Together We "CAHN" Reignite Our Community

Submitted by Beverly Jeeves

Kawartha Lakes Culture and Heritage Network (CAHN) is a collaborative voice that advocates for the heritage and culture sectors in the City of Kawartha Lakes.

The mission of CAHN is to provide opportunities for communication, education, outreach, and coordination of resources and efforts, to the Networks members and the community at large in the City of Kawartha Lakes. 

 The culture and heritage sectors of our tourism industry have been, and continue to be strongly affected by Covid-19.  However, we are a strong, resourceful group that will be important to reignite the tourism industry in the City of Kawartha Lakes.   We are on the move and we CAHN do it together!

Our members include museums, individual performers, and theatres, individuals interested in history and culture, church archival committees, and heritage agriculture in the City of Kawartha Lakes. 

CAHN formed a new Board of Directors at its 2020 Annual Meeting in September 2020.   If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact one of our, Executive Board Members listed below.  

Over the next few months, we would like to introduce all of our Board of Directors to the City of Kawartha Lakes.  

We will start with Fenelon Falls well known residents, Athol Hart and Beth Hart.

Beth and Athol Hart moved to Fenelon Falls in 2017.  Since then, they have become an integral part in community events throughout the City of Kawartha Lakes.  Let’s get to know them.

Athol Hart has been involved with heritage for almost all his life.  From taking part in archaeological excavations as a teenager to being instrumental in the preservation of the Mnjikaning Fish Weirs in Orillia and in their designation in 1982 as a National Historic Site. 

Athol served as Chair of Heritage Newmarket from 2011 to 2019.  Amongst his many achievements during this time in Newmarket, he is best known for the passing of the Downtown Heritage Conservation District and establishment of a Heritage Inventory in print and online.  Athol has been an organizer of Doors Open Newmarket and volunteered for the Newmarket Historical Society and the Elman W. Campbell Museum.

As Chair of Heritage Newmarket, Athol represented Heritage Newmarket on the Town’s ARCH Committee (Architecture, Recreation, Culture, Heritage).  In 2012 and 2018, ARCH presented Rebel Heartland, the largest re-enactments ever staged in Newmarket, chairing, writing and acting in the scripted events of the Rebel Heartland 

Since moving to the Fenelon Falls in 2017, Athol has become the President of the Kawartha Lakes Culture and Heritage Network and Chair of the Kawartha Lakes Municipal Heritage Committee and the Cultural Centre Committee Working Group.  He is also the Town Crier for Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon.

Athol has been honoured by the Ontario Historical Society with their Carnochan Award for Lifetime Achievement in Heritage (2015) and received the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013.  He also received Newmarket’s Arts, Heritage and Culture Award in 2018. He was awarded the Canada 150 Member of Parliament’s Medal for Volunteer Service.  

Next Thursday, the Town Crier will feature Beth Hart.

Have a question about the Kawartha Lakes Culture and Heritage Network?  Contact us at ckl.heritage.network@gmail.com or by calling Beverly Jeeves at 905-431-5394.

Athol Hart, President (icrymyhartout4u@hotmail.com),

Ian McKechnie, Vice-Chair (ianmckechnie@trentu.ca), 

Sue Rasksen, Treasurer and Membership (suerasksen@gmail.com)

Beverly Jeeves, Secretary and Communications (ckl.heritage.network@gmail.com).