Meet The Team

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Chef Moss writes, "What I love about Nestleton Waters Inn, is that the owners, the Kiezebrink family, seem to have perfected the balance between simplicity and elegance like none other! I still remember the first time I arrived at Nestleton.... I got out of my car and felt immediately at home, like I was always supposed to end up here. This place is crazy amazing! Whether your special occasion finds you dining in our romantic marquis on the water, under the cozy garden gazebo, on the covered terrace, or inside the elegant estate, you’ll find amazing experiences for the eyes, the palette and the heart! Come and enjoy my simple wholesome food, food to make your smile, food that no matter how many times you eat it... will leave you yearning for more. I’m Chef Aaron Moss and I’m waiting to cook for you, at Nestleton Waters Inn!"

We love that Chef Moss is so talented at both putting fresh local ingredients into creative seasonal menus for us to enjoy at feature dinner dates, and also that he so easily and humbly, with fun humour as well, will share his secrets of making good food... creating culinary adventure for us all!

BIO

• Seasoned 16 year veteran originally from UK. 
• With NWI since '17, Chef Moss was the prior Executive Chef at Holiday Inn Barrie Hotel & Conference Centre ('14 Ontario ON), Sous Chef Fern Resort ('10 ON), The Lion Inn ('09 UK), First Cook Casino Rama ('07 ON), The Western Arms Brassiere ('06 UK), & Blue Strawberry Bistrot ('04 UK).
• Three Year Culinary College Graduate of Colchester Institute, University of Essex ('07) obtaining his NVQ and key skills.

Helen brings, such passion, energy, joyfulness and kindness to her work. We are so proud of her having begun with us as Co-Op Student, to then become Bridal Path Wedding Claudia Kent's Assistant, and then being promoted to NWI Venue Coordinator! With a customer care focus, 

Helen has tremendous problem solving skills, and excellent day of event and wedding management, bringing an effervescent joyful spirit to her work. 

Helen has assisted and managed over 300+ weddings from start to end. In addition to wedding coordination for NWI bridal couples, Helen helps look after dinner dates, special occasion group bookings, coordinating with local vendors and suppliers, staff scheduling, and general office support.

BIO

• Special Events Managagement, Durham College ('14)
• Wedding Planners Institute of Canada Certification ('13)
• Travel & Tourism Diploma, Sir Sandford Fleming College ('12)
• WHMIS, Food Handlers, CPR, and Smart Serve Certifications
• Personal Support Worker ('11)
• Back of House for Aramark Remote Services G8 Conference, serving 4000 RCMP Officers over 18 days ('10).
• Lead Hand Aramark Catering, Trent University ('08)

Roxanne is our very supportive and knowledgable office assistant. She's been with us the longest. For going on 11 years, our clients are still enjoying Roxanne's expert care and support. Roxanne is like warm morning sun glowing on you, and she's an excellent communicator, assisting our guests and wedding couples who reach out to the inn with questions about what is involved in holding an event, wedding, or booking an overnight stay at the inn. Roxanne will evaluate needs and build personalized wedding quotes, answer questions, trouble shoot, and confirm date availability. 

Roxanne's pride in our NWI story, is part of what keeps our inn hospitality spirit alive!

BIO:

• Marigold Travel Consultant ('10)
• Piano Cafe & Inn Server ('09)
• Anja of Sweden Boutique Store Manager ('07)
• Great Panes Stained Glass & Interior Design ('86)
• JW Murison Contracting Office Manager ('81)
• Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Creative Writing, Microsoft Office Certificate, Durham College, Interior Design Diploma McGraw Hill.

You might see Michelle's towel swans in your suite. After working as a passionate esthetician, customer service associate, and sales coordinator, we are delighted to have Michelle's gracious care of our inn and guests. Whether answering phones, checking you in at the front desk, serving dinner, or providing behind the scenes cleaning, what a wonderful job Michelle does and how valuable her expertise is!

BIO:

• TJX Sales Floor Coordinator ('21)
• Facial Place Esthetician ('14)
• Homesense Customer Service Associate ('11)
• Seneca College - Esthetics ('11)
• Durham College - Graphics Design ('09)
• Durham College - Foundations of Art & Design ('07)

 Gopinath is our new Lead Server, having demonstrated an excellence in service and problem solving! Our team love working with Gopinath who has the biggest helping heart. With commitment, passion, and always a BIG smile, this gentleman brings much more than his global experience, but his kindness to everything he does! We are so happy to have him on our team and welcome his expertise.

BIO:

• Food Service Supervisor Pelican Events & Catering (Durham Region, Ontario)
• Restaurant Manager Onesta (Bangalore, India)
• Banquet Server Hyatt Regency (Cambridge, USA)
• Head Waiter Supreme Food Service (Leatherneck Afghanistan)
• National Institute of Hotel Management (Karaikal, India)
• Certifications: Food Handling, Food Safety, and Smart Serve.

Karen writes, "What I love about being an Event Hostess is feeling included in your special life event and working to assist each unique group of guests and family have their best day ever!" Karen has been a trusted hostess for several seasons at NWI. When you arrive she'll help you settle in your suite, make you a tea, provide an iron, or chat with you about your special occasion celebrations, later turn down your suite, sometimes leaving the music playing for when you return to your room. In the morning, she'll set the tables, make coffee, and as the mist rises on the water, greet you with a smile, help serve your brunch, and finally assist you with packaging your goodies, flowers, cake, and once again share in the stories of your special event celebrations! We love that this talented lady with an epic government career, has made herself available to support our boutique inn guests with such dignity and care! 

Kathryn is a welcome 2022 addition to our busy Coordination Team!  She has picked up the many duties with grace and professionalism.  Kathryn decided to pursue event planning after planning her own wedding. She comes to us with experience having graduated from Durham College's Special Events Management program (2021). Our bridal couples and their guests will benefit from her courteous attentive care.

Welcome Dylan to our '21 Team! What a great impact you've already made! Eagerly taking every task and capably, steadily, working, till duties are done. Dylan's focusing on culinary arts, cars and construction (the 3 C's) and enjoys working with his hands. We are grateful to have this dependable team player supporting Chef Moss in food service this year!

BIO:

• Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority Volunteer, Marsh Monitoring and Purple Woods Maple Syrup Festival Volunteer
• Carrier Ajax News Advertiser
• Pursuing Culinary Education (High School)

Claudia approached Deborah when the inn was still being built, and asked if we'd ever considered having weddings at our inn? Now the retired Owner of Bridal Path Weddings, Claudia then dreamed of what could happen at the inn with its island marquis and waterfront garden ceremony settings? Claudia helped inspire some feature events at NWI like the production of our Annual Open House, now carried on with the expertise of our Venue Coordinator Helen, and our incredible vendor team members! Claudia carried forward her many experiences from her Event Management Training (Humber College), Destination Wedding Planning &da  Wedding Planners Institute of Canada Certification, Wedding Planner Course (George Brown College), as well as being the Executive Assistant to Ripley International President, and a secretary to a Bond and Money Market Salesman with RBC Dominion Securities, to a high level of service that would be expected in a wedding or corporate world. She went from being a contract coordinator to our Coordination Manager at NWI, and she would mentor our current NWI Venue Coordinator Helen! Together Claudia and Deborah coined what would be our motto "Five Star High Level Love"! We're grateful for her loving care of our wedding couples and inn guests over the years and wish her well in retirement! xoxo (She's pictured with Donna of Bella Donna's also retired, who created exceptional florals for us for many years.)

Erik told Deborah while they were dating, that he'd saved an oak tree felled from his Uncle's Bashe's farm fencerow (when he was 16 years old), and one day he'd build her a home!  But Erik was a Biology Major and not an architect, so Deborah wondered how this would be? Who knew her man dreamed in 3D! Sure enough, the oak tree became the inn's main staircase, stained to a rich auburn by mom Erika. His educator parents had always nurtured his "can do" attitude.

As a teen his Uncle Bashe invited him to work on his dairy farm, milking cows, driving the tractor, helping build things... His father Harry showed wisdom, patience, gentleness, and compassion, and invited him to join his parents in mission building projects. Later Erik would assist his Uncle John, building a kid's after school drop in centre at his church, complete with climbing net, rock climbing wall, and zip line. Erik went on to do his own mission projects, taking youth to West Virginia, South America, Philippines, even to Nunavut to do work projects. While building kids and young people with church and charity work, he would build Deborah's heart with his steady love, he also grew as a contractor. Erik and Deborah took on house projects to fix and flip. Erik's company framing houses for builders also grew in reputation for good workmanship.

 When his mom Erika dreamed of a retreat centre for their Beacock property, Erik sketched it out on a napkin, a home and an inn in one! Erik closed his construction company to focus on building the inn with his dad, but it was a herculean task taking every ounce of strength! So when the inn wasn't quite finished and guests were coming the next day, friends surprised Erik with payback help, caulking showers, assembling chairs, hanging art, late into the night. The inn's first guests had a beautiful finished space summer '08! Erik keeps designing and creating new gardens, and event spaces, and keeps the inn's historic structure and 96 acre farm looking beautiful to this day!

BIO:

• Nestleton Waters Inn facility development, maintenance, and business manager
• Designer, Builder of Nestleton Waters Inn (started building '05, partially opened summer '08)
• Owner "Kiezebrink Contracting",  Framed 35+ homes for Cornerstone Custom Homes & Redwood Construction of “Tribute Homes”. 
• Contractor "Renovations of Heart & Home" and "Merrick Homes" ('00)
• Pastor Marketowne Church and Masters Degree Biblical Lit ('99)
• Volunteer construction Coral Harbour Church Nunavut ('98)
• Kids Program Coordinator VCC ('97)
• Philippines BBC Instructor ('96)
• Shallow Lake Com Youth Pastor ('91)
• Bachelor's Degree Biology University of Western Ontario ('90)

Deborah's benefited from leadership of three strong moms, Erika who emigrated from Germany, mom Fern who raised Deborah partially in Africa, and Gloria step-mom who's a strong Ohio business woman. Deborah grew up the oldest of 7 children to missionary parents to Africa. She remembers learning Swahili from childhood friends & with Dad Charles' patient instruction. Deborah's had loving welcomes from global travels in places like Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Kenya, Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, USA, Canada, etc. So Deborah and Erika decorated suites to celebrate world cultures, like "Mapenzi" Swahili for "Beloved". Fern dreamed of a yellow house big enough for family get-togethers like her childhood. Although Fern passed away before inn was built, Deborah's proud her mom's dream lives on! The inn is a milkweed yellow, and welcomes families from all over. Also "Morgandy" Suite is Celtic "Little One from the Edge of the Sea" in honour of Fern's Quakertown, Connecticut childhood romps, clamming on the beach, frolicking in the waves. Deborah loves being a wife, mom, running the inn, but also believes in giving back. So she invests time in charity, church, and community. Deborah's also a writer: Pandemic Paradise Book, her Daily Path personal growth blog, and Sunrise Muses poems and helpful hints for moms.

BIO:

• Kawartha Conservation Authority Board, Blackstock Ag Society Board, & Councillor Ward 4 Scugog
• Scugog Tourism Committee ('15)
• Economic Development Com ('14)
• North Durham Economic Dev and Central Counties Tourism Com ('13)
• Port Perry Bed & Breakfast Asc ('12)
• Nestleton Waters Inn (since '08)
• Sales then Business Development Manager, Metroland East Int ('04-07)
• "Medical Minute" Reporter/Writer Rogers TV Volunteer ('01)
• Pastor Marketowne Church & Masters Degree Biblical Literature ('99) ie courses like "Five Stages of Grief" Dr. Kubler-Ross.
• Recording Artist & Song Writer "Carried by Wings" ('95)
• Commercial Writer CFOS Radio ('92)
• Administrative and Marketing Nutech Environmental ('90)
• Bachelor of Arts Degree Broadcast Journalism and Music ('88)

We call Erika our "Queen" of Nestleton Waters Inn. She has such spirit and sweetness, greeting guests with a warm smile, a story, and if invited will happily pray prayers of blessing for healing and wholeness. People love Erika as their grandma. She regularly steps in to make breakfasts, featuring her home-made cream puffs, German chocolate mousse, or her own flavourful jellies made of wild currants or grapes grown and picked on our farm. Many years ago in 1980 Erika and Harry bought this farm and began renovating the building, planting trees, and gardens and adding flowers. Little did they know what their son would later build with their help! 

BIO:

• Erika was a Durham District Schoolboard teacher. Also for 7 years she ran a one-room school "Lighthouse Academy" on the farm. Teaching grades 1-8, with anywhere from 7-21 kids at a time, their little wood desks were by a wood stove for warmth. Kids would skate on the pond, explore the woods. Erika would ring a hand bell to call them back to class. The kids had practical lessons on the farm like tapping NWI trees and making maple syrup and picking fruits and making Erika's jelly recipes.
• Summers the Kiezebrinks brought their kids to learn to support others, like building a water reservoir on a Columbia coffee plantation, or building a medical clinic or school in Honduras. Annually the Kiezebrinks have donated a water well to a developing country in need.
• Annually an SA Cawker student receives the, “Harry Kiezebrink Humanitarian Award” which the school asks Erika to give in her husband’s honour. Read more: https://nestletonwatersinn.com/inn-story