Two Lynn Valley schools are hosting neighbouring Pumpkin Patches for the whole family!
Two Lynn Valley schools are hosting neighbouring Pumpkin Patches for the whole family!
If you see students running from their schools en masse this week, don’t worry, it isn’t a fire – they’re just taking part in the annual Terry Fox School Run.
Janet Dunkin, French teacher and organizer of Argyle’s run on Thursday, Sept. 27th, says the high school has been participating in the event for at least 25 years. The whole school will run in the blocks around Argyle at about 12:40 that day, with traffic-directing support from the RCMP and Parent Advisory Council, and the senior PE classes acting as race marshalls.
Ms. Dunkin is a driving force behind the school’s involvement, due in part, she says, to her own family’s experiences with the merciless disease. Both of her daughters, Colleen and Katharine, had malignant brain tumours as infants. While they both survived that harsh beginning, Katharine passed away in 2003 when she was a 16-year-old Argyle student, from a cancer that was linked to her earlier treatment.
Many of us know people both within and without the school community who are currently battling the illness; there are no shortage of reasons to show your support this week. Argyle is hoping to raise $3,000 for the Terry Fox Foundation, and students will be collecting pledges until early October. If you don’t know a local elementary or secondary student who can collect your donation, please consider pledging to one of our local schools’ campaigns via the Terry Fox Foundation School Run website.
And if you’re out driving on Thursday, watch out for kids running where and when you least expect them!
From the pen of Jeffry Huyghebaert, Assistant Manager, Black Bear Neighbourhood Pub
Every Monday night at the Black Bear we run a trivia game for our guests, with questions running the gamut of general knowledge and obscure facts. There is no cost to play, and teams are encouraged; best to bring a few people with different interests and knowledge than yourself! The only real rule is that Google cannot be one of your teammates.
The game starts at 7:30 p.m., and usually runs until around 9:30 p.m. There are two rounds of fifteen questions per round, and the team with the highest score at the end of two rounds claims the victory, and has a choice between a plate of 24 hot wings or a pitcher of Molson Canadian to celebrate their win.
Besides general knowledge and obscure facts, we occasionally choose to run with a certain theme, which is usually based around a certain event; on Canada Day the theme was Canadiana, during the Olympics the questions were all about Olympic events and history, and around the time of the Oscars we did a night of Movie Quotes.
Next week will mark the 20th week of Black Bear Trivia, which means that our guests will have answered 800 questions since we started playing. The questions themselves come from the staff and managers of the Black Bear, rather than simply being pulled down from a website or lifted from Trivial Pursuit. It’s been a lot of research, a lot of fun, and a lot of being impressed by just how much our guests actually know about really, really random things.
About a year ago, North Vancouver women were invited to write a 2,000-word biography of their mother as part of a new project launched by the Mothership Stories Society. In October, a book launch and theatre production will give you the chance to be captivated by the stories that resulted.
Since 2004, the non-profit organization organization founded by Marilyn Norry has solicited, promoted, performed and published the stories of ordinary women written by ordinary daughters. But as participants in the various “My Mother’s Story” projects always discover, there is no such thing as ‘ordinary’ when it comes to talking about mothers and their varied lives – what’s astonishing in one family is commonplace in another.
You can read two hundred or so of these collected stories on the website archive, but next month you’ll have the chance to see several of the stories from the most recent North Vancouver project co-mingled in a dramatic presentation at Presentation House.
Of the 60 stories submitted by North Vancouver women, eight will be featured in My Mother’s Story: North Vancouver, and 41 will be published, along with photos, in an anthology that will also be launched next month.
The play is sure to evoke a variety of emotions, and provide the audience with many conversation-starters as they see a picture of North Vancouver’s social history emerge from the stories of some of its residents.
Happily, Lynn Valley daughters and mothers are well-represented. Pat Ceraldi writes of her mother, Dorothy McMillan, who lived the life of a diamond driller’s wife, moving from the dust bowl of the prairies to the wild outposts of northern Manitoba; to the glamour of Toronto and finally west to her Vancouver family.
Aranka Lukacs, client services representative at the Lynn Valley RBC, tells of her mother wanting the freedom that was denied people in Hungary during the 1940s and 5os and up to the 1956 Revolution, and how her search for that freedom brought her to Canada and a whole new world.
Maria Torres writes of her mother, who came here from Portugal at sixty years of age with two requests: the chance to learn English, and to get a job.
Other Lynn Valley writers include Suzanne Rayment, Jean Redpath, Sandy Crawford, Patricia Young, Janet Dysart, Peggy Trendell-Jensen, Suzanne Ristic (who is also performing in the play), and Grace Gordon-Collins. Each story is as unique as the woman who inspired it.
My Mother’s Story: North Vancouver runs from October 17 to 28; more information and ticket sales are to be found on the Presentation House website. For a sneak preview of some of the North Vancouver mother’s stories (or to learn how to write your own!) check out the My Mother’s Story website and have a look through its archives.
Once again Lynn Valley is celebrating an important centennial. Having already marked the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the L.V. Community Association and the first-ever Lynn Valley Day, everyone can pull out their party shoes again in order to honour 100 years of swinging good times on the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.
On Saturday, Sept. 15th, between 10 a.m. and noon, North Vancouver District is inviting locals and friends to come to the park for music, cake, antique fire trucks and more. The Lynn Valley suspension bridge and canyon gained worldwide exposure when uber-volunteer Bob McCormack passed the Olympic torch mid-span, but those of us here in Lynn Valley are lucky to have this wilderness adventure playground in our own backyard, free of charge, all year round.
Here’s what the LynnValleyLife history section has to say about the origins of the park. After you read it, we hope you’ll be inspired to come out on Sept. 15 to start a whole new century worth of memories!
Lynn Canyon Park was the brainchild of one J.P. Crawford, a Lynn Valley land agent who convinced Vancouver’s McTavish Brothers to donate 12 acres of property to serve as an attraction that would bring more settlers to the area.
It was the first park in Lynn Valley, which was still heavily treed in most areas. Before a landslide changed the topography of the area dramatically, the park had playing fields, a bandstand, picnic shelters and outdoor cooking facilities. It hosted the first-ever Lynn Valley Day in 1912, a grand occasion attended by thousands of people from all over Greater Vancouver, who arrived via decorated ferry boats and a new B.C. Electric streetcar line.
That day also marked the opening of the suspension bridge that crosses high over the roaring waters below. When first opened, it cost ten cents to cross –whether or not you were brave enough to make it all the way to the other side! It eventually fell into disrepair and was closed, but has for some decades now been well-maintained by the District of North Vancouver, which provides this free attraction to local residents and the thousands of tourists who flock there every year.
For a historical look at the park on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, click here.
We’ve been spreading the word about new fall programs as they’ve crossed our desk, but now we think it would be useful for our LynnValleyLife readers to have them all in one spot.
So here are the community program offerings from three major Lynn Valley organizations – let us know if you’d like to see your event or workshop added to the list!
Lynn Valley Services Society: This newly formed non-profit organization operates Mollie Nye House, which houses a variety of community programming and is home to the Lynn Valley Community Association and the Lynn Valley Seniors Association. Here’s the LVSS guide of programs running from September through December, 2012.
Lynn Valley Community Room programs: Have a look at these programs offered by the North Vancouver Recreation Commission right in Lynn Valley Village. For all the North Van Rec programs on offer at the various local facilities, visit their website.
Lynn Valley United Church: The church is offering a broad range of community programs this fall. Some are physical, some are artistic, some are spiritual, and some are pure entertainment value! Have a look at their guide to see where you might fit in (and note that they are forming two community choirs in September; including one for young adults who might be missing their high school or university musical experiences!)
Lynn Valley United Church is continuing its community programming this fall with an even wider range of offerings for people of all ages, regardless of any church affiliation.
From youth groups to theatre sports to professionally led yoga classes to new community choirs, there is a lot happening at the church – more, in fact, that we can even list! So we’ve loaded up their fall programming guide here and invite you to take a look.
At LynnValleyLife we’ve long been a fan of both the yoga classes and Friday Night Live events, and we’re looking forward to seeing how these new ventures take flight. If you’ve ever hankered to make sandwiches for the hungry, learn healing touch, or take part in creative writing workshops, this may be a close-to-home opportunity!
If you’ve come here looking for excellent photos of the Canada Day Parade, you’ve come to the wrong spot.
If that’s what you’re after, you’re advised to keep an eye out for the fine work of my former colleagues at the North Shore News. I, on the other hand, love parades but spend too much time misty-eyed and waving flags to be able to produce much in the way of a visual record.
Between the stirring salutes exchanged between the marching legionnaires and the uniformed members of the reviewing stand, the skirl of the pipes, the dashing Mounties in red serge, the old folks in their red-and-white bedecked electric scooters and the young ‘uns standing tall to sing O Canada, there is much to touch the sentimental heart. A parade celebrates all that is good in a community: the volunteers and creative souls; the rescue heroes and the service men and women; the non-profit organizations that help people around the block and around the world.
So I had much to occupy my hands this morning, given the need to alternate eye-dabbing with candy-catching, and frankly you are darned lucky to get any photos at all out of me.
But I did realize it was my duty to pull myself together long enough to snap a few shots of some of our neighbourhood entries, so here they are, along with my very best LynnValleyLife wishes for a happy Canada Day.
– Peggy Trendell-Jensen, Editor
Gillian Konst and Eric Miura from the LV Community Association float
LV Legion was on hand with their band
NVD Mayor Richard Walton was handing out candy when he wasn't pedalling his bike and trailer along the parade route.
There’s no better place to celebrate your country than in your own community. Just like each journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, building a great nation starts right on our own front porches.
So get together with your friends and family members young and old, and paint the town red (and white) this July 1. The fun starts with a Lions Club breakfast at 8 a.m. at Grand Boulevard Park, and you won’t want to miss the parade that starts from there at 10 – it’s the biggest Canada Day parade in the province!
Lynn Valley Community Association members are invited to dress in red and hop aboard the LVCA float. Meet up at 9:15 at the flagpole in the Grand Boulevard Park, and be part of the festivities.
After that, there is lots of fun to be had down at Waterfront Park, but you can stay local by celebrating from noon to 4 at Lynn Valley Village. The event will include entertainment, market booths, kids events and games, and even a contest for Best Canadian Attire!
Of course, there’s no better way to end the day than with a block party. For some food and fun ideas to get you started, check out this link here.
Happy Canada Day, neighbours! We’re lucky to live in such a wonderful pocket of paradise.
Whatever your budget or artistic preference, you’ll hear music in the air this June.
For parents, of course, there are the omnipresent end-of-term school concerts and piano recitals. But that’s not all that’s on the symphonic smorgasbord this month.
Next week kicks off with the Lynn Valley Black Bear Band’s tribute to music of stage and screen on Monday, June 11. Come out to the Lynn Valley United Church venue to listen to some tunes from your favourite flicks and support your very own community band. Admission is by donation, and the fun kicks off at 7:30.
You’ll be treated to a free evening recital at Lynn Valley Library on Wednesday, June 13, when the Chamber West Woodwind Quintet – including oboe-playing Lynn Valley native Lisa Jensen! – comes to perform works by Ravel and others. Start time is 7 p.m; visit here for more details.
Wrap up your week up at the Lynn Valley Legion, which is featuring blues singer Taylor James and her band on Saturday the 16th.
Taylor has played all over Europe and the U.S, and she’s opened for performers such as Jeff Healy, Colin James and Chilliwack. She recently travelled with other musicians to sing for the Canadian Forces based in Greece, Sarajevo, Egypt and the Persian Gulf.
Tickets are $15 and available at the Legion to adults over 19. Doors open at 7, music starts at 8!
