Welcome to our concept here in Nova Scotia, focused on and around the Annapolis Valley. I am Michael Sellick, and my better half is Daniel Zondervan. We are affectionately known by friends as 'The Boys'.
We are the creators of The Crochet Crowd, a global community of crocheters, where we don't focus on gay pride; instead, we prioritize inclusivity across cultures, languages, countries, and more.
Our history in community building of turning cyber into reality is something that is in our wheelhouse of organizing.
In This Project
About Out in the Valley
Out in the Valley was created to help bring 2SLGBTQIA+ people, friends, families, and allies together across the Annapolis Valley and surrounding communities.
Our goal is simple: to create a welcoming space where people can gather, connect, and belong.
Living in a rural area can sometimes feel isolating, especially for queer and trans people who may not always see themselves reflected in local spaces. This group exists to help change that. We want to build a community where people can find friendship, share events, support one another, and feel proud to be exactly who they are.
This is a place for kindness, respect, encouragement, and connection. Whether you are out, questioning, an ally, new to the Valley, born and raised here, or simply looking for community, you are welcome here.
Join Our Group
You can join the Facebook Group here. We ask that you are local and/or have the opportunity to attend something we host.
Our Goals
We aim to:
- Create a safe, friendly, and inclusive online space for 2SLGBTQIA+ people and allies.
- Help people discover local events, gatherings, resources, and opportunities to connect.
- Celebrate queer joy, visibility, creativity, and belonging in the Annapolis Valley.
- Support people who may feel alone by reminding them that community does exist here.
- Encourage respectful conversation, mutual care, and positive connection.
Our Values
Belonging: Everyone deserves to feel seen, valued, and welcome.
Respect: We treat each other with kindness, patience, and dignity.
Inclusion: We honour the full spectrum of identities, experiences, and journeys.
Community: We believe connection matters, especially in rural places where people can feel spread apart.
Joy: Pride is not only a protest. It is also friendship, laughter, creativity, celebration, and everyday moments of being ourselves.
Support: We lift each other up when we can, share helpful information, and make space for people at different stages of their journey.
Out in the Valley is here to help people find one another, build friendships, and feel less alone.
Gather. Connect. Belong.
Our Plan
We are looking to build a network first to understand who is in the area and interested in this concept.
- The group will be adult-18+ based. Humour, storytelling and experiences may include alcohol at functions.
Focused on Connection & Joy
We want this group to be rooted in the positivity of living, gathering, and finding one another.
For many people, especially in rural communities, connection does not always happen easily. It can take courage to show up, introduce yourself, attend an event, or step back into social spaces after feeling isolated. Out in the Valley exists to make that first step feel a little softer, a little safer, and a lot more welcoming.
Our focus is on creating opportunities for people to come together in ways that feel uplifting, relaxed, and meaningful. This may include casual meetups, coffee chats, walks, creative gatherings, community events, celebrations, shared meals, or simple moments where people can be themselves without having to explain who they are.
We believe joy is powerful. Joy can be found in laughter around a table, a conversation with someone who understands, a new friendship, a shared story, or the feeling of leaving a gathering thinking, “I want to do that again.”
The goal is not just to host events. The goal is to encourage people to keep connecting in the future. We want members to leave social gatherings feeling seen, welcomed, and empowered to take another step forward, whether that means attending another event, making a new friend, supporting someone else, or feeling more at home in the Valley.
This group is about building community through warmth, visibility, kindness, and shared joy. We are here to remind each other that queer life in the Annapolis Valley can be vibrant, connected, supportive, and full of possibility.
Building Community, Not Competition
We are not here to compete with other groups, organizations, or community efforts. We deeply value the work already being done throughout the Annapolis Valley and beyond. Every event, gathering, support space, and act of visibility helps make our communities stronger.
Out in the Valley is meant to add another pathway for connection.
Our goal is to help build a social network that can extend beyond a single event, meeting, or gathering. Events are important because they give people a place to show up, be seen, and meet others. But what happens after the event matters too. A quick hello can become a coffee date. A shared laugh can become a friendship. A friendly face at one gathering can make the next gathering feel less intimidating.
We want this group to help those connections continue.
This is about creating bridges, not boundaries.
We believe there is room for many groups, many events, many voices, and many ways of gathering. When people have more opportunities to connect, everyone benefits. Our focus is on friendship, belonging, visibility, and joy. We want to help people feel comfortable enough to show up, welcomed enough to return, and connected enough to say, “This feels more like home.”
About Michael Sellick
Michael Sellick, known to many as Mikey from The Crochet Crowd, has spent much of his life building community through creativity, education, storytelling, and connection.
As an openly gay man living in Nova Scotia, Michael understands how important it is to feel seen, welcomed, and connected, especially in rural communities where people can sometimes feel spread out or alone. He knows that belonging does not always happen automatically. Sometimes, it needs a place to begin.
For more than 19 years, Michael has helped create online and in-person communities where people feel encouraged to show up as their authentic selves. Through teaching, public speaking, social gatherings, retreats, and creative events, he has seen how powerful it can be when people find others who understand them. A single conversation, a shared laugh, or a warm welcome can be the beginning of a lasting friendship.
Michael relates deeply to Out in the Valley's purpose because he knows community is not just about events. Events are the doorway. What matters most is what grows from them: friendships, confidence, support, visibility, and the feeling that you are not alone.
His hope for this group is to help create a positive and welcoming social network for 2SLGBTQIA+ people, friends, families, and allies throughout the Annapolis Valley and surrounding areas. Not to compete with other organizations or groups, but to add another warm place where people can gather, connect, and belong.
Michael believes that queer life in the Valley can be joyful, visible, supportive, and full of possibility. He wants this group to help people feel more rooted where they live, more comfortable showing up, and more empowered to keep connecting beyond a single gathering.
For Michael, Out in the Valley is about helping the Valley feel more like home.
About Daniel Zondervan
Daniel Zondervan brings a deep appreciation for music, creativity, and community to Out in the Valley.
Through his experience with music, Daniel understands the power of bringing people together. Music has a way of helping people feel connected before they even know one another. It can soften a room, lift a mood, create shared memories, and give people a reason to gather. Whether through performance, participation, or simply creating an atmosphere where people feel welcome, Daniel recognizes how important shared experiences can be in building community.
Daniel’s background in music connects naturally with the goals of Out in the Valley. This group is not only about posting events or sharing information. It is about creating opportunities for people to feel comfortable, included, and encouraged to connect again. Just like music can turn strangers into an audience, a gathering can turn familiar faces into friendships.
He believes community grows through consistency, kindness, and moments that invite people in. A song, a conversation, a shared laugh, or a welcoming space can help someone feel less alone and more rooted in where they live.
Daniel also understands that in rural communities, connection can take extra effort. People may be spread across towns, villages, and country roads, and not everyone knows where to find welcoming 2SLGBTQIA+ spaces. His hope is that Out in the Valley helps create those bridges, giving people more chances to meet, reconnect, and feel part of something positive.
Background
Both of us have always known, in our own ways, that we were gay. For Michael, that understanding came later in life because he didn’t have the words, language, or examples around him to fully name what he already felt. Daniel came out earlier, during his university years, when he began finding the confidence and space to understand himself more openly.
Now in our 50s, we carry the lived experience of growing up in a time when many people felt they had to stay quiet, be careful, or remain hidden. We know what it feels like to measure your words, soften your truth, or wonder whether simply being yourself might make someone uncomfortable. That kind of life teaches you how important safety, acceptance, friendship, and belonging really are.
Neither of us has children, and while we are in a strong, functioning relationship, we also understand what it feels like not to always have the traditional family connections that others may lean on. For many 2SLGBTQIA+ people, community becomes more than just social time. It becomes chosen family. It becomes the place where you can exhale.
Our move to Nova Scotia was a leap of faith. While living in Ontario, we were told that Nova Scotia was more inclusive, more accepting, and more community-minded. We decided to take the risk, pack up our lives, and start again here. Since arriving, we have felt something very special about this province. There is a kindness here, a slower, more human rhythm, and a sense that people have room to be who they are.
Coming from where we did, Nova Scotia has given us a sense of belonging we didn’t fully realize we were missing. We are no longer “the gay couple” in town, where that label alone might identify us. Here, there are many of us. You cannot simply say “the gay couple” and expect everyone to know who you mean. That may sound small to some people, but to us, it is enormous. It means we are not a novelty. We are not an exception. We are part of the fabric.
That feeling of being included matters. Feeling like you belong matters. Being able to go to dinner, attend an event, walk into a room, introduce your partner, laugh loudly, make friends, and not feel like you are being examined under a magnifying glass is powerful.
That is part of why this group matters to us. We know how much it can mean to have a place where people can gather without pressure, without heavy expectations, and without having to explain every part of themselves. Sometimes community begins with something simple: a meal, a card game, a walk, a winery visit, a crochet hook, a shared laugh, or even a good old complaint about the weather.
We want to help create opportunities for people to feel less alone and more connected. Not just for one event, but beyond it. Friendships can grow from small invitations. Confidence can return through repeated moments of feeling welcome. A community can become warmer one gathering at a time.
For us, this is about joy, visibility, connection, and chosen family. It is about helping the Annapolis Valley feel even more like home, not only for us, but for others who may still be looking for their people.
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