil youth.
“If you have a kid who isn’t into sports or when the winter weather comes, there’s just not a lot to do around here,” she said. “In a perfect world, I’d love to see some sort of new community-based centre here in Alcona, but also anywhere in Innisfil. I’d love to fashion it under the same idea as Newmarket. In Newmarket, they have this beautiful rec centre that has a skate park, a gym, a kitchen, and a hangout area. I’d love something like that because it can be utilized by everyone in the community during all four seasons.
"During the day, it could be used by our seniors and by families with younger children. After school it can be for after school kids and in the evenings it can be for our older kids. On the weekends it could even be used for birthday parties because as a parent it always drove me nuts that I had to take my kids out of their community for their birthday party. I’d love to bring something like this forward so we have an all-season hub for the community.”
Richardson feels the natural next step for her is is to represent the ward she lives in to help better the community as it continues to grow.
“This community means the world to me,” she said. “When we first moved here from Newmarket, I was worried there was nothing here but just by walking down the street and people chatting with me I realized it’s a tight-knit community. We came here and we all of a sudden felt like we weren’t just in a town, but we were part of a community. I love the feeling of everyone kind of knowing everybody and people keeping an eye out for each other.
"I love how we all come together here. A perfect example is last year, my son and I ran a back-to-school supplies fundraiser and I couldn’t believe the outpouring of support from people dropping off supplies to help those in need. I’m blown away by how like-minded the community is, when someone organizes something, everyone joins in. People here want to support their community.”
