Powell River Regional News

Documentary-film lovers will have their fill in the 2010 collection at the Powell River Film Festival. As well as the films featured on Thursday and Friday, the Saturday program will be a full one, with lots of community participation and a light lunch available to tide you over.
HomeGrown, directed by Robert McFalls, introduces the Dervaes family who, on their urban homestead on 1/5 of an acre, have honed their intensive cultivation practices, increasing output to 6000 pounds of produce annually. 


As much a portrait of an extraordinary family as an experiment in sustainable living, the film of the Dervaes’ struggle to live lightly on the land is a reminder that the future has a great deal to learn from the past. Possessed of a warm, humble spirit, HomeGrown is a gentle indication that we are only a few generations removed from the family farm, and that sometimes, the very best thing to do is go home again.


Preceding the feature, Jon Ornoy will present his short film Plastic Bottles, on an artist’s quest to make a difference. 10:00 a.m., Saturday, February 20th.

The horror, the poison and the appalling, vast wasteland we’ve created! These words easily come to mind as we witness the spectacle of the Athabasca tar sands, in Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands, directed by Peter Mettler. This film gives a spectacular bird’s eye view of the beauty and the grandeur of the north being irrevocably altered by our quest for oil. Slowly revealed through unforgettably stunning images, the magnitude of development can be comprehended only when seen from above.

by Connie Polman Tuin

With its Employment Services program, Powell River Association for Community Living (PRACL) supports adults with developmental disabilities with all aspects of employment; career development, job search and training, or supporting independence on the job. 

 It’s important to match the right person to the job.  Our skill- and interest-assessments maximize the chances of successful placement, for both client and employer.  Employers benefit by gaining valuable employees; clients benefit by acquiring meaningful employment. There are no guarantees, but our placement-success rate far surpasses the failure rate. 

Employment Services supports employers, too, by offering free job coaches to assist and train new employees. The goal of our long-term commitment to successful placement is on-the-job support for employees by both co-workers and employer. 

 For employers who have difficulty thinking of where to place someone, our service will come to the business and assist in identifying opportunities. For example, we asked one business what was not being done in the store.  Management provided a list of items; then we put a job description together, customised for a particular client. That employee has  worked there for five years, loving every minute.

 Customising benefits clients who need jobs designed specifically to their skills and abilities. While they are expected, as is any employee, to do a good job and to value that job, customising acknowledges that some people may not meet the entire job description but, with a little customising, can fulfill the job.

by Wendy Devlin

Seedy Saturday is coming, March 13, 2010 to the Powell River Recreation Complex!
Four hundred people have attended our community seed swap and sustainable-gardening fair each year for the past four years.  The new venue at the Recreation Complex makes possible double the number of previous workshops and information/demonstration tables.  Seedy Saturday is sponsored by the Powell River Farmers’ Institute to promote local food production and regional sustainability. Doors open 10:00 a.m.until 3:00 p.m. Admission, $2; children under 12, free.

Everyone is invited to Seedy Saturday, with or without seeds to swap. If you have seeds, package them in closed envelopes and label them clearly to swap for other people’s seeds.  The number of seed packages you bring is recorded by a volunteer who puts your seed packages into the exchange and gives you a signed chit for them. You can then browse over the hundreds of alphabetically indexed seed packages and make your selections.  When you return to the front table, a volunteer checks out your seed packages.  
 

If you don’t have seeds to swap, you can purchase seed packages for fifty cents each, up to a 10-package limit. 

Two community seed-packing parties have already packaged up 1500 packages of local seeds for the swap. Seedy Saturday also features a gardening, farming, and self-sufficiency book-and-magazine swap.

The plant exchange has been discontinued. Any non-profit groups planning plant exchanges or sales, however, can submit time and place information to our Seed Saving Committee for placement on a list of upcoming garden-related events. That list will be made available at Seedy Saturday. 

by David Parkinson

For those of us opposing prevailing forces in society, it sometimes feels as though we toil in obscurity. To work to preserve the environment, create a more just food system, alleviate poverty, or further any number of worthy causes is to work against the grain of a culture consumed with consuming. It takes a sort of willful attention-deficit disorder to tear one’s eyes away from the media and political spectacles to begin to see the dim outline of a world shaped around more human values.

As the whole shaky structure begins to crack, though, we need to look for ways to engage people who lose faith in the world that has been handed to them. People need hope, assurance, that they are more able to take charge of life than parents, teachers, political leaders, and the TV have led them to believe.

Simple things are what we need more than anything else: the faith that we are part of a world which offers a decent life for all creatures; the hope that things are getting better, not worse; and charity, not in the sense of scraps of wealth doled out to the pitiful poor, but in the sense of caritas, a widespread recognition that we all have roughly the same needs and wants and that we need to show basic kindness to others, especially those who suffer more than we do.
We so easily allow ourselves to be distracted by the apparent complexities of the world, losing sight of the easy things we can do to make life less painful for others. We look to Victoria, Ottawa or even further for great authority figures to  supply solutions. So we imagine that we care and that we are passionate about solving the problems of the world, while conveniently letting ourselves off the hook for doing the actual legwork.

by Wendy Pelton After months of action and organising by the initiating group of Transition Town Powell River (TTPR), founder Kevin Wilson was notified on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 of PR’s acceptance as an official Transition Town. The Happy New Year message was called in by Ben Brangwyn of Transition Network, the international organization located in the first Transition Town, Totnes, United Kingdom.  Powell River joins 264 towns worldwide, including 8 in Canada, whose goal is to unite the knowledge, skills and energy of residents to rebuild a town’s former resilience in the key areas of food, energy, transport, housing, health, heart and soul, economics, and livelihoods.  Resilience is the master key to a community’s ability to adapt to the triple challenge—or opportunity—of energy descent, climate change, and economic contraction that many communities already face. TTPR leapt into action last fall. In October, a Celebration of Local Food, a fun and delicious event, was so well-attended by food providers as well as visitors that TTPR hopes to repeat it. 

In November, a 2nd screening of the award-winning film by Canadian director Gregory Greene, The End of Suburbia , drew about 25 people. There followed a lively discussion of the end of cheap oil and how it may affect Powell River. In December, TTPR hosted a Candlelight Vigil for a “Real Deal”, joining with groups around the world to entreat the negotiators in Copenhagen 15 to enact a fair, ambitious, binding climate treaty NOW.

by Kevin Wilson

Recently Immanence published news of a new group, Transition Powell River (TPR), aiming to raise awareness and focus action around climate change, Peak Oil and other resource-depletion issues. Here’s a brief report on what we’ve been up to so far, and what we’re planning.

In May, we held a kick-off meeting, where we gave ourselves the self-teaching Peak Oil lecture, an interesting experience! We learned about what a Transition Initiative is and does, including the 12 steps that would guide us towards creating an Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP), and the 7 buts or roadblocks that might prevent us from even getting started. A lively discussion about transportation alternatives for Powell River resulted in six people forming a steering group to get TPR moving.

We held our first information booth at the opening of the Hot Summer Nights market on July 16th, and we’ve since had several more. During September you found us at the Community Information Fair at the Complex, at the showing of Food Inc at the Patricia Theatre, and at the Fall Fair, Sep. 26th and 27th. We display information and resources, explaining what Peak Oil is, how it connects to climate change, and how it will affect all our lives and the very basis of our culture and society.

Our first film screening, “The End of Suburbia”, in August, explored how North America created a culture and living arrangements based on the heavy use of oil, and what might happen as world oil supplies decline and prices rise. The film will be be screened again in November. While you might not think that Powell River has much in the way of “suburbs”, there are plenty of areas where it’s a long walk even to the nearest corner store, and a drive to get to anything else. We have a very car-based, fossil-fuel-dependent lifestyle here and this movie speaks directly to the consequences of that.

by Debbie Dee

February 8-16 is Spirit of BC Week. All over the province, communities are gathering to celebrate our Spirit. This year, the theme is Spirit of History...both of Powell River and of family. To help our community celebrate, Local Loco’s will be hosting a banner-painting evening on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 7p.m. The Spirit of Community Committee of Powell River has purchased blank banners which, when painted, will hang on lamp posts to decorate the city. Come out and lend your vision and talent to this evening. Bring ideas for painting the banners with the this theme. We’ll be painting two of the 6 x 3-foot banners that evening and will supply paint and brushes. Just bring yourself–and your creative spirit!

Calling all gardeners!

Mark Saturday March 8, 2008 on your calenders for SEEDY SATURDAY.

This third annual seed swap and garden fair is hosted by the Powell River Farmers’ Institute. The event features community information booths, gardening workshops, plus a Seedy Lounge area to relax and network over snacks, beverages or lunch. Help ‘pre-seed’ the swap, with vegetable, flower and herb seeds by volunteering at a seed-packaging party Wednesday, February 20th, 7:00 p.m. at Malaspina University College. Trade information and gardening tips with experienced seed-savers, while packaging up seeds donated to the exchange.

Bring your seeds in dry sealed containers, like envelopes, or place them in free envelopes on SEEDY SATURDAY. Put enough seed in each envelope so another gardener can grow out a sample row. Check your envelopes in at the swap table and receive a ‘chit’ that allows you to select an equal number of envelopes of other people’s seed offerings. People without seed to swap can purchase seed packages for 50 cents each. Live plants, like perennials and herbs, roots, tubers, cuttings etc. can also be swapped but not purchased.

The purpose of SEEDY SATURDAY is to protect varieties of quality heritage plants from becoming rare or unavailable and to encourage self-reliance in local food production. Plus, seeds of plants selected for specific traits can become more disease-resistant and adaptive to an area’s growing conditions and climate.

Contact Helena Bird at (604) 483-9546 for more information.

by Skyler Sorenson

Groundworks is four months (Dec. 2007 - Apr. 2008) of on-the-job training that incorporates life and employability skills through workshops, work experience and the creation of a demonstration garden. Five local youth are employed with Career Link, in partnership with P.R.E.P and Service Canada. We have an office at the Community Resource Center and we work out of the board room.

The Groundworks Project is accepting donations from anyone who would like to contribute to the demonstration garden. The fenced and wheelchair-accessible demonstration garden will have fruit trees and a vegetable garden which will one day produce nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables that will be used in the community, or in the kitchen being developed in the back of the (CRC) Community Resource Center.

There will also be a medicinal-plant, herb and flower zone, along with a children’s garden. The physical infrastructure that needs to be built consists of a gazebo, a greenhouse, a tool shed, and a compost-bin system, plus fence and gates. We need tools such as hammers and materials like nails, roof shingles, and wood.

Groundworks also needs someone to donate some time to show youth how to build these physical structures. We are hoping for someone who has experience with this sort of thing. We can offer work in trade or even partial pay for hours worked to an experienced person who can mentor us.

by Corey Matsumoto

Parents with elementary-level children have a new resource in town to assist with their child’s homework. Homework Help will be provided by a volunteer qualified experienced teacher at the new Community Resource Centre at 4752 Joyce Avenue from 5:00pm-6:00pm Monday to Thursday. The trial program began on November 5 and will run until December 13 with a possibility of continuing into January if there is a need.

The program works on a sliding scale, which means that parents pay only what they can afford (it’s free to those who can afford nothing).

Staff are welcoming retired teachers who are willing to spare 1-4 hours a week for the program. For more information about volunteering or participating in the program, call the Centre at 604 485-0992 or just drop in.