Al and Linda Slavin – A Lifetime of Volunteer Community Service

From children to elders, Linda and Al Slavin epitomize volunteer community service. They have given tirelessly of their volunteer time and energies for causes they hold near and dear to their hearts.

“As a boy, I witnessed my parents’ involvement with the local community through church activities,” Al says. “It was just a natural thing to help out wherever we could.”

Linda also entered the volunteer world as young girl helping out with events.

Both Linda and Al have been the “movers and shakers” behind so many Peterborough organizations and events. Honestly, it is hard to keep track of them all.

Linda’s volunteer community service

Food and social issues have definitely been driving forces for Linda, beginning several years ago with the One World potluck dinner. That evening, 500 people enjoyed the world`s largest vegetarian dinner ever to bring awareness to food insecurity.

She helped to establish the community ecology gardens, which now total more than 45. She also assisted in organizing the first Person’s Day Breakfast on International Women’s Day.

At the Kawartha World Issues Centre, Linda served as Executive Director for many years. This piqued her interest in climate and environmental matters even further so, in 2012, she started Sustainable Peterborough working with City Hall. Green Up was a natural outcome to follow. It hosted a major conference to focus on a climate action plan for Peterborough.

Later, she chaired the Social Planning Council.

When the Elizabeth Fry Society was on the verge of collapse several years ago, Linda stepped in and recruited enough women to serve on its board. Further, she chaired the group for three years.

Today, this Society is thriving and provides much support to those in need.

Al’s volunteer community service

Peterborough residents may know Al from his career as a professor at Trent University in the Physics and Astronomy Department. There, he taught physics primarily along with Environmental Science and a course on the history and philosophy of science.

Yet, his passions beyond the classroom focused on Peterborough Ploughshares. The Canadian peace research institute emphasized disarmament and international security related to the arms trade.

“About 15 years ago I wanted to concentrate on climate change,” Al says.

“Now, I am on the local board of For Our Grandchildren, an organization that originated in Toronto and is now Canada wide.”

He also fondly recalls his days as a volunteer science fair director and judge. This role allowed him to use his background and knowledge to involve young future scientists.

Focus on shared housing

These days, the Slavins are key players behind Kawartha Commons Co- Housing (KCC).

“KCC is about seven years in the making, beginning with Linda’s favourite way to gather interested people together – a potluck,” Al says.

At the first meeting, 29 people came to share and learn information. Al quicky became a member of the development committee.

Co- housing creates a space to live in a community with compatible people who share interests. The first one was started in Denmark in the 1970s. Today, there are several in the USA and Canada have several of these projects.

“It is exciting to see KCC grow,” Al adds. “We now have property on which to build and have lined up an impressive team of professionals to undertake the construction and everything that goes with that.”

KCC believes in developing community with common goals of affordability and diversity. The ideal is to have a variety of generations living together, each with their own apartment and privacy.

It comes with the added benefit of having others around for socialization and activities, including potlucks for sure, Al says.

For Linda and Al Slavin, volunteering means doing and working with others.

“Don`t watch from the sidelines- pitch in and do,” they say.

“Find connections; just follow your heart, your concerns, what matters to you and you will find a way to contribute.”