Lenore Inniss grew up in Muskoka. Her parents bought a cottage on Sparrow Lake when she was four years old and it became their full-time residence a couple years later. (The only exceptions were a year in the U.S. and a year in Iqaluit, Nunavut).

“I’ve always been very outdoorsy. As a kid my neighbour and I would spend most of our time either in the woods or on the water – eating wild leeks, jumping off the dock, watching turtles, digging up worms to bring to our favourite fishing spot (with seemingly endless sunfish), turning over rocks in search of crayfish and tons of other Muskoka adventures. That’s the main reason I want to help Friends of the Muskoka Watershed – I have a two-year-old niece and I want her to be able to have all those same amazing experiences that I was lucky enough to have growing up.

“After high school I moved away to Peterborough for university, where I spent 3 years at Trent University studying Biology. While I do have a very basic science background, I realized that it wasn’t the career path for me – I find it very interesting, but came to realize I enjoyed the bigger picture rather than the more detail-oriented work.”

“I ended up moving into a variety of sales jobs instead, which I excelled at – including being in the top 10% of Bell sales agents Canada wide, even as one of very few on the “win back” list (to put it simply, calling angry former clients and attempting to bring them back). I think my sales experience will translate well to helping Friends of the Muskoka Watershed increase membership.

“I moved back to Muskoka at the beginning of 2020 to join my mom in her real estate business. We share the purely real estate work, but my main focus is the tech stuff – social media, photography, website maintenance, drone videography, and creating our newsletters.

“I look forward to helping to grow both the presence of the FMW both online and in the community and encouraging more friends to join as we protect Muskoka’s watersheds forever.”