My Watermark is Lake Ontario, ON.

I am a researcher and paralegal at the Canadian Environmental Law Association. Right now we’re sitting on the 15th floor of our building overlooking the Great Lakes.

We came here from the Philippines as a youngster. Early memories are basically fishing off the docks around Cherry Beach in the ‘70’s. The memories of course are family-centred, and just the experience of being on the water and playing around with my siblings. Very fond memories.

I grew up on the south Riverdale area, so a lot of it was spent hanging out on weekends having barbeques around the Great Lakes, particular around the Kew Beach area (of Lake Ontario).

I think I care starting when I was young. As I got older, I believed that we rely, and millions of people rely, on the Great Lakes for their drinking water sources. When you think about the concentration of population around, you need to sustain that, and the Great Lakes is an important feature of the dynamics between both US and Canada and shared borders.

All of those elements together is an important reason why we need to care about the Great Lakes.