LOWWSF Awarded 2026 Youth in Philanthropy Recognition

IMG 79352026 Youth in Philanthropy award recipients and students from Beaver Brae Secondary School and St. Thomas Aquinas High School. LOWWSF Executive Director, Teika Newton, seated at right. Photo courtesy of BBSS Youth in Philanthropy. On May 27, 2026, the Youth in Philanthropy group at Beaver Brae Secondary School (Kenora, ON) recognized four local charities, including the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation, whose work and mandates align with the school program's core values of Excellence, Community, and Integrity.

Throughout the year, students researched the work of local charities, interviewing staff and providing recommendations to the school group. The four organizations selected this year each received a $500 grant, administered by the Kenora and Lake of the Woods Community Foundation, with support from Northern Credit Union. The groups also included Kenora Pride, the Kenora-Rainy River Alzheimer's Society, and Triple PLAY.  

Students recognized the work we at LOWWSF do to encourage environmental stewardship and education, empowering students to protect and value local water resources for future generations. We, in turn, are immensely encouraged by these students' interest and engagement in our work. As an organization that relies heavily on charitable donations, the financial contribution is also gratefully welcomed by us.

We always welcome donations, for which we can offer Canadian tax receipts! Click on the Donate link at the top of this page to make a one-time or recurring donation. 

The students' grant to us will support our outreach and engagement activities across the Lake of the Woods watershed over the coming months. But just as meaningful to us is the signal this recognition by our local youth sends: they see our work, value it, and know it matters to the future of this place that they and their peers will inherit. For that, we are moved, humbled, and elated.

Our work is often not showy, but it is immensely important to the well-being of the lake now and into the future, and to all of us whose lives depend on it.
 
LOWWSF is a tiny team of experts in water quality science and governance, who specialize in convening people and groups to coordinate often very complex collaborations that delivery exceptionally high quality water science and watershed policy. Often our work involves navigating through sensitive diplomatic terrain where we are the crucial bridge that keeps entities talking and working together in spite of challenges that may otherwise silo us.
 
As you, our supporters and subscribers know, we work with government agencies at all levels, academics, managers, non-profits, cottage associations and more in Ontario, Manitoba, Minnesota, and in Indigenous nations as well as at the federal level in Canada and the US. We provide strategic guidance to help shape the science and management activities across this massive, international watershed. We help to communicate the good work being done by dozens of organizations, hundreds of sciences, managers, and knowledge keepers.
There is no other organization or government body that does what we do.
 
If our pride in LOWWSF shows, it's because it's real. We love what we do, and we do it because we love this place.

Thanks to BBSS Youth In Philanthropy and their teacher supervisors, Mme. Dockerty and Ms. Chernick, the Kenora and Lake of the Woods Community Foundation, and Northern Credit Union for supporting LOWWSF and all the local charities that have benefitted from the thoughtful and compassionate generosity of local students for many years. You are helping to make this place better all the time!