The Challenge of Community
Thank you Yme Woensdregt for your thoughtful weekly column and for your recent article: Ubuntu: “I Am Because We Are”, Townsman, April 13, 2018.
Placing the needs of community above the perceived needs of the individual is a hard sell in our society. We run up against this repeatedly at city council and it is often a struggle to come up with a decision that both serves the community as a whole and appeases the neighbours who have invested in the area. Accepting not making everyone happy for the benefit of the greater good is the tough stuff of politics and it certainly impacts relationships in a small city.
I do appreciate being able to read your column in our local paper. It’s important to contemplate values and to explore what truly makes us happy, what causes us suffering and how we can live together.
Thank you.
Norma Blissett
Cranbrook Community Cash Awards
Calling all EK Community Credit Union members.
As a Community Credit Union member myself I want to remind those who are members of EKC that there is an Annual General Meeting on Friday, April 27, at the Prestige Rocky Mountain Resort in Cranbrook. This is an opportunity to meet the Board of EKC; those individuals who make sure this financial institution is the best it can be and that it provides to us the members, the best services possible.
The credit union is an important part of our community through the many community events they support. My knowledge of one of the events was when the male staff and board supporters participated in the “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” to raise funds for the Cranbrook Women’s Resource Centre. They were successful for two years as being the group that raised the most funds for the walk. The most recent event; the “Community Cash Award‚” is helping six organizations in the community reach their goals on projects they are working on.
Our organization [Rockies Rowing Club] was selected, along with five others, to participate in the Community Cash Awards. Cranbrook Boys and Girls club is seeking funding for their youth programming. Cranbrook Sunrise Rotary is seeking funding for their We-Bike program. Cranbrook Garden club is seeking funding for the various programs they offer to the community. Cranbrook Community Forest Society is seeking funding for program they are working on to better educate users of the Forest. Symphony of the Kootenays is seeking funding for a program they are implementing through this next Symphony season. Rockies Rowing Club is seeking funding for our “On Water Safety Program.”
The way you, as a member, or any supporters of these groups, can support these organizations is to attend the EKC AGM on the 27th of April and vote for your favorite group or project through the Community Cash Award event. Arrive at 6 pm to register and get Community Cash. Distribute the “Cash” to the organization of your choice (perhaps pick two or more groups and spread the wealth around as all the projects will benefit our community). At 7 pm the AGM will take place and after the AGM there will be a reception. If you plan to attend please RSVP at 250-426-8223 ext. 3361 or ppinch@ekccu.com
Roberta Rodgers/Cranbrook
Thank a volunteer today!
It’s National Volunteer Week. From April 15 to 21, Volunteer Canada and non-profit organizations across the nation celebrate Canada’s 12.7 million volunteers, who give their time to make our communities — and our world — better.
I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of volunteers in my life, some as a volunteer coordinator, some as a volunteer; some for work, some for leisure. I’ve met and worked with people from across the province who dedicate their lives to “helping”. The experiences have always taught me something, and made me feel good about myself and about our caring nature as British Columbians and Canadians.
This week (and always) a giant THANK YOU to the volunteers who make living in the Kootenays better! There are so many, of all ages and backgrounds, who volunteer in so many different ways: driving team to soccer, sharing professional wisdom with others, visiting people who are alone, shoveling snow, helping to serve community meals, working on the computer at home or manning the information desk. You are appreciated … probably more than you know. Keep up the good work! Even if thanks are not always offered, your efforts are not unnoticed.
To Cranbrook Better at Home volunteers who make life a little better for some local seniors, a special thanks from the bottom of my heart. Your caring lifts our community up and inspires me every day!
Laurie Harris/Cranbrook Better at Home
Bring It On
Both of our daughters had the good fortune of being in the cast of Selkirk High School’s recent production of “Bring It On” and we feel compelled to offer thanks.
Our thanks to the other members of the cast, who worked so hard since the start of the school year back in September. This cast did four months of fitness and gymnastics training before even starting rehearsals. In all, seven months of diligent work for four performances. Young people working that hard and demonstrating that sort of commitment can’t be anything but an inspiration.
Our thanks to the Kimberley Gymnastics Club and the gymnastics, fitness, and cheerleading coaches who whipped the kids into shape. Wow.
Our thanks to the parents and assistants who sewed the costumes, created the sets and managed the stage during the performances. An enormous amount of work to make the performers look good, and look good they most definitely did.
Our thanks to the members of the band and the audio team. Under less than optimal conditions, they rendered easily the best sounding presentation we’ve heard in that theatre in a long time.
Our thanks to the teachers of Selkirk who recognized the importance of this show to the students and helped them balance school and rehearsal schedules. Thanks also to the teachers and staff who ran the front of the house.
Our thanks to the community of Kimberley and surrounding area for filling the seats. There were great crowds for every night of the show and your cheers, laughter and applause give the performers the encouragement to be the best they can be.
Our thanks to Carrie, Eva, and Soren, Sven Heyde’s wife and children, who gave up their husband and father for much of the last seven months. If it is any comfort, our children benefitted greatly from all the time Sven was not with you.
Our thanks to Sven Heyde, head of Selkirk’s Music and Drama Department, and director of the production. We are grateful not only for his tireless and patient work with our daughters, but for the lessons he taught along the way. Cheerleading is not part of our culture in Kimberley, and yet Sven didn’t let that stop him from doing a musical entirely founded on it. He simply figured out what needed to be done, and then got to work doing it.
And that is, perhaps, what we are most grateful for. The lesson and example of what can be achieved by stepping outside your comfort zone, reaching for a goal beyond what you’ve experienced before, setting out a path to achieving that goal, and committing to that path. The reward, as was proven in McKim theatre last week, can be amazing.
Thank you, Sven, for teaching our daughters this lesson in such a wonderful and powerful way.
Tara Ramdin & Brian De Paoli/Kimberley
