January’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Patrick Lescard, to support his video documentation of Ottawa’s light rail construction and more.
Patrick Lescard. Photo: Awesome Ottawa.
“I started my YouTube channel about three years ago,” says Patrick. “I pretty much film or take pictures of anything, but my main project is the light rail construction. I have my drone certification so I fly my drone around the construction and gather up the content to make videos and put us on the map—I want to show how things get done in the nation’s capital!”
“I started all this right before the pandemic, and it really helped me to cope with what was happening. I would go out and film snow removal operations, and then decided this would be a good way to document the light rail project. It gives me a real sense of accomplishment that I’m able to show the progress of construction and this beautiful city of ours.”
Patrick is a property manager, as well as a new father. In three years, his YouTube channel has grown to more than 34,000 subscribers and includes hundreds of videos of snow removal, garbage collection, road paving, and of course light rail construction—videos that have been viewed close to 20 million times from all over the world.
Awesome Ottawa is part of a global movement of self-organizing chapters forwarding the interest of awesome in the universe, $1,000 at a time. At each chapter, 10 or so “trustees” each contribute $100 every month, and review short applications received online to decide on the recipient of the pooled funds — usually a local project, but occasionally a particularly awesome one far away from home. Globally, more than $6 million has already been awarded – $160,000 of that by Awesome Ottawa. For more information, visit awesomeottawa.ca.
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