WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Two of our previous guests update us on their latest endeavours.

We start our first podcast of 2026 with a lively chat with our treasured Mascot/Sculptor, Austin Emery. We follow that with a fun interview with the creator of the Little Canada Museum, Jean- Louis Brenninkmeijer. Much like their original podcast, each of them has intriguing updates and stories to share.

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Transcript

Tom 0:06

Welcome to Hidden Gems Toronto, a podcast that introduces you to a variety of fascinating people and places that fly under the radar, but our vital part of our city's fabric. I'm your host, urban Geographer Tom Scan, and together with my partner and editor Sharon, we invite you to dawn your virtual hiking boots and join us as we track down these compelling stories.

Sharon 0:35

Hello everyone and welcome to our first podcast of 2026, as is our tradition. We start the year off by tracking down some of our past guests to see what they're up to. If there is a common thread to the people we have had on our show is that they are movers and shakers who are always expanding their horizons, and our guests today are no exception. First up, we chat with Austin Emery, one of the most artistic individuals we have had on our show. Not only is he an amazing children's entertainer, donning hundreds of costumes over his career with his company, Jojo Fun, He's also an accomplished sculptor who believes in sharing his knowledge and experience with others to create community-based sculptures. Our second guess is the enterprising CEO of the little Canada Museum. This popular miniature museum which recreates parts of Canada in miniature form, has grown in leaps and bounds since we last chatted with Jean Louis Brecken Meyer. We talk with him about the overall success of his museum and the many new miniature editions he has made in the last few years. We begin the podcast with our dear friend, Austin Emery.

Tom 1:48

Hello Austin, and welcome to the podcast.

Austin 1:51

Hi Tom. How's it going?

Tom 1:53

I'm just great and I'm very excited about today. we mentioned in our intro that, your company, jojo Fun, entertaining kids is still very much alive, and at the same time, there's been some interesting developments in your community sculptor endeavor. So, I thought maybe we'd start with jojo fun. how is business going since we last chatted?

Austin 2:11

Thanks so much for having me back. By the way, this is, exciting to follow up. and there has been a lot going on. in terms of jojo fun, it's, full steam ahead. it's a seasonal thing largely with the events and stuff, and so we're back straight into our Christmas season here. we've, found that, The day after Halloween, everyone's coming in to, uh, plan their Christmas events. So, we've been, really busy organizing those events, from going to corporates to, schools, to home all sorts of different stuff. So we're keeping very busy with

Tom 2:42

I Well, when we chatted a few years ago, you mentioned that Mickey Mouse was still the big attraction. Has that changed at all? Any new costumes on the scene?

Austin 2:50

well, I'd say universal, favorite is, still the mouse, you know, and, uh, his, companion. It's just that old school. Character that, really connects, I feel like with, the older folk and the young folk. So the, the parents who are booking, they have the connection themselves from their childhood. who are creating that experience for the youngers. And so it just goes on and on from there. there are new characters always come in through the movies and through different, systems of media, whatever. Mickey is definitely a fan favorite for sure.

Tom 3:20

You know, I was also thinking, you talked a bit about hiring people last time and, I'm wondering is it getting easy or harder to find people who are willing put on a costume and entertain kids?

Austin 3:31

That's a good question. I'd say, it's pretty consistent. it's always been, and I think we'll always remain a very niche, specialist kind So it, it really takes, that creative person who's willing to, put themselves out there, to try different things, to be able to pivot in, in any situation essentially. Even if they have skills that they've already practiced and hone, they still have to be able to be spontaneous. And, going with that energy. So it's, a very demanding, skillset, and it, takes someone who's driven to do those things. So most, creative people, whether they be in visual arts or musical or, theatrical or, or whatever, they have some elements of, that. And, and when you can combine all of the elements, required, then you find these people gravitate to this kind of work. So. that's who we're working with, a great community of, very talented creative people. And, as for us, for jojo, fun, for Jojo and myself, our ethos and, and really a foundation of what we believe in is, this idea of keeping live engagement going. You know, especially in this sort of virtual transition into video technology. we want to keep that live experience going. So that's what we're really proud about and what we're driven to do.

Tom 4:44

You know, I re-listened to the original podcast. I realized another characteristic of a mascot is quick on your feet because I laughed out loud at the story you told about the costume mishap where the head of your costume didn't leave enough room for your, as you called it, your snoozer. And end up using car keys to cut into styrofoam. Which causes pieces to float around your face, it's really hilarious. I'm wondering, has there been any other, uh, costume malfunction since we last talked

Austin 5:13

Not really. I mean, fortunately I can't think of any specific costume malfunctions. However, every environment is different. Okay. And I was literally in the Mickey the other day.

Tom 5:26

in the Mickey?

Austin 5:26

I'm in the Mickey. And interestingly enough, it was an unusual one. young student had hired McKee for his presentation on Disney at a university. He wanted to up the ante in his presentation by having the live character, during the presentation, which I thought was super cool and super innovative of him, you know, as a young 20-year-old guy or whatever. So I did this myself as, as Mickey and, you know, going in there. getting dressed up and going through the holes and engaging with the students on the way to the presentation room and, part of the restriction of this is that your, head part of the costume really does, affect your breathing. Okay? And not, not only your vision and stuff like that, but your breathing, which is the most key element here. So, so I'm going in there, all kind of pumped up and getting excited, and then we go into the presentation room, sit down at the back of the hall. A hundred, 200 students in there, they start giving their presentations and I'm at the back. They're as Mickey now waiting for this, this student's turn. You know? And I got a little, a little anxious because I had basically been gassed out. I'd used up most of my air in a sort of a sense, like I now needed to slow my heart. And this room was airtight. I could feel there was no oxygen in this

Tom 6:45

It's a dome stadium.

Austin 6:46

Don't you know? And I'm sitting there watching a presentation of some guy telling us about Air Canada stock prices or whatever. And it was like one of those moments, I'm like, just relax or relax. there's nothing you can do. Just calm. and then during this moment as well, I noticed the guy presenting suddenly clock with his eyes. He locked eyes with Mickey. In that moment, he choked on his words he almost started to laugh and just sort of stuttered. And then his colleague, his, partner had to take over. I was like, oh my God, that's so funny. here we are in this situation. So,

Tom 7:19

So you, you handled it better than he did.

Austin 7:22

well in that, in that situation, I think I did,'cause he wasn't dealing with airflow,

Tom 7:26

Well, that kind of leads me to the next, thought I had, are there new challenges? in terms of how families wanna celebrate the kids' milestones.

Austin 7:34

There's actually more and more demand for having an entertainer at a celebration. back in my day, for example, I I never went to any of my friends' parties with an actual entertainer there. I don't know about yourself,

Tom 7:47

No, no, no. We were pinned the tail on the donkey,

Austin 7:49

exactly right, Bob and for apples or whatever. And just the good old fun stuff. but nowadays. it's pretty standard for a lot of families within a certain, socioeconomic group, of middle class kind of folk who, who have a little extra cash or whatever, that's their normal, and, so, these kids are going from one party to another at the weekends, right.

Tom 8:09

That's fantastic. you know, you've been at this a long time, Austin, but you mentioned in our first conversation that at almost every event, one or two kids will really connect with you. They might hold your hand, follow you around, and you kind of called it like a magical moment. do you still get that feeling? you still sound like you're enjoying that work.

Austin 8:27

I love that. I love that feeling that's what it's all about, I know it sounds cheesy, but it's, not, it's genuine connection with, people, and especially with the kids. you know, they're so innocent and just young and curious, and you feel that energy and when you can connect to that energy as a character, that's so rewarding. conversely, if, that energy goes into the fear factor, which does happen sometimes even their favorite character. It might even be the birthday child, and then suddenly they're overwhelmed by having their favorite character at the party or whatever it is, And then it's, the opposite. It's like, it's disappointing for them, but then even then there's this kind of magic in the air where sometimes I can get around that fear and come in sort of, almost metaphorically through the back door, but just, just connecting from a distance, And then they warm up and then you make that connection. it, it's absolutely, the most rewarding aspect of it, for sure.

Tom 9:20

one new development for you as if you're not busy enough, is, I understand you and Jolen, your partner, have opened up an ice cream part. What the heck is that all about?

Austin 9:29

Woo. Yes, we have, I don't know what the heck that's about. I'm telling you, one thing leads to another and We just followed our heart with that. Yes, it's jojo fun scoops. little plug. We're on the, at the intersection of Dundas and Annette, that crazy intersection, where DuPont and Annette and Dundas converge. and it's fantastic we, we had that space for events and to be used as an office and various things already that We were using the space for, but it was underutilized, you know? We were like, come on, we can do better than this in this space. and, uh, we had this idea, let's, get some freezers in and have some ice cream. A popup. We thought a popup ice cream for the summer. this is back last February or whatever, 20, 25, February, So we literally bought a couple of freezers and got this thing going and, well got the process rolling and quickly learned that actually to open an ice cream hop up or anything is more complicated than you might expect. It's not just about having freezers and ice cream top. you got

Tom 10:28

there's. there's. some legislation. Is there some

Austin 10:30

There's a little bit, there's some rules there, man. So so in the end, this became kind of like a refurb of the space. And there was no more popup about any of it. it became a permanent, ice cream parlor, plus a coffee shop. And by the time we got through all the red tape hurdles and hoops, and we did all the work, it was like the last day of summer we opened up. It was fantastic. of course we're winding into full on winter mode now, so it's, a quiet season for ice cream, but we've got regulars from the community coming in and, uh, we are, we're just looking forward to this thing. Just, just

Tom 11:03

well, that's, that's really something. So listen, Stein to move on to your other passion, which is the art and sculpture. two years ago you were inviting total strangers into your backyard. To work on a public sculpture. Now, for those that haven't heard the story, can you tell us what this project is all about? Again,

Austin 11:21

sure. So as an architectural stone carver, myself, my main medium for artistic expression is, carving stone. Okay. Sculpting stone, and. Through my years as a stone mason carver in London, uk, putting carvings up on buildings, et cetera. I was always Just so fulfilled with having that, permanent touch on the fabric of the city. so I, created this art project essentially that would facilitate, that connection and that opportunity for people, for anyone and everyone, whether you've carved stone or not. In fact, most people that have partaken in my projects have never carved stone. And in this case, what you're talking about is, actually a commission. I had proposed this project to, the city of Toronto and Eglinton Way, BIA up in, forest Hill, Eglinton Avenue, that we would make a permanent sculpture through this process where I would invite members of the public. To carve their own stone. and then through a collective process of assembling these stone carvings that everyone had done, I would create this permanent artwork in this case titled egg, EG for Eglinton. And, that's what we've been doing. and so yeah, the engagement process of the project took place in our backyard, 2023, uh, two years ago in the fall. And, as you said, we were just had the gate open, signs in the street. The sound of the chipping of the stone literally luring people in. there was no social media on this or anything. It was just a very local, publicity. And, so basically there's 64 single stones, that assemble into the body of the work that is egg. They're all different carvings. I just teach people the very basics. Teach is almost, an overstatement. It's kind of showing, demonstrating to people very quickly what not to do and how to do it more or less effectively. IE carving stone and I basically told everyone, change the shape of the face of the stone. remove the face of the block of stone, so that Their input would be that block and any form or texture they want is gonna be part of that story that, comes together in egg. And so happened back in October, November, 2023, and then over the last. two years. It's a process again, more, hurdles and hoops with the red tape and stuff. But we got there and we've, assembled it and installed it now at the corner of Eglinton Avenue and Headington Avenue. it's now a permanent artwork on that street, in that neighborhood.

Tom 13:46

but you had 64 pieces here, Austin. So do you transport them all over there and then put them together as one

Austin 13:52

Yeah. Well, kind of, sort of half-ish, there's actually a process in this. There was actually a transporting of all the stones over to Port Perry to a workshop of my friends where I could actually do the work. So that was where I did a lot of the shaping of the bigger stones, like the base and the, egg cap and, I also stitched together, I call it stitching together. basically using stainless steel pins and resin. I kind of made each level of egg, sort of concentric rings of these stones of these carvings. I fixed them all together as each level, each course. so a little bit of engineering involved there, and then those were transported to site, to facilitate an easier installation on site. I was able to basically install the sculpture within a sort of a week's timeframe.

Tom 14:38

I don't know if people get a sense of the size of it. it's more than six feet tall. Right. And it's wide

Austin 14:43

yeah, it's approximately like two meters tall, So, it's, taller than, well, it's taller than me.'cause I'm not a basketball player, let's put it that way.

Tom 14:51

Well I have to tell you, Austin, you threw an awesome launch party, yet. It was a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon, not long ago, and a lot of the people involved in the project dropped by and Sharon and I couldn't help but notice. The pride of ownership on people's faces. you mentioned in your previous podcast that you wanted to empower people, and that day I can say with great confidence mission accomplished. you could feel It

Austin 15:14

That's awesome. what a great feedback from you observing that. I really appreciate that, and I appreciate you bringing us back to that word of empowerment.'cause really that is the key of, this whole thing. it's all about the empowerment and, I mean, I'm confident that aspect is inevitable as we do this project. I can just see it and feel it, and I understand it from my own experience, as I said, as a car or as someone, I, I try to empathize with people who don't have that connection in their local infrastructure. you don't think that you have that. ability to, create an input into your, your local community. so to see people there, and then they're looking at their piece and looking at each other's and everything. it's inevitable. that success is, uh, achieved. so I'm, super thrilled with it. I love the piece. And, there's a certain element of inexplicably about it, which leaves the viewer to use their imagination and to use their own thought processes, which is also empowering.

Tom 16:08

Well, have you got much feedback from the community

Austin 16:11

Yeah, while I was there, installing and towards the end of finishing it, people were coming by and congratulating and saying they loved it. and there was just some, interesting kind of sense of wonder about it they hadn't seen something like that. If you get 64 stones carved by different people, you're gonna create something unique, There's a certain kind of a. Sort of a musical, just kinda like a jazzy thing, where you're gonna have a little bit of a improvisation for everybody, by the way, this is part of a bigger, wider, project called the Egmont and Way Sculpture Walk. so that community's lucky'cause they're getting 20 over the next years, however long, they're getting 20 sculptures.

Tom 16:48

so what's up next, Austin? Do we have another community based masterpiece in the works

Austin 16:53

I don't have anything lined up as such in terms of a commission or anything specifically. But what I'm thinking is, so I'm not reliant on these, project commission briefs, et cetera. is, packaging this in a way that's, it's understandable to developers. they're building these towers or these, apartment blocks, whatever. And I think it's men dated almost that there's some sort of engagement or art or something associated, right? So I wanna make it easy for, these developers, these project leaders to, pick this up as an opportunity for them to, do that.

Tom 17:26

That's a beautiful idea.

Austin 17:27

So that's what I'm kind of working on now.

Tom 17:29

Well, listen, I can't wait to see what you do next, Austin. I mean on both the jojo fun front with your partner shall end and your community sculpture. you're helping to make Toronto a more interesting cities. So I thank you for that and thank you so much for coming back and updating on all the great work you've been doing.

Austin 17:45

Thanks so much, Tom. I really appreciate it. It's a great opportunity to talk with you here. I really just appreciate you doing what you do. it's about the empowerment. you're empowered to, share people's stories and to make the place better as well, And, so, likewise in, return. I appreciate what you're doing. Thanks so much.

Tom 18:02

Yeah. Thank you, Hello Jean Louis, and welcome to the podcast.

Jean Louis 18:10

Thank you. It's good to be with you.

Tom 18:13

I know there's been a lot of changes at Little Canada since we last talked, I guess three years ago, but before we get into all that, like in terms of the big picture, how are things working out would you say, for both you personally and for the museum?

Jean Louis 18:25

Well, it's going well. We have now eight destinations completed out of a planned 12. So since the opening, we've added three, and these are large ones. So we're talking about the east coast, the west coast. And as of last month, we opened our three territories in the Arctic, in our little north, and Guests are delighted. We continue to excel in terms of reviews and ratings. We've won the fourth year in a row, the top indoor attraction in Ontario.

Tom 19:02

Well deserved.

Jean Louis 19:03

yes, thank you. And yes, it's been a great run. by no means is it easy. There's always headwinds, but, I'm delighted with what we've accomplished as a team. The impact that we are making and the difference that we are creating in everyone who not only works here, but who, visits.

Tom 19:24

I wanna get into some of those new places in a little bit, but, have to laugh. thinking, when I listened to your original podcast with us, you told the story about how when you first moved into your new digs at Dundas Square, now Sankofa Square, but you realize the exhibit boxes were too big. To fit through the door. So you ended up cutting a hole in the ground to get the stuff in, now that you're settled into that location, has that proven to be a good place for you to be?

Jean Louis 19:49

The space is fantastic. I think we've really really done well in terms of the guest flow, the way that the guest moves through the space. Are we in the ideal location downtown? Of course I could come up with at least two other locations, which would've been better. But no doubt we would not have been able to find the 45,000 square feet space that we

Tom 20:13

Yes, that's a big

Jean Louis 20:14

It's not only a big spot, it's right adjacent to the Dundas, or now it's called the TMU Dundas Street, TTC station.

Tom 20:23

on the financial side, your business card says you are the revenue protection inspector, so I have to ask you, as the business model worked as well as you had hoped.

Jean Louis 20:34

not as well as I had hoped. Must be honest. I think the pandemic changed a lot of things overnight and not only did it. Stall The market in terms of tourism, in terms of, people working from home, et cetera. But it's also just consumer habits have changed. We kind of went from the pandemic into inflation. Now we're into the tariff era, and who knows what will happen. In the years to come. but our business is steadily growing. we're doing year on year improvements in terms of attendance and revenue

Tom 21:09

well, you know, one area I'm just gonna assume you've seen some growth is with school kids, because Sharon and I were there recently and there were all kinds of school kids getting a guided tour. And I gotta tell you, Jean Louisie, they were having a ball like at one point. But a dozen of them climbed up on your gigantic Muskoka chair. They pos for a picture, and I thought, wow. Is that not the perfect cover photo for the school yearbook?

Jean Louis 21:34

Yeah.

Tom 21:35

is that a big part of your growth in business?

Jean Louis 21:38

It is, and it certainly helps during the, low periods. and, as of late we've even made a, a further change in the sense that we block the sale of tickets in the mornings when we have large school groups. So like today and all this week, in fact, all the way through November, we have school groups in the morning and then and then we open to the public at one o'clock. And it's really worked well, not only for the school groups, but also for other guests who coming through are not disturbed Because as, yeah, as you say, they get very excited

Tom 22:13

Yes they do. Yeah. Well, you mentioned, the three new exhibits let me start with the North, which. Honestly might be my favorite room. And I think what struck me, you haven't just created an amazing detail representation of the north, but you've managed to make the visitor feel like they're in the north. you enter the room. And you suddenly realize, hey, it's kind of cold in here. And then you add the Northern lights, the plane's landing on the snowy surfaces, and you feel like you've been transported to the Yukon. I mean, that is really impressive.

Jean Louis 22:44

That was also the plan. I'd got the idea about dropping the temperature. from visits to Costco.

Tom 22:51

That's terrific.

Jean Louis 22:52

So my wife and I would go to Costco once a month, and she would send me back into the the fridge rooms. I call them to pick up the milk. and that's where I got the idea. I said, oh, that would be fantastic. We defeated that for the north. And so that's what we've done. Now, we didn't go that cold it's, too cold.

Tom 23:10

but you do feel it,

Jean Louis 23:11

you do feel it. And in fact, what happens, most guests or particularly members of the team who are working in there, you get used to it within a minute or so. Then it comes back after 5, 6, 7 minutes, then it starts to feel cold again. So it's, it's working really well. we changed the 10 minute day night cycle for the north to accommodate the Northern Lights. So we have six and a half minutes of, night instead of day, and three and a half minutes of day instead of night. So the north is the reverse.

Tom 23:43

But of course it's still the attention to detail. I think that puts a smile on, visitors' faces. I was in Charlottetown last summer, so seeing the cow ice cream shop in the east coast exhibit brought back some great memories. And also seeing Terry Fox dip his foot in the Atlantic Ocean actually put a lump in my throat.

Jean Louis 24:02

Yeah, and in this case, I'm really proud that we were able to get Fred Fox, Terry's older brother, to come in and place him in our world.

Tom 24:10

Oh, really? That's so nice.

Jean Louis 24:11

Yes. And he did that in September, 2024. Around the time that all the schools are doing their Terry Fox runs and upon his wish, he wanted a school in attendance. So. when he unveiled it and placed it, a school was there and he talked all about stories about him and his brother back in the day, when he was growing up. It was really quite inspiring and I learned a lot about, Terry Fox beyond what you just read in the newspaper or online.

Tom 24:43

that's fantastic. Well, and. on the opposite end of that spectrum, Jean Luie, it's not all warm and fuzzy representations. you show unhoused people living on the streets in Vancouver and, and in the north. You mentioned the impact that climate change is having on temperatures in the fish population. So is that kind of, of a reality check a priority for you now?

Jean Louis 25:05

think it always was. Always has been. I think it's important to show reality or to share the stories of Canada. Both good, bad, and in some cases even the ugly. we're not here to try and just show all the good, but we should also be conscious that not every place on this planet is. Perfect. It isn't, it's sharing the story of locals in the various parts of Canada. Includes the struggles, includes reality, a story of someone's life or or a country, or a town or a family. Includes challenges. Otherwise the story is not complete. And so we try to just show what it is like and hopefully make an impact, even if it's Inspiring people to go and visit different parts of Canada is worth telling the story.

Tom 25:58

Absolutely.

Jean Louis 25:58

Getting them to actually act on something make it better. is even better.

Tom 26:04

So you mentioned the last time we talked how you, and a team would go to these different places. Did you do that for these new exhibits?

Jean Louis 26:11

we did do it for the East coast. We had a team of four that went out over 10 days and visited all four provinces really as a gut check to make sure that we actually do have everything that we said that we were going to put in, four the north, two of our team went with a influencer to Whitehorse, and we have a couple of videos which have been created, which tell the story of reality as well as how we've depicted it in our world. Damien Webb, one of our modelers, went up to White Horse with Camille from our marketing team, and Gunnar from, as an influencer went to White Horse Damon explained standing in front of one of the buildings that he made in miniature. talked about how he made the building compared to reality, and that was really good.

Tom 27:05

Another thing I noticed, sha, we, you've gone back to some of the earlier exhibits and you've added new material. do you wanna talk about the Sick kids hospital in the Toronto area?

Jean Louis 27:14

yes, so this is an interesting story because when. I first started with the idea of little Canada. I had this piece of brown rolled paper, which I stuck on the wall at home in my office, and I started to write on it. back in 2011, and at the top right hand corner. By the way, you can see this at Little Canada along the wall. I actually wrote Sick Kids Hospital on it, and I had forgotten I had written it there, but I wrote it there because I grew up in the UK most of my life up until I was 15 and Great Ormond Street Hospital was. An iconic name that I grew up with. And so when I came to Canada and I heard Sick Kids Hospital, it stuck with me right from the beginning as the hospital Toronto. There are many, many hospitals in Toronto. But that one really stuck with me and. Back in we had a group of Syrian refugees with their kids come to the warehouse in Mississauga for a tour, and this was all organized through a charity that we support called Kids Upfront, Toronto. And after the tour, I took them to lunch And so I asked the mothers, I said, so what did you think of Little Canada? of course they, they loved it. And then I asked them, so what is missing? they named three things. the first was an airport because. They wanted to know where could they go to flee if they had to get away, where would they go? Well, an airport, the second is a university because they want to know where can I get myself educated? third is a hospital because I need to know

Tom 28:54

Right?

Jean Louis 28:54

I go when I'm not well. And so we now have two of the three in our world. And it all came about this year because Sick Kids is celebrating its hundred 50th anniversary, and we have a partnership with them whereby we have the sick kids hospital in our world now in Toronto, but we also built for them a maquette of the story of the 150 years. Of sick kids from the first townhouse, which was opened by Elizabeth McMaster to the buildings of today and tells the story through story cards that is currently in our space and will early next year be moved to Sick Kids Hospital. Into their atrium

Tom 29:40

That's a great story.

Jean Louis 29:41

yeah, I love that story not only do we have the building in little Toronto, we actually also have a number of stories of their patients. So we've been sharing the story of some of their patients by way of a little scene. I'll give one example there's a little scene of an easel with a little child painting on the easel, and in front of it there's a QR code, which the guests can then use their phone to read. the story about that patient. that's what we, we've added to, the Toronto

Tom 30:15

Oh, there's a lot in that story you're telling Jeanie. lemme close with one other thing that I really like about what you have down there. You've continued with The concept of allowing visitors to chat with employees who are busy making the miniatures. And, so a good friend and a loyal listener of ours, Shirley Bell, told us that she took her grandson to visit Little Canada. And she asked him afterwards what was the best part, and he said it was chatting with the employees'cause they were friendly, and they asked him what did he like most about the museum. Very engaging. Anyway, I told that story to two of your people that worked there making the miniatures, Maggie and Nancy, and they just beamed and they said that's the part of the job they like the best. I thought, wow, that's really working. that idea of allowing young kids to talk to the people, making the miniatures.

Jean Louis 31:05

I have to tell you, um, I chuckle because before we moved to Dundas, we were in the warehouse and, uh. I wanted to have this interaction between guests and the miniature makers. And I did a survey with everyone who was working in the warehouse, whether they would be comfortable in sitting in the window to talk to guests. And the majority said, oh, no, no, I don't wanna do that. And those who were vehemently against it today are the ones who thrive the best. Isn't it amazing? I I, yeah.

Tom 31:38

Well, I watched them in action. They were great. so you said you've done eight of the 12. What? What's up and coming then?

Jean Louis 31:45

Well we've got three more, well, four more

Tom 31:48

Yep.

Jean Louis 31:48

We have Montreal, we have the Prairies, the Rockies, and I'd love to finish off with an airport.

Tom 31:56

Huh. come full circle, wouldn't it?

Jean Louis 31:58

It would, yes. Those are the four we still have to do. I think we are going to take a little pause now for the team to work on other things. They're currently working on updating, fixing, repairing, some of the earlier exhibits just to bring them back up to original state and in particular. There are some elements which, were we, to build them today, we would build them very differently than we did back in the day. So, Toronto as an example, is now 10 years old. It's only been open to the public for four, but we built this in 2015. So. It needs here and there. Some TLC,

Tom 32:40

it strikes me, John, it's just such an organic. Museum. it's changing all the time. You're going back to the old ones, creating new ones. And I'm really looking forward to seeing the next ones coming in. you really have caught onto something here and I just love how many Canadians, travelers from around the world are coming by to see your place. And I wish you lots of success and thank you so much for updating us on your progress and chatting with us today.

Jean Louis 33:03

Thank you very much.

Sharon 33:06

If you want to hear the original podcast with these two guests, you can find them on our website, hidden Gems toronto.net. Austin was in season three, episode three, and Jean Louisie was in season two, episode seven. on our next podcast airing on March 1st. You will meet two people who are tackling the issues of food insecurity and food banks in some very creative ways. One of our guests, a Toronto teacher, decided it wasn't enough to just talk about food banks with his students. He also wanted to do something to contribute to the cause. And this led him to swim the English Channel to raise some needed funds for the food bank. You can't make this stuff up. And our second guest is not only dealing with food waste in her industry, but also using her skills as a chef to provide home cooked meals to people in need on a weekly basis. Two people who certainly qualify as hidden gems.

Tom 34:02

Before we close out, I just wanna reflect a bit on the past year in Toronto, one of the highlights was undoubtedly the successful run to the World Series by our beloved Blue Jays. In the end, they fell short, but along the way, they endear themselves to the fans in a way we have seldom witnessed before. One of the lasting memories for Sharon and I will be what we witnessed after they lost the final game. We were part of the 19,000 fans watching the game on the big screen at the Scotiabank Arena. The crowd was electric and we made a lot of friends that night. When we left, we joined the throng also exiting from the skydome where fans had seen the game live. Now in other cities when teams have lost the deciding game, some frustrated fans take out their anger with violent behavior. But everywhere we walked, we saw fans holding their heads high, talking about how close we were to winning and accepting the J's fate with dignity and class. It was almost as if the citizens of Toronto took on the personality of the players. So kudos to our blue Jays who played with such emotion and enthusiasm and hats off to the fans who matched the player's Civility and good nature. We'll get'em next year. Thanks for listening.