For the next several weeks, this column will feature founding members of the new Unity Collective, a town-sanctioned group that aims to provide advice to council and the community on addressing systemic racism and diversity in Collingwood.
Six years after moving away, a Collingwood native moved back to raise a family and now, he’s hoping he can contribute to making change here at home.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Reg Sheffield, 50, a member of the Unity Collective.
Q: For how long have you lived in Collingwood?
A: I was born and raised in Collingwood.
I attended Cameron Street Public School, then Mountain View Elementary School. I attended Collingwood Collegiate Institute for high school.
I’m fifth generation.
Q: What do you do for a living?
Well, I went to Georgian College in Barrie, then I spent about six years in Toronto working for some Fortune 500 companies.
Q: What was your job there?
A: I was in sales. I was young, 23. I didn’t really get to experience the city culture that much because I was always working. I was hungry to develop my career.
Then, I returned here to raise a family. I have a wife and two kids here.
Q: What specifically brought you back?
A: Well, being born and raised here I knew I wanted to return to raise a family. This is my home.
I didn’t really think twice about it.
I owned Niagara Escarpment Outfitters in Collingwood. I also participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters as a mentor.
Q: Where did you first hear about the Unity Collective, and what made you want to join up?
A: I’m a new member of the Owen Sound Emancipation Festival. They’re about to celebrate their 160th anniversary.
Through that, I ended up sitting in on the first few meetings of the collective. After that, I became a member.
I’ve been living my life under this umbrella of trying to strive for equality, whether that be for (people of) colour or other marginalized people.
I was a job developer for 10 years where I mentored people. I know the community pretty well. Through my personal experience, I know we still have a ways to go.
We just went through a big push through the Black Lives Matter movement and that opened up a lot of dialogue. It’s not only about Black people, it’s about looking at a lot of different things.
That’s why the Unity Collective intrigued me. I believe I have something to bring to the table.
Q: What do you feel you’ll bring to the table that’s unique?
A: Everybody’s experience is different.
For me... I have kids. So my story might be different from a lot of folks.
Q: Have you experienced racism personally?
A: I’ve experienced more racism than I can even remember.
A lot of my friends don’t recognize the types of things I have to brush aside and keep moving. A lot of times in my youth, I felt helpless, really.
You accept that as part of the way the world works. That’s not good enough anymore.
Q: What are your hopes for what the Unity Collective can accomplish?
A: We talk a lot about history. We talk about systemic change as well.
It’s not specific to Collingwood, but I think about awareness.
People need to know from whence we came. There’s a lot out there that people don’t really see. Part of that is because they haven’t experienced it.
For me, I certainly recognize that I have to often be better, smarter or bigger, because I’m already behind in the way people view me as a Black man in Collingwood.
It’s hard for me to battle through that at times and I want to make that better for the future.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
