November’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Will Webb, Jeff Bardell, and Eric Isa—also known as The Digging Dudes—to support their efforts to bring the past back to the future, one treasure at a time.
The Digging Dudes. Photo: Awesome Ottawa.
Will, Jeff, and Eric are metal detectorists who, as Will puts it, “get paid in memories and treasure.”
“We map out some of the oldest farms and homesteads in the area and get permission to hunt and detect them and save some history related to the Ottawa Valley,” explains Will. “The finds are never sold and are given to land owners or added to our own collection for show and tell.”
The Digging Dudes share their finds and excitement on TikTok and Facebook. “We seriously LOVE it,” says Will—and it shows!
Will and Jeff are public servants, and Eric is a freelance software developer.
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, ten 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–$158,000 of that by Awesome Ottawa. For more information, visit awesomeottawa.ca.
