2013 Good Neighbour nominee: Kathrin Wallace

Do you know someone in Lynn Valley who would make a good candidate for this year’s Good Neighbour Award? Please send us your story about the person in our community who has made our world a better place, in ways large or small (whether they live next door to you or not!) Over the upcoming season of peace and goodwill, we will share our favourites on the website and draw from amongst them the recipient of the 2013 Good Neighbour Award and prize package. Details are here; deadline for entry is Wednesday, December 18. We look forward to hearing from you!

Longtime neighbour is a friend and inspiration

Kathrin (and her husband, Bruce and her two kids) lived opposite my family in the mid-eighties in a townhouse complex on Cedar Village Crescent. We spent many fun-filled years watching the kids grow up and celebrating events ranging from family birthdays to block parties to Christmas dinners.

Kathrin is a very community-oriented person who as a strata council member implemented positive changes within the townhouse complex. Later, as PAC president at Eastview Elementary School, she was instrumental in bringing about the creation of a forest walk near the school, the installation of new playground equipment, and the building of a walk-way from the adjacent care facility, Cedarview Lodge, to the school. This enabled seniors to easily walk over to the school and participate in such functions as the Remembrance Day ceremony.

About 10 years ago, Kathrin and her family moved to a house on Greylynn Crescent and my family moved to Viewlynn Drive a few years later. We have enjoyed being neighbours and friends for well over 20 years.

We look after each other’s pets when on vacation, have shared a tent trailer and various home and garden implements, exchanged flower and vegetable cuttings and borrowed an egg or a cup of milk when needed. Kathrin and her family always include my family for Christmas dinners, Easter egg hunts or other social functions. As a neighbour and friend Kathrin is an inspiration, always willing to lend a hand or an ear and I feel truly blessed that we are so near.

Thank you for entering Kathrin’s name in the draw for your Good Neighbour Award 2013.

– submitted by Andrea Winterbottom

(Editor’s note: and thank you to Andrea for contributing five complimentary Joyful Chakra Yoga sessions to our Good Neighbour prize pack! If you have a local treat you’d like to contribute, please let us know at [email protected].)

2013 Good Neighbour Nominee: Dana Dykema

Do you know someone in Lynn Valley who would make a good candidate for this year’s Good Neighbour Award? Please send us your story about the person in our community who has made our world a better place, in ways large or small (whether they live next door to you or not!) Over the upcoming season of peace and goodwill, we will share our favourites on the website and draw from amongst them the recipient of the 2013 Good Neighbour Award and prize package. Details are here; deadline for entry is Wednesday, December 18. We look forward to hearing from you!

Busy mom makes time to care for others

I would like to nominate Dana Dykema, an Upper Lynn Valley woman, for the Good Neighbour Award. As you probably know, Chelsea Steyns [Creative Director of the North Shore Academy of Dance] passed away earlier this year from cancer, leaving behind a husband and two sets of twins.

There is a Food For the Family calendar online where you can sign up to provide meals to Chelsea’s family. At least once a month since the calendar was published online, Dana has signed up to provide meals for the Croft family. She is a busy mom with four kids under six(!), but she still finds time to be very active in the community, to volunteer her time, and to provide these meals. She’s a wonderful, understated lady who doesn’t go out of her way to be the center of attention – which is why she deserves to win the Good Neighbour Award!

– Submitted by a friend who asked to remain anonymous

Nominate Lynn Valley’s Good Neighbour for 2013!

We’ve been looking forward to this all year! It’s finally time to put the call-out for nominations for this year’s Good Neighbour Award.

We loved reading the stories you sent in last year. We heard about animal lovers and faithful housesitters; charity organizers, handyman husbands, and more. The winner, chosen from amongst all these goodhearted folk by random draw, was Rosemary Postlethwaite of Lynn Valley United Church, who was given her Good Neighbour Award at the finale of the Lynn Valley Christmas in LV Village.

So please send us your story about the person in our community who has made our world a better place, in ways large or small. Over the upcoming season of peace and goodwill, we will share our favourites on the website and draw from amongst them the recipient of the 2013 Good Neighbour Award.

This year’s winner will receive a number of local treats, including a gift certificate to the Black Bear Neighbourhood Pub, four tickets to Friday Night Live, a basket of Christmas CDs from Rave-On Studio, yoga passes to Joyful Chakra Yoga, and even a personalized tour of the North Van RCMP station with our favourite press officer, Cpl. Richard De Jong! And the person who nominates the winner will get a handful of Christmas CDs, too!

Please send your story (just a paragraph or two will do, doesn’t have to be fancy) to [email protected] as soon as you can so we can start sharing them. All entries are due by Wednesday, December 18. Please include your name and contact information, as well as that of the person you are nominating. To help us spread the word, please download this poster to stick up at your local school or shop – we’d love to read as many heartwarming stories as possible!

The announcement will be made, and the prize awarded, at this year’s finale of a Lynn Valley Christmas on Sunday, December 22. Our 2012 winner, Rosemary, is shown below with LynnValleyLife sponsor Jim Lanctôt, his daughter Katie, and the Rev. Blair Odney of Lynn Valley United Church. Who will win this year’s award, we wonder…?

photo courtesy Linda Mackie

Mollie Nye centennial a great success

Miss Mollie Nye herself couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant celebration of the 100th birthday of the house her family built on Lynn Valley Road in 1913.

House staff and volunteers from the Lynn Valley Services Society, which operates the house on behalf of the community, brought together model train engineers, bakers, crafters, musicians and local organizations and businesses to put on a party on Saturday, Sept. 21 that featured a tea, traditional fall fair, community booths and a model train display.

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Celebrate Mollie Nye House centennial with traditional fall fair!

Before Mollie Nye bequeathed her home to the District of North Vancouver, the Lynn Valley schoolteacher could often be found canning the harvest from her vast garden or baking pies in her small kitchen. That pioneering creativity will be brought back to life as Mollie Nye House celebrates its centennial with a Saturday, September 21 event that will include an old-fashioned fall fair.

The craftsman-style house, built for Mollie’s parents Jack and Olive in 1913, will be the belle of the ball from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., surrounded by people in vintage costume, a model train display, community booths and family activities. Featured will be a traditional fall fair competition in which local residents are invited to become friendly rivals for baking and crafts honours.

Prizes will also be awarded on that day to the winners of the neighbourhood’s Project Sunflower campaign, for people who have grown the tallest or most sunflowers.

Mollie Nye House is operated by the Lynn Valley Services Society, and is home to the Lynn Valley Community Association and Lynn Valley Seniors Association. It houses a variety of programs for all ages.

The creation of Lynn Valley Services Society (LVSS) in 2012 was the evolution of a 10-year partnership between Lynn Valley Seniors Association and  Lynn Valley Community Association with the District of North Vancouver.

In 2003, both associations undertook to manage the day-to-day operations of the Nye House on behalf of the District. This was done through the provision of seniors’ programs during the weekdays, with other community use and rentals on evenings and weekends.  These same associations now work together to bring the community in to Mollie Nye’s house.

Says operations manager Helen Wait: “In the future,  LVSS will continue to provide a well-managed centre that welcomes the whole community every day.  As a registered charity and community services society, LVSS looks forward to working with the District of North Vancouver as well as other groups and facilities in Lynn Valley.”

For more information on the house, its programs, and the upcoming centennial event, visit the Mollie Nye House website.

 

 

Have you got talent, Lynn Valley??

Well, of course Lynn Valley’s got talent – lots of it! So we’re thrilled that Lynn Valley Village is putting together a Lynn Valley’s Got Talent event. And we’re confident it will rival anything you’ve seen on TV to date, if only because you might just know the people on stage!

There will be three age categories: Kids (12 and under), Youth (13-18), and Adults (19+).  Get creative with your entry, your ‘talent’ might be anything from bands, singing, magicians, mimes, or something that’s a unique passion of your own. Participants will be asked to submit a video between Sept. 1 and 15; these will be posted on the Lynn Valley Village facebook page and the vote-counting will begin.

The Top Three in each category will perform live in front of judges at the Lynn Valley Village on Saturday, October 5 between 1 and 3 p.m. So start tuning your fiddle, warming up your yodeller, or polishing your dance shoes – we’re looking forward to cheering you on! Details are on the poster below, and in more detail, along with an entry form, at this LV Village facebook page; entries are to be sent to [email protected].

 

Project Sunflower to honour best blooms

The stems are staggering, the leaves are lion-sized, and the blooms are bursting open. Congratulations to all you Project Sunflower growers who managed to nurse your seedlings through to flowering!

We’ve seen the results as we’ve been cruising the neighbourhood streets, and some of the sunflower patches are a sight to be seen. Unfortunately, a fair number of people (and we thank them for their efforts!) planted seeds that rotted in this spring’s ongoing rainy weather. Alternately, some of the seedlings that did manage to poke their heads up were promptly decapitated by irksome slugs. But we figure that’s all the more reason to celebrate the ones that survived!

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Project Sunflower Diary #1: Lynn O’Malley sows her seeds

From the garden of Lynn O’Malley, voice of the valley:

For the past two months, the LynnValleyLife team has been planning and promoting its scheme to blanket Lynn Valley in summertime sunflowers. We’ve talked sunflowers, mailed sunflowers, photo’d sunflowers and dreamt sunflowers. It occurred to me that amidst all the fuss, I might forget to actually plant the darn things!

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LVL Network members get first peek and VIP pricing at Seylynn Village

We like to offer special treats to our LynnValleyLife Network members whenever we can. So we’re delighted to announce a special, LynnValleyLife-only reception at which our members will be amongst the very first to experience a brand-new neighbourhood just down the hill – before it’s even built! Having the chance to visit the new Seylynn Village development before the general public brings some other bonuses as well – from preferred pricing to the widest selection of suites.

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