HUNTSVILLE — She may not have been born in Muskoka, but Margaret Stead is a hometown girl.
She moved to Dwight when she was three with parents Tom and Carolyn Stead and two older siblings.
Her father and brother own a construction company in town and before retirement, her mother was a French teacher at Irwin Memorial Public School.
Stead went to Irwin, but only had mom for one class in Grade 7.
It was in Grade 6 that a more significant childhood event happened. A new boy in the school, fresh from the city, arrived to dazzle the girls in Stead’s class.
“It was always a big thing when someone new came to the school,” she said. “I remember the nice fancy clothes and he was very good at hockey. He had team jackets and awards – it was something new.”
While she won’t call it a crush, Jeremiah Tilstra did catch her attention.
His family moved again and the two didn’t connect until they were reunited at Huntsville High School in Grade 9.
They had mutual friends and knew of each other, but things didn’t heat up until the end of high school.
Thirteen years later, they’re still together and expecting their first baby in June.
They live in a ‘70s cedar log cottage–style house in Dwight they have renovated together.
Right after high school, they went on a year-long excursion to Vancouver where Stead had her dream job merchandizing for North Face.
She’s a life-long outdoors enthusiast and loves their gear.
Like many people who leave Muskoka, they became homesick and returned to be close to family, to pursue their education and to spend time at their favourite place, Algonquin Park.
From the time she was nine, Margaret spent the best part of every summer at Camp Northway in Algonquin. By the time she was 17 she had worked her way up to being a canoe trip guide for the girls’ camp.
She tore herself away from home again to study environmental geography at Nipissing University in North Bay, completing an extra year at Fleming College in Lindsay in geographic information systems.
While she was away Tilstra did his apprenticeship and became an electrician.
The couple always knew they wanted to settle in Dwight, close to family and to the park where they venture whenever they can.
“We try to do at least three or four good lengthy canoe trips a year,” she said. “Up to seven days portage and backpacking into the interior.”
Fortunately a position came up at the District Municipality of Muskoka that fit Stead’s qualifications exactly.
The eight-month contract with Muskoka Water Web led to a full-time position with the district planning department as a planning technician.
Eventually she took on the position of geographic information systems co-ordinator for the Town of Huntsville.
“It’s both computers and geography,” she said.
“It’s so hard to describe. Technology and information in the information age – I try to make sense of all of that and make it user friendly.”
Most of her work is organizing information, but the geographic side allows her to display the information on a map that is pretty and visual.
“It makes it easier for (people) to understand the information,” she said. “I have access to so much information. I bring it in and make it useful for the end user. I make everyone else’s job easier – I hope.”
Stead’s newest town project is creating completely revised interactive maps public users can access to search for all kinds of information.
“We’ve already done this same application for our internal staff and now I just have to role it out for the public side,” she said.
She has been nominated for a Muskoka Technology Achievement Award by John Finley of Muskoka Community Network and is looking forward to the awards ceremony at Deerhurst on March 17.
Thanks to John Finley for recommending Margaret Stead be profiled.