The Burger Club brought Grade 7 and 8 students onto the St. Lawrence College campus to make burgers from scratch alongside culinary students — using food as a way to demystify college and help younger students see themselves in a postsecondary environment. Dan supported the program's design, logistics, and coordination, helping ensure the experience was safe, meaningful, and genuinely welcoming.

In 2018 and 2019, Dan mentored St. Lawrence College Enactus students as they developed and delivered the Kingston Youth Financial Literacy Symposium — a hands-on, interactive event designed to make financial education approachable for middle schoolers. The initiative was featured on CBC and Global News, and reflected a consistent belief that young people learn best when they're trusted with real responsibility.

During the pandemic, Dan coordinated and moderated a virtual public event featuring Dr. Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown — helping translate globally focused climate research into an accessible, locally grounded conversation for Kingston. More than 100 community members participated, and the event reinforced that science-based climate communication works best when barriers to access are removed.

Some of the most meaningful learning happens when students can see, smell, and taste the results. Dan supported a food literacy initiative that used slow cookers as classroom teaching tools across Kingston schools — creating hands-on opportunities for students to explore nutrition, local food systems, and sustainability without needing a commercial kitchen.

Working with United Way KFL&A and the St. Lawrence College Innovation Hub, Dan helped design and facilitate Social Hackathons — fast-paced collaborative events that paired student teams with real challenges facing local non-profit organizations. Students left with real-world experience. Community organizations left with fresh perspectives and tangible next steps.

Toilet paper is one of the most needed and least donated items at food banks. TP the Town — founded by Morgan Pierce — set out to fix that, partnering with Kingston grocery stores to make donation simple and visible. Dan volunteered in a communications and on-the-day support role, helping a straightforward idea become a single-day collection of more than 100,000 rolls.

Selected from approximately 80 applicants, Dan delivered a TEDx Ottawa talk at the National Arts Centre to an audience of 800 — sharing the story of how Kingston challenged car culture by investing in the next generation of transit riders. The talk explored systems thinking, behaviour change, and the idea that sustainable transportation starts with confidence, not infrastructure.

In September 2021, Dan facilitated a virtual climate emergency discussion with Seth Klein — author of A Good War — for Kingston Frontenac Public Library, drawing more than 100 community participants. His role was to translate Klein's national framework for local audiences and moderate a live Q&A that kept the conversation grounded in community-level action.

Since May 2020, Dan has served as Climate Action Coordinator for Loyalist Township — working to ensure the ResiLienT Climate Action Plan doesn't sit on a shelf. His focus has been on building and executing the community engagement strategies that make the plan real for residents across very different rural and urban contexts, applying community-based social marketing principles throughout.

Pitch-In Kingston is the city's largest annual community cleanup — and for several years, Dan was behind the coordination that made it run. He supported the initiative's transition from the Chamber of Commerce to a joint City and Sustainable Kingston model, managing logistics, communications, community sign-ups, and partner bag drop-off points to make participation as simple as possible.

Field trips don't have to mean yellow buses. Dan partnered with the City of Kingston to design a one-pass transit system that allowed full classes — plus up to three educators or caregivers — to board seamlessly during off-peak hours. In year one, the school board saved over $225,000, reinvesting those savings into approximately 900 additional community-based learning experiences for students.

Through consulting work with the City of Kingston, Dan helped develop and strengthen the Kingston Community Climate Action Fund — working directly with local organizations to clarify their fundraising strategies, refine their application approaches, and successfully deliver community-based climate projects ranging from EV charging infrastructure to energy efficiency retrofits.

Dan was part of the project management team that developed Kingston's first-ever Climate Action Plan — the document that became the foundation for the city's long-term climate strategy. He led the RFP process, managed public outreach and social media, coordinated community engagement sessions, and worked alongside more than 70 community partners to bring the plan to life.

Dan supported the delivery of Imagining My Sustainable Community — a program by No.9 that invites students to reimagine the design of the places where they live. His focus was on bridging the program's design-based approach with classroom learning, and on supporting the process that allowed student ideas to move beyond dioramas and into real community spaces.

Alongside collaborator Cedric Pepelea, Dan co-delivered a 45-minute keynote to more than 120 students at the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Youth Climate Action Summit. Their message was grounded and direct: hope isn't something you wait for — it's something you create through action, curiosity, and the willingness to work with what's already available in your community.