This post has been contributed by Kathleen Stormont, Fundraising & Communications Specialist with the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End almost a decade ago and I have been a member for two years. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they contribute and share stories with my audience once a month.
Nature Ninjas Urban Camping
Students set up camp during SPES’ Nature Ninjas Urban
Camping program in Stanley Park. Mike Mills Photo
When we think of people camping in Stanley Park, school children in tents do not spring to mind. But Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”) hopes that local school teachers are picturing just that. Since 1992 over 5000 kids have had the unique opportunity to explore the wilds of Stanley Park by day AND night through SPES’ Nature Ninjas Urban Camping school program.
“We all know, intuitively and academically, that time in nature is good for kids. We are so proud here at SPES to be able to facilitate deep nature connection experiences, and to see the difference it makes for kids,” says Anita Georgy, SPES School Programs Manager. And what could be more fun than imagining yourself as a ninja creeping through the woods – attired with your own ninja headband? In this unique program, kids in Grades 4 to 7 approach the forest in a way they likely never have before.
With heightened senses they learn to read ‘the book of nature’ through animal tracks and signs, listen to the language of birds, and recognize how they fit into the web of life. With their new-found ninja skills, an evening hike to Beaver Lake is a program highlight where kids often encounter beavers, bats and owls.
Nature Ninja campers examine salmonberry leaves in Stanley Park.
Anita’s Nature Ninjas approach has proven to be a fun educational way of tuning kids into forest, wetland and intertidal ecosystems while building those deeper connections with nature. But for many of the kids – especially inner city students – this is also their first camping experience. Participants set up their tents supplied by SPES, sleep under the stars and cook their meals on camp stoves all just steps from Canada’s third largest city. With a wilderness like Stanley Park so close by, connecting with nature and learning how to survive in it is as easy as hopping on the Number 19 bus, or, as one class did, walking over from the North Shore!
Grub’s up! Campers proudly display their dinner.
But is it safe? The bears, wolves and cougars that once prowled Stanley Park’s forest are long gone, replaced today by a handful of unsanctioned campers who call the Park home. Although the program’s campsite in Mystery Meadow may feel secluded – surrounded by tall cedars and salmonberries, with a babbling creek running nearby – the site is within a large fenced enclosure (invisible from the road for a real nature feel), and is monitored by a professional security guard at night. To date, campers haven’t had any unwanted encounters with Park ‘wildlife’.
Going to camp is often one of the highlights of the year for elementary school students. Nature Ninjas Urban Camping sends its campers home with powerful memories, knowledge, skills and a new relationship to nature that will carry forward into their daily lives. “Where else do you get to see your students hug trees, search for forest critters, quietly sneak up on beavers, overcome fears of the outdoors and have so much fun?” grins Anita.
Happy campers!
For grades 4-7, Nature Ninjas starts on Tuesdays and Thursdays in April, May and June 2015. Call SPES at 604-257-6907 to book your class’ most memorable experience of the year! Only 16 sessions available.
No. 29 is the opening performance of Ballet BC’s 29th season and by far its most risk-taking performance ever, which says a lot. Every season, Artistic Director Emily Molnar and the company of dancers collaborate with the most exciting and boundary-pushing choreographers around the world, leaving me in awe after every performance.
This year, the company has collaborated with Spanish choreographer Fernando Hernando Magadan and Vancouver-born choreographer Lesley Telford to give the audience an avant-garde and dreamy evening, bending our notion of what ballet is by incorporating other mediums and influences into its works.
An Instant. Choreography / Lesley Telford. Dancers / Andrew Bartee, Rachel Meyer, Nicholas Bellefleur, Scott Fowler. Photo by Michael Slobodian courtesy of Ballet BC.
The first work, A.U.R.A (Anarchist unit Related to Art), choreography by Jacocopo Godani, is a return of an audience favourite when the company first performed it in 2012. Performed to the screeching music by 48 Nord and at times under racks of florescent lights, the piece had a very Orwellian feel to it. The dancers twisted and contorted their bodies into the most bizarre shapes and moved frenetically–yet somehow it all came together to be incredibly graceful and beautiful.
White Act choreographed by Netherlands Dance Theatre’s Magadan is a re-imagining of Les Sylphides, one of the romantic periods oldest ballet. The romantic ballet period is typically characterized by pointe dancing, tutus, and a dance with the surreal (think Swan Lake and Giselle); however, in this piece is also includes back projections of a gateway in a forest and dry ice, adding more dimensions to the fragmented and innovative take on the classic.
Vancouver native Telford’s piece An Instant, was probably my favourite piece. In combination with the bold movements of the dancers–the bending backwards, the drops to the floor–there were a lot of small movements by the dancers that were so naturalistic, they were almost filmic, or as though they were made unconsciously by the dancer. The dancers would also shout things and walked across stage like Shakespearean actors, only to go back to to dancing. Everything came together so well in such unison, blending together with ease, that it was clear that every movement, small and large, was intentional and well-thought out, just like the entire evening, and the sensational repertoire by Ballet BC.
No. 29 is on stage tonight at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. Follow Ballet BC on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more information about performances this season.
Since I’m celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Miss604 on November 13th, I figured that a retrospective series was in order leading up to the event. Over the last 10 years I have personally published over 6,240 posts while family and friends have contributed over 200 guest posts. I’ve decided to pick out my Top 10 posts in various categories and showcase them this week.
Top 10: History Posts on Miss604
Miss604.com was started while I still lived in Surrey and my hometown has always been a source of inspiration for me. Over the last 10 years it’s been the one constant in my content and I’ve loved sharing its history and covering its festivals. Here are a few Surrey highlights:
10. The Pattullo Bridge
1937: Archives# Br P70.
The Pattullo Bridge, the much-loathed, well used, rusted orange and green bridge, which is almost an octogenarian, has been a topic of discussion on the blog since I first began putting words on the miss604.blogspot.com page. I’ve profiled its namesake, Duff Pattullo, featured historical tidbits, and more over the years.
9. What The Surrey?
From 2007 until 2008 I posted a weekly series called “What the Surrey?“. It started out being a quiz of sorts, asking if you knew the street names we use today for Hjorth Road and Kennedy Road, then it turned into a weekly roundup of local news and commentary. As far as I know, it was the first Surrey blog series in existence and while it’s a little rough around the edges (I’ve come a long way in 10 years), it definitely shows my roots.
8. Surrey Christmas Bureau
One of the posts that is most searched for on Google at this time of year is about adopt-a-family programs at Christmas. Since 2007 I have promoted the Surrey Christmas Bureau and my sister’s family has supported others in her community. If you’re looking to support a family this season, the Surrey Christmas Bureau is currently looking for participants.
7. Metro Vancouver Park Series
Before “The Future Lives Here”, Surrey was “The City of Parks” and the former motto is evidently as applicable as ever as I browse my Metro Vancouver Park Series. Guest authors and I have contributed profiles of Crescent Park, Blackit Spit, Holland Park, Redwood Park, Tynehead, Kwantlen, Peace Arch Park, and other green spaces throughout the city.
6. Two Awesome Guys Named Chuck: Chuck Cadman
Chuck Cadman became a fixture of local news and politics after his son was tragically killed in a stabbing attack. Chuck and his wife Dona stepped up their community involvement, working with troubled youths, starting organizations and campaigning for tougher laws. As a result, Chuck entered politics in 1997 as a member of the Reform Party of Canada. He played a pivotal role in incorporating new measures into the Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act and was appointed Justice Critic. In 2004 after losing re-election, Chuck was also diagnosed with cancer, and it claimed his life in 2005.
5. Two Awesome Guys Named Chuck: Chuck Bailey
Chuck Bailey is a legendary coach who put Surrey on the map in terms of world class little league baseball. Even as he was battling the effects of leukemia, to which he succumbed in 2008, Bailey spent as many as 15 hours each day in the summer months at the ballpark.
Bailey’s legacy: By 2005, the Whalley baseball teams had won 153 titles in four age categories, including 59 district pennants, 60 provincial championships, and 34 national crowns. Whalley Little League has also represented Canada at the Little League World Series in Williamsport in 1973, 1978, 1997, and 2005. There is also the Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre, the Chuck Bailey Skatepark and Youth Centre, and a dedication to Chuck Bailey at Whalley Athletic Park.
4. Signs You Grew Up in Surrey in the ’90s
One of my most-read posts is Signs You Grew Up in Surrey in the ’90s including such gems as “You bought your first CD ever at A&B Sound in Whalley” and “You still call Central City Surrey Place”.
3. Charlie’s Tree
My most-shared post about Surrey is Charlie’s Tree along Highway 1, which I also included in my Top 10 History Posts roundup.
2. Surrey’s Major Festivals
Miss604 has been a proud sponsor of every major City of Surrey festival since 2008, including Winterfest (now the Tree Lighting Festival), Party for the Planet, Canada Day, and Fusion Festival. These internationally award-winning events are all free, family-friendly, full of awesome food, activities, and music.
1. The Vancouver 2010 Torch Relay
One of the highlights of my career, and my life, was riding in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics torch relay convoy through my hometown. John Biehler and I were guests of Chevrolet as we followed the Royal Bank and Coca Cola trucks through the usually quiet neighbourhood streets of North Delta and Surrey where hundreds of school children, families, and residents cheered, clapped, and held up patriotic signs as we passed. Not only that, the relay went right by my Oma’s house and there she was waving her Canadian flag with tears in her eyes. I hopped out of the car and gave her a big hug — she was so proud that this major event was happening right on her road, where she and my Opa built their house in 1956 after moving to Canada from Germany.
#TrueSurrey
If you have any content to share about Surrey, BC you can post it on social media and tag it with #TrueSurrey, an initiative of Tourism Surrey.
More themed Top 10 posts will follow this week and be sure to get your tickets to the #Miss604is10 anniversary party:
Thanks to #Miss604is10 major sponsors London Drugs, Patio Social, Granville Liquor Store, Honda Canada, Granville Island Brewing, and Tourism Surrey.
The City of Surrey always hosts fantastic seasonal festivals and the next one on the calendar is the Surrey Tree Lighting Festival on Saturday, November 22nd. Moving this year from the Central City Plaza over to the new City Hall Plaza across the street, the event will have a full lineup of activities and performers including headliner Alyssa Reid.
Surrey Tree Lighting Festival
Celebrations will start at 11:00am at Central City Mall with Santa’s arrival an hour later. The rest of the festivities will move over to the new City Hall Plaza from 12:00pm onward. The tree lighting will take place at 6:30pm and performances will run until 8:00pm.
Families can enjoy a “Letters to Santa” station, Kids World, Story Time Igloo, a life-sized snow globe, road hockey, and food trucks. Visitors are encouraged to bring a can of food for the Surrey Food Bank or a donation for the Surrey Christmas Bureau.
Other Canadian entertainers who will take the stage include Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Fred Penner, who also has a couple of Juno awards and is a member of the Order of Canada. Joining the family entertaining lineup is local favourites Bobs n’ Lolo, the Peak Performance Project finalists, The Tourist Company, Praise Dance Team, Top Line Vocal Collective, Sweet Soul Gospel Choir and many more.
This free family festival is presented by Coast Capital Savings and I am once again proud to be a media partner of this major City of Surrey event. Follow the City of Surrey’s events team on Facebook and Twitter for more information.
