Last year at this time, my world was sent into a tailspin. My husband is a filmmaker and I work in the music industry. The provincial government slashed the film tax credit and closed the doors of Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia. Our jobs, our future and the future of the vast number of our friends were under threat.

Since then, I have watched dozens of friends move away for jobs elsewhere, businesses shut down and families torn apart by a parent going to work away – including myself, for four months.

We protested, we worked the back channels, we pleaded and we coped. When my family visited me in California last fall, we asked ourselves: Is it time to leave Nova Scotia?

But we decided to stay. We decided to find a way to do what we love in the land that we adore with the people who steadfastly remain.

While living away from my family in Los Angeles, I had the time to focus on my work and myself. I attended CAMP in Big Bear, California, that emboldened me to make my own path. I knew I had to recreate that experience in Nova Scotia. I wanted to share that feeling, that empowerment and that chance to reclaim focus.

Very few people leave Nova Scotia because they don’t like it here. Most of the time it has to do with work. So how can we take back control of our futures? We need to come together – and not just the creative industries – all of us.

I want to provide a space and a time where people can think deeply about how and why they do what they do and share wisdom about how we can do it better. What are you going to do in the face of these challenging times? How are you making a difference?

It is with great pride that I offer MakeDoCamp Because I’m tired of just making do.

Let’s Make.

Do.

Camp.

Thanks to Playmaker Films, Brave Space, Maggie Rahr and Adam Warren for making my imagination into reality for this promo video.