Most people think of health and well-being as simply about staying fit and eating healthy foods.
But to Maggie Off (Recreation and Sport Business ’14), who is Community Engagement Co-ordinator in the Township of Tiny, “it is also the health and well-being of our environment.”
Her job entails getting the grants and sponsorships for programs that connect people to not just healthier lifestyles, but also to their communities, the land and nature. “It is all about building healthier, more resilient communities,” she says.
It involves getting grants and managing 400 volunteers for everything from the day camps for children, soccer programs, seniors’ pickleball and a youth drop-in program, all the way to educating residents about pollinator-friendly plants in the environment, healthy local foods and maintaining community gardens project.
Off grew up in the Komoka area near London, Ontario, playing sports such as hockey, soccer and squash. She enjoyed recreational activities and wanted to get into a field she loved. The University of Waterloo’s Recreation and Sport Business program was attractive because it had a great reputation and also offered co-op experiences that would give her a chance to work in the field while going to school.
That degree, coupled with co-op experiences from Waterloo, gave her career a huge boost, she says. The employers in both of her post-graduation jobs told her that her Waterloo degree and work experience made her resumé stand out.
Her first job was as a recreation supervisor for a Muskoka resort and spa. Eventually, she decided she wanted to get into municipal recreation, so she applied for and got what was initially a contract position in the recreation department in the Township of Tiny, which turned into a full-time job.
She gets enormous satisfaction from seeing the diverse programs make a huge impact in the lives of everyone from children to the elderly in Tiny Township, a cluster of communities located in Simcoe County in the southern Georgian Bay area.
The township has about 12,000 year-round residents, but also 30,000 cottagers in the peak summer period. The population tends to skew toward older adults, so there are many programs, from physical activities, to a speaker series designed to help them “age in place” and stay healthy. She will sometimes get feedback from someone who will say, “I have never played a sport in my entire life because I didn’t think I could. This program made me realize that I can.”
The day camp programs are very much geared to getting children into the outdoors, which is a philosophy parents appreciate, she adds. She has also had positive feedback about the Pollinator Meadows program that is teaching residents about the importance of pollinator plants, and a Community Garden project and local healthy food initiative that include educational field trips to local farms.
In her current role, she is often hiring co-op students, and some of them come from the University of Waterloo, so that gives her an opportunity to give back, she adds.
Off said that when she started her degree, she had no idea it could take her into so many diverse career directions that could be so satisfying. “In municipal recreation, you become so close to your community and you are seeing and hearing from residents about the impact that those programs are having on their lives.”
