Marleigh Cheaney may not live in North Bay any longer, but the owner of a marketing consulting business in the Ottawa area has realized how important her roots to North Bay are.
Back in the early stages of COVID-19 last spring, Cheaney reached out to a North Bay nostalgia group on Facebook where she posted a photo of herself and her grandfather.
"Because he was having such a tough time with COVID-19 and not being able to go out and talk to people and I posted a photo of him and me and asked if anyone knows my grandfather," recalls Cheaney.
"He was born in North Bay and loves talking about North Bay and all the unique stories that are out there. I asked if anyone has any stories about him or with him."
She says the response was amazing.
"There were hundreds of people who commented with memories of him growing up and actually people sent in photos to me and when I showed it to him he was so happy," she said.
It was that incident that gave her the inspiration to create a book called "The People of North Bay;" a series of stories submitted by current and former citizens of North Bay.
"So it made me think this might be an opportunity for me to do something on a larger scale for the whole community and I think it would be a great opportunity to show people they can make a much larger impact than they might think," said Cheaney.
"I came up with this idea that people would submit stories, big or small about absolutely anything in English or French, and what was your experience growing up in North Bay, or if you have a special memory of North Bay. I think putting it together in some kind of book would be an amazing opportunity to showcase the city."
Cheaney hopes local residents will think of it as a giant high school type yearbook for the entire city.
She hopes to have the book published in time for Christmas of 2021. But she needs the community's help.
"These smaller Facebook posts made my grandfather over the moon excited in such a difficult time, I thought it would bring some joy to other people's lives as well," she said.
Anyone interested in sending in a story and photos can email her at peopleofnorthbay@gmail.com or submit a story HERE
