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    "headline": "Four years after Reynolds and Lively’s $500,000 gift, Water First certifies eight Ontario water operator",
    "description": "The couple's 2022 donation backs Water First's training work in general; the Kenora-area class was funded by Ottawa and donors, and a new Manitoba cohort began on October 5.",
    "datePublished": "2026-10-17T12:18:00+01:00",
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    "articleSection": "Entertainment",
    "keywords": "Blake Lively, Celebrity philanthropy, First Nations, Ryan Reynolds, Water First",
    "articleBody": "Eight Indigenous adults in northwestern Ontario finished a 15-month training course this spring and came out as certified Class 1 water operators, the people licensed to run a community’s treatment plant. Water First, the Canadian charity that ran the course, announced the graduation from Kenora on May 21, 2026. The cohort is now circulating online as the payoff of a celebrity gift: in March 2022, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively gave the same charity $500,000. The link is real in one sense and loose in another. The couple’s money went to Water First’s training work in general, not to this one class. The charity’s own release says the Kenora-area internship was paid for by Indigenous Services Canada and the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training program, “together with the support of Water First’s donors.” So the fair reading is that Reynolds and Lively are among the donors behind a program that keeps producing operators, rather than the sponsors of eight specific graduates. What the $500,000 was meant to do When the gift was announced on March 24, 2022, Water First said it would help more young Indigenous adults train as treatment plant operators and as environmental water technicians, and would bring water science to Indigenous school students. The charity said it had been talking with the couple since that January. Reynolds framed it in national terms. “Access to clean drinking water is a basic human right. Canada is home to over 20% of the planet’s freshwater — an abundance that’s envied around the world. There’s absolutely no reason Indigenous communities should not have access to safe, clean water.” He closed his statement with a line about his wife: “Blake and I are thrilled to support this important work.” John Millar, who founded Water First and still runs it, said at the time that the money would “significantly increase Water First’s ability to offer hands-on skills training” across the country. Why a plant needs a local operator For readers outside Canada, some background helps. Many First Nations reserves have lived for years under drinking water advisories, the official warnings to boil water or avoid it. Federal figures dated September 10, 2026, show 38 long-term advisories still in effect in 36 communities, against 158 lifted since November 2015. Ottawa lists “improved training and monitoring” among the fixes, next to repairs and new construction, and says that keeping water systems “running and properly staffed” is part of the job. That staffing gap is what the internship targets. Interns are paid, log more than 2,000 hours in classrooms and at their own community plants, and sit four exams to earn certification. Rhonda Nash, director of operations at the Anishinaabeg of Kabapikotawangag Resource Council, which partnered on the spring cohort with Big Island First Nation, explained the need in a statement released with the graduation: her council’s five member nations are spread across seven communities, “two of which are remote.” Graduate Brandon Penner of Big Grassy First Nation put it more personally. “It pushed me out of my comfort zone,” he said. Four years in dates The program is older than the donation, and it has kept growing since. The milestones Water First has published: 2017-2018: pilot internship with seven First Nations on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. March 24, 2022: Reynolds and Lively announce their $500,000 gift. May 21, 2026: eight graduates certified in the Kenora region; the charity counts 73 internship graduates from 47 communities to date. October 5, 2026: an internship with First Peoples Development Inc. starts in eight Manitoba First Nations, the charity’s eleventh. Between the May release and the Manitoba launch, Water First’s running total moved from 73 graduates to “over 78,” and its tally of hours worked in local plants and workshops rose from roughly 170,000 to more than 200,000. Read side by side, those two releases show the program adding graduates every few months, which is a more useful measure of the 2022 gift than any single class photo. The Manitoba interns began on October 5 and are scheduled to train for 15 months, which puts the end of their training in early 2028. Walter Spence, a 2025 graduate who now works as assistant director of public works at Peguis First Nation, had advice for them: “take full advantage of the opportunity, lean on each other and the trainers for support – and have fun.” Further reading Wikipedia: Ryan Reynolds Image: pop culture geek from Los Angeles, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.",
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