The transcript reports on Tod and Jocelyn Maffin’s renewed grassroots campaign, dubbed the Nanaimo Infusion, to welcome American visitors to Nanaimo in April 2026. After a viral 2025 event that attracted 500 U.S. visitors, the couple is urging local residents to "adopt" an American for the weekend—picking them up at the ferry, sharing meals, and showing local attractions—without any financial sponsorship. The effort aims to rebuild friendly Canada‑U.S. ties amid U.S. unrest and has already helped 40 American healthcare workers relocate to Nanaimo. The mayor publicly praises the initiative, and community members express enthusiasm for the program. The campaign is organized through online platforms and a Discord channel, with a welcome weekend scheduled for April 24‑26, 2026.
Chapters
An Nanaimo couple is rolling out the welcome mat this April to hundreds of discouraged Americans they've met online, and they're urging residents here to adopt an American while they're here. Tod and Jocelyn Maffin's Nanaimo Infusion went viral in 2025 and drew 500 American visitors to the city. Now, as Sky Ryan tells us, they're hoping this friendly grassroots effort will connect our countries once more. This spring.
We are doing it again, and Nanaimo, I need your help.
With an enthusiasm that jumps from the screen, Nanaimo's Tod Maffin is rebooting the viral hit that was the Nanaimo Infusion of 2025 that brought 500 American visitors to visit his city for the weekend.
I am just so happy to be at a place where everybody's like-minded with me, to once again restore our neighborly love with Americans when our Canadian-U.S.
connection has never been strained by U.S. tariffs and the Trump administration.
And I think it's an opportunity for us to reinforce that the friendship still exists between our two countries, and it was just such a wonderful experience last year.
You don't have to fix the world.
You can just show up, meet someone off the floatplane dock, and say welcome.
Maffin and his wife Jocelyn are running the grassroots effort to welcome disgruntled Americans to Nanaimo out of their Nanaimo home. And they aren't making a penny from it.
Hello Americans, I'm Tod.
Their online platforms and videos have already helped bring 40 US healthcare workers to settle and work here, and Maffin says interest is only growing as unrest does stateside.
I say Nanaimo is a beautiful spot in exactly the right place on the island.
Nanaimo's mayor praises the couple's efforts.
The whole program, what it's done to attract healthcare professionals to speak well of our community and its citizens. It's just fabulous.
So this April 24th to 26th, he's asking Nanaimo residents to temporarily adopt an American who's traveling here by showing them around the community and making them feel welcome.
Pick them up at the ferry, have lunch with them, show them your favorite hiking trail. You don't have to pay for anything. You're not sponsoring them for immigration.
Maffin says there were already people booking flights from across the U.S. to come as Nanaimo rolls out the welcome mat to our American neighbors.
