Here you can see who we have welcomed to Stratford and St. Marys.
It is our pleasure to host visitors from near and far, sharing our beautiful country with them.
Generally we welcome 18 Ambassadors for a week in the spring and another group for a week in the fall.
Members volunteer to lay out the welcome mat by contributing their talents and resources,
Roles include hosting a guest or two overnight, preparing a dinner party, providing space for a pot luck party,
accompanying guests to local sites of interest, and/or acting as a Journey Coordinator to organize the entire visit.
It's a busy week as we socialize with old and new friends, but the rewards make it all worthwhile.
Incoming exchanges become one of the highlights of our year.
Please find below some interesting facts about our region, as well as a
list of the groups we have enjoyed meeting and still remember with warmth,
and our upcoming plans.
It is our pleasure to host visitors from near and far, sharing our beautiful country with them.
Generally we welcome 18 Ambassadors for a week in the spring and another group for a week in the fall.
Members volunteer to lay out the welcome mat by contributing their talents and resources,
Roles include hosting a guest or two overnight, preparing a dinner party, providing space for a pot luck party,
accompanying guests to local sites of interest, and/or acting as a Journey Coordinator to organize the entire visit.
It's a busy week as we socialize with old and new friends, but the rewards make it all worthwhile.
Incoming exchanges become one of the highlights of our year.
Please find below some interesting facts about our region, as well as a
list of the groups we have enjoyed meeting and still remember with warmth,
and our upcoming plans.
2020
Canada's quintessential treat is our own "butter tart": butter, sugary syrup, and egg baked into crunchy goodness within melt-in-your-mouth pastry. Sometimes, we create variations of the favourite by adding raisins, pecans, or walnuts. Be careful it does not drip onto your chin!
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Sarasota, Florida
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Birmingham, Alabama
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2019
Perth County alone has ten scenic trails. The Avon Trail shown here is 105 km long and links the Thames Valley Trail in St. Marys with the Grand Valley Trail in Conestogo. The trail meanders along streams, winds in and out of woodlands, skirts farm fields, and sometimes follows back roads.
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Kaohsiung, Taiwan
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2018
At about a metre in height, the Great Blue Heron is a welcome resident of our wetlands. So many birds to spot, from backyard bluejays, yellow finches, and cardinals, to hawks and owls along the highway, to farmyard red-winged blackbirds and turkey vultures, to rare encounters with bald eagles, ruby-throated hummingbirds, baltimore orioles, and piliated woodpeckers.
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Toronto and Haliburton, Canada
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2017
Opened in 1896, Victoria Park in Kitchener boasts a lake with three islands and multiple bridges, a bandstand, a gallery, and a boathouse pub. Small or big, each community has its own pretty park in which to gather.
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Southwest Florida, USA
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Brisbane, Australia
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2016
We have many interesting places to eat out. Ingersoll's Elmhurst Inn & Spa with its gourmet restaurant and beautiful grounds is built in a restored mansion. This is typical Gothic Ontario architecture. Brick is our most common building material, and all our buildings have basements!
2015 |
Lübeck, Germany
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North Colorado, USA
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The Trillium is Ontario's provincial flower. Carpets of trilliums brighten the forest floors each spring. Locals not only enjoy wildflowers, but go to great efforts to enhance their properties with floral displays.
2014 |
Blumenau/Florianopolis, Brazil
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Northern Ohio, USA
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"Kissing Bridge" or more correctly, West Montrose Covered Bridge is in Woolwich, near Waterloo. This is the last covered bridge in Ontario and the oldest in Canada, dating from 1880. Visitors can find many vestiges of our early pioneers.
2013 |
West Alajuela, Costa Rica
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A tundra swan graces the flooded Nith River in pretty New Hamburg. Formerly known as whistling swans, 60,000 of these birds travel through Southern Ontario, as they make their Spring migration between their Atlantic coast wintering areas and arctic coastline breeding grounds.
2012 |
Turrialba, Costa Rica
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Connecticut, USA
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Santa Barbara, California, USA
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Dozens of farmers markets in our region offer fresh-off-the-farm produce, delectable baked goods, arts and crafts of all kinds, wholesome health and beauty products, yummy cheeses, maple syrup, cider, and more.
2011 |
Taupo, New Zealand
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Sunshine Coast, Australia
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The old-growth stands in Ontario include sugar maple, beech, hemlock, oaks, ashes, and basswood as well as conifers like red and white pines, white spruce, balsam fir. white cedar, white birch, and trembling aspen. Our region is famous for being the northernmost reaches of the Carolinian Forest including southern hardwoods like hickories, oaks, American chestnut., tulip-tree, Kentucky coffee-tree, and cucumber-tree. Autumn is made spectacular with the fall colours.
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Tuxtla-Gutierrez, Mexico
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2010
In Canada, we are blessed with the long twilights of the northern latitudes and the spectacular sunsets of places with long horizons. It is no surprise that camera enthusiasts cannot resist taking photos of sunsets. This red beauty was captured in Bayfield along the Lake Huron shoreline.
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Haliburton, Ontario, Canada
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