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.
2010 promises to be at least as busy. Sunday, January 31st, from 2 - 5 p.m. at the Unitarian Hall, 6826 Cranberry, TTPR will be presenting a hands-on Home Energy Conservation Workshop. Learn to reduce home-energy use and costs in inexpensive, do-it-yourself ways, as well as by making larger-scale home renovations. Presentations will be offered by Vic Spreeuw, David Moore, and Nola Poirier. Then, thanks to a generous donation of materials by Valley Building Supplies, participants will try their hand at weather-stripping, draft-stopping, and more.
February 21, the Powell River Farmers Institute, TTPR and the PR Food Security Project will co-host a presentation by Robin Wheeler, author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart. Robin will talk about the importance of seed-saving and producing food on a small scale, and how to maximize the productivity of your garden space (and your TIME!). She’ll also report on her work with a seed-saving network on the Lower Sunshine Coast. There will be plenty of time for questions.
February 25, TTPR and VIU will co-host “Rebuilding Regional Resilience: A Roundtable.” We’ll discover and document the many groups and projects in PR already at work on local food, transportation, housing, energy, health, and the local economy. The idea is to make connections among these groups to facilitate collaboration and resource-sharing, while also finding the gaps in community systems that need to be addressed as we rebuild.
March 21, TTPR will host a workshop on Urban Gardening. We’ll show you how to turn your lawn or outdoor space (no matter how small) into growing beds, how to grow food and flowers in containers (even on the balcony of a 2nd floor apartment!). We’ll visit a new front-yard vegetable garden. Learn how to grow more of your own food and have a great time doing it!
TTPR is now grown-up enough to need a logo! If you can donate creative energy to this project, e-mail us to learn our goals for a logo. In March, choices will be made from among the submissions, and their esteemed creators offered gallery space at our public events.
Visit our website at http://transitionpowellriver.wordpress.com, where you can join our e-mail list and get questions answered. E-mail TTPR at transitionpowellriver@gmail.com, or call Kevin Wilson at (604) 483-9052.
We love to exchange ideas with you at our information tables, on our blog, and at our events! By uniting our wisdom, skills, humor and energy, we can transform these Transition-and-Beyond challenges into the best years of our lives.
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.
2010 promises to be at least as busy. Sunday, January 31st, from 2 - 5 p.m. at the Unitarian Hall, 6826 Cranberry, TTPR will be presenting a hands-on Home Energy Conservation Workshop. Learn to reduce home-energy use and costs in inexpensive, do-it-yourself ways, as well as by making larger-scale home renovations. Presentations will be offered by Vic Spreeuw, David Moore, and Nola Poirier. Then, thanks to a generous donation of materials by Valley Building Supplies, participants will try their hand at weather-stripping, draft-stopping, and more.
February 21, the Powell River Farmers Institute, TTPR and the PR Food Security Project will co-host a presentation by Robin Wheeler, author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart. Robin will talk about the importance of seed-saving and producing food on a small scale, and how to maximize the productivity of your garden space (and your TIME!). She’ll also report on her work with a seed-saving network on the Lower Sunshine Coast. There will be plenty of time for questions.
February 25, TTPR and VIU will co-host “Rebuilding Regional Resilience: A Roundtable.” We’ll discover and document the many groups and projects in PR already at work on local food, transportation, housing, energy, health, and the local economy. The idea is to make connections among these groups to facilitate collaboration and resource-sharing, while also finding the gaps in community systems that need to be addressed as we rebuild.
March 21, TTPR will host a workshop on Urban Gardening. We’ll show you how to turn your lawn or outdoor space (no matter how small) into growing beds, how to grow food and flowers in containers (even on the balcony of a 2nd floor apartment!). We’ll visit a new front-yard vegetable garden. Learn how to grow more of your own food and have a great time doing it!
TTPR is now grown-up enough to need a logo! If you can donate creative energy to this project, e-mail us to learn our goals for a logo. In March, choices will be made from among the submissions, and their esteemed creators offered gallery space at our public events.
Visit our website at http://transitionpowellriver.wordpress.com, where you can join our e-mail list and get questions answered. E-mail TTPR at transitionpowellriver@gmail.com, or call Kevin Wilson at (604) 483-9052.
We love to exchange ideas with you at our information tables, on our blog, and at our events! By uniting our wisdom, skills, humor and energy, we can transform these Transition-and-Beyond challenges into the best years of our lives.