In a news segment hosted by Sky Ryan, Nanaimo residents Tod and Jocelyn Maffin announce the relaunch of their grassroots hospitality project, the Nanaimo Infusion, originally viral in 2025 when it attracted 500 American visitors for a weekend. The 2026 edition, scheduled for April 24‑26, invites local volunteers to "temporarily adopt" visiting Americans—picking them up at the ferry, sharing meals, showing hiking trails, and offering a warm welcome without any financial sponsorship or immigration assistance. The initiative aims to reinforce Canada‑U.S. neighborly ties amid perceived U.S. unrest, and it has already helped 40 American healthcare workers relocate to Nanaimo. The city’s mayor publicly praises the effort, highlighting its community‑building and diplomatic value. The segment emphasizes the volunteers’ enthusiasm, the non‑monetary nature of the program, and the broader goal of restoring goodwill between the two nations.
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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 the well of our community and its citizens. It's just fabulous.
So this April 24th to 26th, he's asking the 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.
