Jennifer has been a part-time and full-time resident of Galiano since 2005. Growing up on the west coast of BC, she has hiked, camped, and sailed throughout the Gulf Islands, and they have always been a special place for her. Her great aunt was a member of the farming Ruckle family on Salt Spring Island who set an example for her in how they cared for their land and then shared it with the people of BC as a protected park.

Now retired from her job as career services manager at the University of Victoria, she has been involved with Galiano community groups such as the Parks and Recreation Commission, the Garden Club, and the Library. She believes that working to protect the natural environment and the rural character of the Gulf Islands for generations to come is a responsibility of residency in the islands.

The search for a rural setting led Kees to move from Vancouver to Gabriola Island in 1978. His career spanned 30 years working for the BC Government in Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Victoria. He served one term (2018-22) as a trustee for the Islands Trust. He believes the Islands Trust “preserve and protect” mandate will be best achieved when humans recognize their interdependence with the ecosystem and have consideration (respect and care) for all living things and the environment generally. To quote Chief Seattle: “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

Maxine has been living full time on Salt Spring Island since 2003, during which she served on the Boards of the Salt Spring Island Water Preservation Society and the Salt Spring Island Conservancy as well as an appointed commissioner on two regional district commissions. She is currently active with Positively Forward. Before moving permanently to BC, she was employed as a policy analyst for the City of LA Environmental Affairs Department, served as an elected Director of the Three Valley’s Municipal Water District and held various volunteer leadership positions with the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and the California League of Conservation voters.

Peter Easthope comes to Friends of the Gulf Islands through his long service on the Board of Directors of the Pender Islands Trust Protection Society. He also volunteers with the Korle-Bu Neuroscience Foundation, a Canadian charity enhancing the delivery of quality brain and spinal medical care in West Africa and beyond. In addition to his work with Friends of the Gulf Islands, Peter expresses his commitment to protecting the environment by limiting travel as much as possible to cycling and public transportation.

Maria Carmita, being from Latin America, brings to the Society a different cultural–social perspective. She has lived in Canada since 1977 and on Galiano from 2015. She taught Spanish to adults at Vancouver Community College, at engineering consultant companies, and on Galiano. Carmita is a member of the Galiano Garden Club and a volunteer with the Galiano Library. For the last three years, she has been following the Galiano Local Trust Committee meetings, speaking and writing on behalf of the environment and water sustainability on Galiano when new bylaws threaten them.

Carmita believes that the most important issue of our times is the environmental protection of our planet and that we should begin by protecting the area where we live, in her case the Southern Gulf Islands.

Alix Hodson Deggan has lived on Gabriola Island since 1983 and was a teacher at the Gabriola Elementary School for 25 years. She served a term as an appointed member of Gabriola’s Advisory Planning Committee.  Her contributions to environmental causes include serving on the leadership team for the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance and as a member of the team opposing a gas-fired power facility and a chromium plant at Dukes Point. She represents Friends of the Gulf Islands with the Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition.