Calgarians mourn loss of Cheri Macaulay, beloved community activist

Many Calgarians turned to social media to mourn the loss and celebrate the contributions of a beloved neighbourhood activist who died after being diagnosed with cancer.

Cheri Macaulay, who brought Little Free Libraries to the city and founded CivicCamp, an advocacy group dedicated to fighting for municipal improvements like better transit and urban planning,died on Sunday at the age of 57.

"Yesterday, I lost a friend, and I lost someone who was a major inspiration to meand a mentor to me," said Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, speaking outside of city council chambers Friday.

"But it's not about me. It's about the whole community."

"You look around, and Calgary would not be what it is without Cheri Macaulay," said journalist Jeremy Klaszus, a friend and protg, in an interview with theCalgary Eyeopener.

Macaulay was involved in high profile activism, like the Women's March in Calgary andMayor Naheed Nenshi's 2010 election campaign, but also in smaller projects that built community from the ground up, he said.

"She believed in kindness," Klaszus said, his voice cracking with emotion.

"She believed in connectedness, and so she was always looking at how do we connect each other in big and small ways."

Klaszus, founder and editor of The Sprawl, said Macaulay was amentor to him. He described her as a "co-conspirator"who channeled hercourageous optimism into hertireless effortsto improve her city.

"I love that word co-conspirator. That's what I see when I see Cheri. I see her hunched over a coffee at the Simmons building, or another coffee shop, Higher Ground or whatever. She was always in there, 'How do I make my city better. How do I connect people?'"

"She really builtthat connective tissue between people," he said.

"In a society where isolation is so common, she was always building relationships, just always getting in there."

With files from theCalgary Eyeopener.