Your hosts
Nathalie Gara-Boivin and Alain Harvey are happy to welcome you in their home in a place that they consider paradise on Earth. They first discovered Providence Bay on Manitoulin Island on a bicycle trip in the fall of 2007.
- Auberge Inn Hosts on Manitoulin Island
Nathalie Gara-Boivin has been passionate about everything environmental and nature based for as long as she can remember. In her high school days, back in Scarborough where she grew up, she organized one of the first school recycling programs in the Province. She would also spend her summer working with kids near Algonquin Park initiating them to the trees, plants, animals and water ways of the region.
She earned an Honors Bilingual Degree in Environmental Studies and Geography from the University of Ottawa and then completed a Post Diploma Certificate in Eco-tourism Management at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Haliburton, Ontario. Since then, she has coordinated the Greater Sudbury’s environmental network and organized the first Earth Day celebration in the city in 2006. She later worked for the Nickel District Conservation Authority as communications specialists with source water protection. More recently, she was coordinating special events and school programs at Science North. In her spare time, she gives environmental educational workshops in schools and for groups and works on various environmental contracts to help green events.
- Hiking Manitoulin Island, ON
Nathalie loves the ‘‘out of doors” physical activity, cycling, swimming, canoeing, tennis and her love of travel has brought her to hostels in Europe, South America and India. Nathalie can direct you to some of the best hiking and cycling routes the Island has to offer.
Alain Harvey’s passions are with arts, culture, history and food. He worked with the Franco-Ontarian art community in Greater Sudbury since the beginning of the 80’s.
Overtime, Alain has discovered much of the Island’s rich culture with its museums, festivals, plays, musicians. He even found a “clown farm” on Manitoulin Island. His curiosity also brought him to local farmers markets, local farmers’ gardens and some of the finest restaurants on the island.
- Pow-Wow on Manitoulin Island, ON
Alain’s favorite discovery has to be the culture of the First Nations who inhabit the Island. There are 6 reserves on the Island,including Wikwemikong, an unceded aboriginal territory. Alain can gladly direct you to culturally enlightening experiences such as plays produced by De-ba-jeh-mu-jig, theater, exhibits and workshops at the Ojibway cultural center or one of the many pow-wows, traditional cultural gatherings that involve music, dancing, food and crafts that take place on the island every summer.
