About
Mindful, by Mary Oliver
Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me with delight,
that leaves me like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for—
to look, to listen,
to lose myself inside this soft world—
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy, and acclimation.
Lover of nature. Devoted to family and friends. Unsung leader of multiple Canadian environmental organizations. Pegi’s life was full of love, intrepid adventure, and professional accomplishment helping to save Canada’s wilderness.
Growing up in a close family in London, Ontario with her parents, Joan and Dean, and sister Lexi and brother Mac, Pegi was raised with a love of the outdoors. Long walks with her dad as a kid, summer camp on Beausoleil Island on Georgian Bay as a teenager, where she met her lifelong friend, Mary, and solo hiking trips in Algonquin Park as a young adult just served to reinforce her love affair with nature. She also discovered a passion for travel when she attended Neuchâtel Junior College in Switzerland for Grade 13. There she experienced a wide variety of outdoor adventures and made some very deep friendships that she cherished over the next 50 years.
PIggyback with Beth across Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, UK, 2006.
After graduating from University of Western Ontario, Pegi moved to Ottawa where she completed a Masters in Political Science at Carleton University. Skating to her classes on the Rideau Canal became a regular part of her winter life. Cross country skiing, downhill skiing, canoeing, hiking . . . she would have been hard pressed to tell you what she liked best.
In the late 1970s, Pegi embarked on a year-long trip around the world across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia with the Overland tour group, which started in London and took her as far as Kathmandu. After the tour ended, she took off on her own to India, Australia. and New Zealand, picking up companions along the way.
It was a trip most single women would never consider. Pegi could fool you. Though she was quiet and unassuming, she had a deep curiosity about the world and was an intrepid explorer. The latest edition of The Economist was always at her bedside.
On her return to Canada, Pegi decided she wanted to communicate her passion for nature to others. Off she went to Northwestern University in Chicago where she completed a Masters in Journalism, a steppingstone to a 40-year career that focused on the environment and making the world a better place. In various roles she educated young people, donors, business leaders, premiers, prime ministers, and princes about our beleaguered planet. In the process she contributed to the growth and success of the Donner Canadian Foundation, World Wildlife Fund - Canada, Project Canoe, and Environment Funders Canada.
Along the way Pegi met Philip Jessup, and they married on June 22,1991. Philip brought his own love of adventure and commitment to the environment to their relationship. He had served in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific in the Peace Corps in the 1960s and travelled extensively to Native American reservations in the 1970s for a New York based philanthropy, seeking out and building Indian-controlled educational and economic institutions with the foundation’s grants.
Together they helped to parent Pegi’s stepsons, Alexander and Christopher. Pegi felt fortunate they were able to live and school in Toronto with the family for a number of years. Peg and Philip adopted Beth in January 1999 in Nanchang, China. Nurturing Beth’s growth, education, and creativity became a great joy for Pegi, Philip, and the boys.
When Pegi joined World Wildlife Fund - Canada in 1985, the organization had 12 staff. She was communications director for 15 years and helped the organization mount numerous campaigns to save Canada’s wilderness. By the time she left in 2000, WWF-Canada’s staff had grown to 70.
Leading philanthropists to the Environment Funders Canada AGM at the McMichael Collection, May 2018.
From 2000 – 2008, Pegi led Project Canoe (PC), an Ontario charity that offers therapeutic and educational outdoor programming to youth facing mental health and other systemic barriers. PC's core offering is the summer wilderness program, which brings young people on long canoe trips into Algonquin Provincial Park. There is ample scientific evidence today that exposure to nature at a young age improves individual mental health and long-term outlook. PC's programs increase youth participants' self-esteem, empathy, and environmental stewardship. During her time at PC she annually recruited young persons from social service agencies across the Toronto region; hired summer staff for the canoe trips; oversaw the previous camp in Temagami wilderness; and raised substantial funds. Through her leadership, 1000 youth were able to take long trips into the wilderness. Project Canoe was established in 1977 and remained Pegi’s favourite charity after she moved on.
Pegi was also active for several years as a volunteer at Trinity Home Hospice, where one night a week she visited and comforted individuals approaching the end of their lives. She never revealed the names of the persons she visited but spoke of their courage and zest for life and attended services for them.
From 2008 - 2020, Pegi devoted her work to managing and growing Environment Funders Canada (previously CEGN), a vibrant network of foundations that support environmental projects throughout the country. When she retired, the organization had attained annual budgets of $2 million and had created collaborative partnerships advancing initiatives for climate, ocean conservation, freshwater protection of the Great Lakes and Indigenous stewardship of land. Pegi's dedication to nurturing relationships with organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Europe also impacted international philanthropy and grassroots movements to addressing global challenges.
In her volunteer work, Pegi co-founded Toronto’s Ripple Refugee Project, which to date has placed 20 Syrian and Eritrean refugees in the city. Pegi through determined efforts found housing for the initial groups of refugees, located furniture for them from donors, and once they were settled visited them regularly to help them feel at home.
The earth was much better off that Pegi walked upon it for so long . . . but not long enough.
Protest against wetland destruction, Jan 2021.
From the first diagnosis of her glioblastoma in December 2019, Pegi treasured every moment with her family and friends and inspired us all with her determination to live fully well each day. During the course of her illness, Pegi revelled in nature; campaigned to stop destruction of Ontario’s wetlands; studied the underground mycorrhizal networks linking trees in a forest community to a “Mother Tree”; conducted an inventory of trees in her Riverdale neighbourhood with an iPhone app; and reinvested time and energy in school friends and companions with whom she travelled in her youth. She didn’t waste a minute. Pegi had a radiance of spirit and optimism that infused everyone she met, creating an ecosystem of the heart that stretched far and wide. Pegi died peacefully in the early morning on May 5, 2021, surrounded by her devoted family.