Millennium Garden at Hutton School
by Michael Strukoff
To usher in the new millennium, the Hutton School Community ?
students, parents, the Parent
Advisory Council and staff ? have embarked on an ambitious project.
The front lawn of the school is going to be converted to a Millennium
Garden. This garden will serve as an outdoor classroom but will
also improve the aesthetics of the school grounds. Researcher
Robin Moore has noted that traditional playgrounds tend to discriminate
along gender lines. Open and expansive sites favour the aggressive
behaviour of boys, whereas girls prefer games and “being
together”.
Educators have long recognized the value of modifying the designs
of primary classrooms by replacing rows of desks with activity
centres, time-out areas, and other features that address the cognitive,
affective, physical and social needs of the learner. Yet the traditional
design of school grounds has rarely been questioned. There is
now mounting evidence that the typical schoolyard design, emphasizing
surveillance and team sports, exacerbates discipline problems,
promotes aggressive behaviour and renders these places, in which
children spend a considerable amount
of time growing up, inadequate. Teachers everywhere acknowledge
that enriching students’ outdoor learning environment reduces
anti-social behaviour such as violence, bullying, vandalism, and
littering. It has been proven that physical movement in playgrounds
is slowed by “obstacles” in the form of trees in planters,
paving paintings, movable building objects, and informal seating
arrangements for passive pursuits. This child-calming effect cuts
down the number of “knock
and bump” accidents in paved playgrounds by up to 80%. Over
the years, decreases in juvenile delinquency have been reported
during periods of school and community gardening. Similarly, teachers
involved in these projects report that social stresses in the
classroom are diminished when young people are engaged in learning
through improving their surroundings.
Hutton School has raised $950 for this project, received a $500
grant from B.C. Hydro through the Evergreen Foundation and has
a grant application pending with the Phoenix Foundation.
Millennium Garden under construction at Hutton School in Grand Forks
Work parties to complete the planning of the garden are scheduled for Monday, May 24th and Saturday, June 5th.
The Hutton School Community has received tremendous support
to date in preparing for this project and would like to recognize
the following for their contribution to date: City of Grand Forks,
the Regional District, Ray Hughes and Leon Sagal, Grand Forks
District Savings Credit Union for their donation of $2000 for
the purchase of a gazebo, Jim Brockmeyer at Bluestem Nurseries,
Laurie Clark at Galena Perennials, Dave Durrand at Durrand’s and
a big
THANK YOU to Jamie Krenz from the District Maintenance Department
for his efforts.
Community Futures Development Corp. of the
Boundary
Working with the Community
Spring Jobs Sprouting
at the Youth Development Centre
Ah spring, the most vibrant, explosive, and thrilling season of
the year. Flowers bloom, hills are green, birds chirp, and the
youth and students begin the difficult task of finding summer
employment. Once again, as in previous years, there is a valuable
tool students and youth can take advantage of which will make
their quest for work considerably easier: the Summer Employment
Officer. This guy, a student himself, is employed by Community
Futures Development Corporation for the sole purpose of providing
the youth and students of the Boundary with the necessary resources
they need to find a summer job. Working out of the Community Futures
Youth Development Centre, he travels the boundary promoting the
“Hire A Student” program to employers in hopes that
these local employers will list job openings through the summer
employment office. For employers it is a free service that allows
them to take advantage of a diverse pool of talented youth and
students. This ultimately leads to an appropriately skilled, enthusiastic
candidate applying for the listed job. In certain circumstances
these employers may even qualify for wage subsidies from the government
to offset wages when they hire a youth or student.
You, the youth and students of the Boundary can benefit by taking
part in free workshops, some dealing with résumé
and interview skills, and others concerning self-employment strategies.
If one was to visit Community Futures Youth Development Centre
he or she could browse the Job Board or electronic Job Bank for
employment opportunities, word process his or her résumé,
have it proofread by the employment guy, get some interview tips,
take part in an informative workshop, and leave a more marketable
person, ready to attack the job market; and it doesn’t cost anything.
It is a wonderful centre that Community Futures has developed,
and it is all here for youth, students, and employers of the Boundary.
The Youth Development Centre is located at 7265 Riverside Drive
(the old Froggies building) and is open during the hours of 8:30-4:30,
Monday to Friday.
Hire a Student. Part Time, Full Time, or Odd Jobs.
Please contact Mike Robinson at the Community Futures Youth Development
Centre: 442-2722
To Lime or Not to Lime
The symbol pH stands for “Potential Hydrogen”. The pH
test is a measure of these negatively charged Hydrogen ions according
to a scale of 0-14. A pH of 7 is neutral. Lower numbers indicate
relative acidity and higher numbers indicate relative alkalinity.
When the agricultural colleges decided to set the objective for
neutral pH at 7, they automatically forced everyone to use water
soluble chemical fertilizers. This may have been through unawareness,
and it may have been informed self-interest. Soils need to have
a pH of 6.5, or under, in order to experience the acid conditions
necessary to etch out the tied up forms of nutrients and minerals,
and to separate calcium from phosphorus. A pH near 7, or higher,
means no soil activity. Therefore, gardeners and farmers alike
cannot possibly make a success of gardening or farming, they
are simply unable to unlock the nutrients out of the soil without
adding soluble chemical forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium,
a practice unacceptable in organic gardening.
Phosphorus more clearly than any other plant nutrient explains
why some farmers fail in organic farming. It takes a somewhat
acid soil to make rock minerals and nutrients available for plant
use. Yet, acidity has been blamed when soils fail to deliver.
For forty years farmers have been sweetening the soil (liming),
to fight soil acidity when they should have been fertilizing with
manures, compost and organic fertilizers, to fight low fertility
levels.
This is what makes organic matter so important. Soils high in
organic matter are almost always populated by a variety of microorganisms.
This microbial population serves as a nutrient reservoir. Not
unlike plants, these microorganisms also require phosphorus and
other nutrients to build into their cell components. These little
microbes also excrete nitric and sulphuric acids, the compounds
needed to break down natural minerals. This is nature’s way of
producing the complex compounds of plant foods. Some bacteria
produce more than they need for themselves and the excess is there
for plants to use. When we stop using organic fertilizers and
manures, the fermentations made by the bacteria
no longer help provide the acids of composting organic matter.
This is why organic farming has to be diversified farming, and
why there should be animals on a farm to add to the complete bio-diversity,
if there is to be a natural and organic system.
So if you’re over 6.5 pH and you want to farm organically for
good and obvious reasons, you’re in trouble. The soil environment
has to be on the acidic side in order to free up the available
nutrients. Anyone who is trying to live with the natural concept,
and not in the end rely on toxic rescue chemistry, has to keep
his soil system on the acid side, as far as pH is concerned. Any
farmer who doesn’t take into consideration the importance of the
active Hydrogen ion (pH) as being the most important thing to
work with, authors their own failure. To lime or not to lime?
That is the question.
Ask the Man!
Ask your question to a local elected
representative
and we will try to get an answer in writing for you.
Question to Mayor Brian Taylor from the OpenMinder:
What is going on with the plans to incorporate Christina Lake
and will it affect the expansion of Grand Forks City limits?
Answer from the Mayor:
Christina Lake is taking a closer look at becoming a municipality,
and talk within the city is of the advantages of taking in portions
of the outlying areas into the city or into a new “district
municipality”.
The problem with these discussions in the past appears to be the
lack of clear answers to simple and basic questions. If Grand
Forks City incorporates some of the more dense housing areas on
the parameters of the city, will my taxes increase? And, if they
do increase will the improved services and the increased voice
in city business be worth the increase?
In the city, you are represented by six councillors and a mayor,
in the regional areas you have one representative. The regional
representative sits at the table with as many as 15 to 20 other
area representatives and is grounded in the community by an A.P.C.
or Area Planning Committee. The system that is in place is a vast
improvement over the representation for rural areas prior to the
establishment of the regional system. However, we have a situation
now where, over a number of years, areas on the parameters of
the city have developed concentrations of housing that challenge
the old rationals. If these areas are brought into the city I
believe the citizens will have better representation.
Will your taxes increase? I believe that this question needs to
be answered, but only after we decide what the services will be
that we would all pay for. Will we have our own police force?
What is our commitment to sewers for new areas? Will we take direct
control of our recreational services? All of these issues need
to be considered in any new cost formula that would project the
tax level of everyone in the city. On the income or revenue side,
the city is in the process of establishing a special industry
zone near the landfill site. It would appear that future industrial
land will be outside the current city limits.
I see mutual advantages and would welcome comment and opinion
on these matters.
The Boundary area has quite a variety of wildlife.
This bighorn sheep photo was taken on Rattlesnake Hill just outside
of town.
photograph: Wayne Rieberger
Hazel Wolf
Giraffe!
You are never too young or too old.
“Are you an ostrich or a giraffe? Are you hiding your head
in the sand or sticking your neck out? The Giraffe Project says
there’s a hero in each of us, just waiting to get out and do something,
something that makes a difference in the world. Think about it.
Are there things you’ve been waiting for somebody else to fix
– things that you could go to work on yourself? How about getting
to it? Stick your neck out and help make your world the place
you want it to be. Think you are too young or too old to make
a difference? Listen to this:
Hazel Wolf was two years old at the beginning of this century
– she was born in Victoria in 1898. When she was 14 years old,
she started sticking her neck out to make the world a better place,
and she’s never stopped. Back in 1912, Hazel thought it wasn’t
fair for her school to have sports for boys but not for girls.
That’s the way it was at almost all schools then, but Hazel didn’t
care if other people thought that was fine. She was sure it was
wrong. She asked her school principal to let girls play basketball.
He said he’d give her equipment and time on the school court if
she could find ten girls who wanted to play – and was sure she
couldn’t. But, Hazel had ten girls waiting in the hall outside
the principal’s office!! He was surprised, but he laughed and
kept his promise.
Ever since, Hazel has surprised people, made them laugh, and gotten
them to see things her way. She wants people to be treated fairly,
to have jobs, safe housing, peace and a healthy environment. Over
and over again, she’s gotten involved in issues that other people
fight about. Hazel finds ways to get them to stop fighting, to
laugh, and to cooperate.
In recent years she’s worked to save the last of the ancient trees
in the Pacific Northwest. At the same time, she insists that timber
workers must have other jobs to do instead of cutting down these
trees, even though timber workers and environmentalists rarely
help each other.
A nature lover, Hazel is still, at 101 years old, a hiker and
a kayaker. She’s also an officer of the Seattle Audubon Society,
a group that studies birds and protects the places where they
live. Hazel has started more new Audubon groups than anyone else
in the entire U.S. or Canada.
When Hazel found that Native Americans and the big environmental
groups weren’t working together, she went to the tribal leaders
and got them to join forces with groups like Audubon. Together
they have a better chance of protecting the land, air and water
that they all care so deeply about. Hazel has had very little
time to herself in her long life and she’s stood up to powerful
people who haven’t agreed with her. She’s even kept her sense
of humour when faced with going to jail for peacefully protesting.
“I always thought if I ever went to jail, I’d get to work
a jigsaw puzzle without interruption”, she said. “But
the one opportunity I had, I didn’t get to finish it because someone
bailed me out.”
For many years some officials have called her a troublemaker.
But to thousands of people, Hazel Wolf isn’t a troublemaker –
she’s a hero – and she’s a “Giraffe”.
for more info. contact Carl Dortch at url:http://www.geocities.com/rainforest/canopy/8126
email: lkitto@wkpowerlink.com
Water Safety Week – May 30th to June 6th
Drowning is the second leading cause of death among young children
– most of these victims are under 5 years old. With constant adult
supervision, appropriate training and some common sense, most
drownings can be prevented.
AquaQuest, a Canadian Red Cross Water Safety Program, teaches
children to stay safe in, on and around the water by focussing
on injury prevention, water safety and swimming. Fundamental swimming
skills are taught gradually, step by step, so that children can
be successful and learn safely.
AquaQuest is the new 12-level water safety program that replaces
the old program commonly known as the “Colours Program”.
The AquaQuest program is designed for children 3 years and older.
Endorsed by the Active Living Alliance for Canadians with a Disability,
AquaQuest features an individual approach to instruction that
makes it easy to teach children with differing abilities. The
program has been researched and developed by experts in the areas
of injury prevention, swimming technique, drowning research, inclusion,
medicine and health. AquaQuest is available
in both French and English at over 6,000 pools and waterfronts
across Canada. Each year over 1.2 million children participate
in the Red Cross Water Safety Program. And, over the past 50 years,
the Canadian Red Cross has taught water safety and swimming lessons
to over 27 million Canadians.
Water Safety Week – May 30th to June 6th. Free handouts and information
available at the Aquatic Centre.
Boundary Showcase Trade Show
Free Admission! Friday June 11th, 5 – 9pm and
Saturday June 12th, 9am – 5pm at the Grand Forks Recreation Complex.
If you like to listen to the roar of engines and watch our
local boys leave the competition in the smoke behind them,
then follow them down to Eagle Track Raceway and cheer them on.
Vic Kien of Grand Forks owns #7 and competes in the races down
at
Eagle Track Raceway in Republic, Wa.
Check out these May – June race dates.
Saturday May 29 Memorial Race of Champions
Sunday June 13 Prospector’s Day Race
Saturday June 26 Mid-Season Championship
Fresh Coho Salmon Filet
with Garlic, Chili and fresh Chanterelles
by Sam Okamoto
For 2 servings:
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 – 8 oz Coho salmon filets
6 large cloves of garlic, minced fine
3 fresh jalapeño peppers, minced (remove seeds)
4 small fresh Chanterelle mushrooms, cleaned
and shredded by hand along the grain
1 tbsp. soy sauce
4 tbsp. minced green onion – white part only
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Mince chili and garlic together to make a consistent paste. Place
paste over salmon and spread evenly on both sides.
Set aside for 30 minutes.
Heat flat skillet to medium hot. Add oil. Slowly and gently place
salmon on skillet. Increase heat to high. Move skillet back and
forth to eliminate hot spots on salmon. When salmon is golden
on one side remove skillet from heat and flip salmon. Put skillet
back on heat, add shredded Chanterelles. Lower heat to medium
low, cover. Cook until almost done. Sprinkle with green onion,
lemon and soy sauce, stir sauce by moving skillet back and forth.
Serve immediately. Brown basmati rice, buckwheat noodles or various
vegetables go well with this dish. If you are adventurous, try
rice vermicelli. For a salt-conscious diet omit soy sauce.
Quote
“Our discoveries,” according to a scientist working in radiation-field photography, “show that we extend beyond our skins, that we have another body of some kind of energy that interacts with our environment.”
“Is life merely a kind of gravity that holds our energy in one quivering bundle, while binding itself to the earth with a magnetic pull of twenty-one grams? And does it release instantly at death, like an electromagnet when turned off; or does it fade away slowly, like the glow in a Kirlian photograph?”
5W’s
The town of Phoenix was only around for 20 years,
from 1899 to 1919.
what
was Phoenix famous for – before
it became a ghost town?
If you are an elementary school student in the Boundary Area you
could win $5 by telling us the correct answer to
this question. Don’t forget to include your name, grade, school,
and phone number. Drop off your entry at Value
Drug Mart, Market St. & 4th Ave., Grand Forks or at Pharmasave,
330 Central Ave., Grand Forks. The first correct
answer to our puzzle drawn from our hat will win the $5 prize.
Winner
Lydia McAndrew in grade 7 at Hutton School in Grand Forks correctly
guessed that
“Rock Creek was established in 1859”.