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| Paddling action on the beach near Jericho Sailing Centre Photo credit: Deanna McGillivray |
After a couple of days spent in the office in Nanaimo,
Deanna and I were eager to get out for more outreach action. I think that the
more you get involved in discussing environmental issues with the public, the
more passionate you get about the causes. On Saturday July 7 we thus navigated across
the Strait to attend the Vancouver venue of MEC Paddlefest. The weather was perfect
and the venue’s location was great! Our booth was placed along the path to
Jericho Beach in the midst of other environmental non-profits fighting for great
causes, such as Fraser Riverkeeper,
CPAWS and Shark Truth. Even though most of the paddling action was
taking place on the beach, a lot of the passersby and paddlers, curious to know
what the colorful tents were about, stopped by our booth. They took the time to
share their concerns about oil tankers in the Strait and open-net salmon farming and to learn more about how they can get involved in our Community Atlas project. Once
again we would like to thank Adam Hoogeveen for organizing another great MEC
event.
The next day Deanna and I eagerly headed for yet another of
the island’s fine markets, the new South Cowichan farmers market.
Sunday’s venue was very special as it was the grand opening of the Market.
Located right next to the highway after Whippletree Junction, and offering
ample parking space for cars and bicycles alike, the venue was well chosen,
possibly by someone with a strong marketing brain. The weather was excellent (it
was one of those burning hot days that makes any excuse to get out of your hot
motorized box a good one!) and the turn out was great. Market goers considered
us as one of the vendors and most of them made a point to stop by our booth and
find out what we were about. Deanna and I had some lively discussions with well
informed South Cowichan residents and sampled some excellent baked goods and
local produce. A big thank you to the
market manager Keith Lefevre for welcoming us to the market and for working
hard to build local food
systems. Good luck with your market, we wish you every success!
All in all it was a superbe weekend full of sun and engaging
discussions. Thank you to all of the outreach staff, market vendors and people
who attended our weekend events for supporting our summer raffle. We will be back in Vancouver
this weekend for the Folk Festival in
Jericho Park. Come listen to some good tunes and participate in our free draw!
À la prochaine!
- Isabelle
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