2014 BC Provincial Wheelchair Curling Championships

Best selfie ever!

This past weekend, the BC Wheelchair Championships took place in my community. When I heard we were going to be hosting, I called our local club and offered to volunteer. As it turns out, I was the only outsider (non-curler, non-club member) to be involved. That said, the Coquitlam Curling Club members were incredibly friendly and easy to work with. 

I was really grateful for the knowledge I'd gained serving two terms on the city's Universal Access-Ability Advisory Committee around accessibility and inclusion-it served me well for this event and was something valuable I brought to the table.

Friday night, there was a banquet for the athletes, sponsors and organizing committee members. The guest speaker was Richard Peter, a 5 time Paralympian and gold medalist in Wheelchair Basketball at the London 2012 Paralympics. We shared a table at dinner and he really is a lovely man.

Richard was kind enough to pass his medal around so everyone could enjoy it. It really is a thing of beauty.

While the athletes were curling over the weekend, I was entrusted with looking after Rumour, the service dog. She is so sweet. I have a very soft spot for Labs, so I was more than happy to have her keep me company. 

Rumour's athlete was playing on team MacDonald and they made it to the finals, only to be defeated by team Neighbours. Team Neighbour's skip is Paralympian Darrell Neighbour. Team Neighbour will be going to the Canadian Championships in Montreal in April. I wish them the best of luck!

This was the first time the new Poirier Sports & Recreation Centre has hosted a wheelchair event and I think it went exceedingly well. It's great to see our community hosting accessible sports events like this. I hope we see more in the future!

Making History

So today was the NMO 5 km walk/run. It was the first dedicated NMO event ever held and when I say that, I mean worldwide! We were making history in British Columbia this morning! These were our great t-shirts and I can tell you that it was a sea of green in the park today!

The event raised $20,000 the last I heard, but there were some late registrations and a number of on site sales-t-shirts, awareness bling and lunches as well as donations, so the final tally has yet to come in.

I was volunteering at the registration/check-in table, so I got to greet everyone who was picking up their race packages. Lots of smiling face, despite the early start. You can see one of our generous corporate sponsors, MV-1 Canada's info which I personally put it into the hands of our participants. So happy to help promote such a great company that has been so kind to me & the NMO community!

Very happy to have Annie Kuan (left) and Dr. Tony Traboulsee (right) joining us. Annie is the one who helps keep the NMO community connected. She is the 

Research Coordinator for the NMO Clinic & Research Program. Dr. T is a neurologist and NMO specialist at UBC. Both super nice people who are working hard to make a difference in the lives of NMO patients.

I was also so pleased to have Fin Donnelly, our MP and Selina Robinson, member of our city council join us as well. It was so great they could take time out of their busy schedules to come join us and show their support.

Here's the sea of green, as seen from the stage. It was a beautiful sight.

We had an opening ceremony. Nancy Reimer, whose 9 year old son Riley has NMO organised the event, so she spoke first about their journey from Riley's diagnosis at 7 years old to today's event. After that, I spoke very briefly about my experience and then about the importance of awareness, advocacy and the work NMO researchers and scientist are doing. Follow that, another NMO patient, Valerie Shalay (hope I got her name right!) spoke about coming to terms with her diagnosis and then Dr. T spoke about his work with NMO patients and the need for the government to cover NMO drugs.

Riley and another little girl (sorry, I don't remember her name!) the two youngest NMO patients cut the ribbon at the start line...

...and then the runners and walkers were off!

While everyone was off on the course, volunteers organized the door prizes. Our sponsors were very generous and there were lots of great goodies to be had!

There was a cheering section at the finish line to encourage everyone to finish strong and there was lots of cake and fruit for everyone afterwards.

It was a really wonderful event. Everything ran smoothly, everyone had a great time and I got to meet some really interesting people. Nancy did a fantastic job organizing this event and I think she can be really, really proud of the work she's done.

As I was leaving, I came across this:

I am not entirely sure if this was for real, but it made me laugh. I am wondering if Dr. T is aware that for $2500 he's expected to sell hot dogs out of the back of a vintage car, while wearing a speedo?!? Well I guess that's one way to fund a cure!

5 KM Walk/Run for NMO

So I have some great news to share! 

The first ever Canadian 5 km walk/run for NMO (Neuromyeltis Optica) will be taking place on Sunday May 26th, 2013 at Rocky Point in Port Moody, BC.

This event is possible, thanks to the hard work of Nancy Reimer, who is a mum on a mission: her 8 year old son Riley has NMO. 

The walk/run will help raise both awareness and crucial research dollars.

More information about the event can be found here.

If you'd like to register, you can do so here. There's an early bird rate until April 24th, so be sure and sign up today! 101 participants have already registered which is fantastic!

If you are unable to attend but would still like to help, you can do so by making a donation to my personal page here. (Where you can also read a bit about my NMO journey.) Every little bit helps and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

On the day of the run/walk, I will be volunteering and saying a few brief words at the welcoming ceremony. I hope if you're local, you'll come join us.

"Without awareness, there is no funding.

Without funding, there is no research.

Without research, there is no cure.

Without a cure, there is no hope.

We need to work together to make sure there is always hope."

Please feel free to share the link and/or this post!

Cranberryfest 2011

Hello again! Well, another Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. It was pretty busy! Saturday, my husband, Indy and I went to Fort Langley's annual Cranberryfest. This is my 5th year and I think that judging from the crush of people present, folks have finally caught on that the best little Autumn festival is happening there. Seriously, I have never seen so many people in attendance! I think it helped that the weather was perfect too.

We had a wonderful brekki-pancakes, cranberry sausage, breakfast sausage, juice and coffee for $5-can't beat that! The sausages, which were made by Freybe were so yummy! One of the cooks even gave us a spare sausage (for free!) for Indy. Indy was super happy about that!

After brekki, we toured around town looking at all the vendor's booths. Everyone comes from far and wide to get fresh cranberries for their holiday dinners. Langley is one of the largest exporters of cranberries in the world. A couple years ago, I actually took a tour of the bogs. It's incredible to see acres and acres of land turned scarlet with berries. These guys were scooping and filling bags for sale just as fast as they could. The lines were 10 people deep!

These are the sweet ladies who have a booth in front of the little white church every year. They have buckets galore filled with dahlias. You can pick 6 stems for $5. There are florists who have vendor's booths at the festival, but I always hike up the street to the church to buy my Thanksgiving bouquet. I'd much rather give my money to these to gals. They are just so lovely and their flowers are gorgeous. I love dahlias and they looked very cheery on our dinner table.

All around town are these huge pumpkins. I couldn't resist snapping pics to play with when I got home. I love how this one turned out. The pumpkins are really big and they bring them in on skiffs because they are so heavy. They have to move them with a forklift.

I also came across these gorgeous mushrooms, which were waiting for me like a gift, just as I stepped out of the car. They are 100% real, I promise you! This is the season when you see them and these ones were huge! You can't tell their scale from this photo, but they stood 7 inches high and the caps were as big as my palm.The only other time I've seen them this large was hiking the wilds of BC last autumn on Vancouver Island. I love photographing them.

In case you missed it the other day, Manual Dexterity #3 is now available. It's chock full of Autumn and Hallowe'en art, inspiration & goodies! There is also the second mini house zine in the Rue du Maison series, which I had so much fun making.You can find these two zines (and more!) here.

Sunday at Stanley Park

It's been awhile, but it was so good to see you again, old friend.

Dawn's Early Light

This morning, when I opened my eyes, my bedroom blinds were awash with a bright pink light, so I crawled out of bed and this is what I saw; A winter morning breaking over Mt. Baker, just south of our border.

The sky was skyblue pink and melon orange. I took numerous shots as quickly as I could because the light was changing from moment to moment.

This is why I live here.

What I've Been Doing

So I've been absent online for a bit because I have been puppy sitting this little guy. This is Dexter, my best friend's new puppy, whom I've mentioned before is Indy's little brother. He's 10 weeks old tomorrow.

Indy was not as young when we got him so the learning curve has been sharp. I can't take my eyes of Dex for a second or he chews anything and everything! The trick is having lots of toys on hand to distract him with and Indy's been good about sharing.

Aside from chewing, Dex likes to engage Indy endlessly in what I call "Doggie WWF". Sometimes he forgets Indy isn't a chew toy and gets him good with his razor sharp puppy teeth. I've learned that Indy is eminently patient. He hasn't barked or snarled or shown any aggressive behaviour the whole time, no matter what Dex is doing to him. Indy is such a sweet and gentle dog.

My son wanted to take me out for lunch so I could have a break from refereeing the dogs so we hopped the sky train and sea bus and headed over to Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver. This is just one of the many cruise shops that visit our port every year. I always enjoy looking at them and thinking about where I would like to go someday.

The Vancouver skyline. This new facility on the waterfront in the foreground is a new convention center. (Thanks Di for correcting me! I mistook it for a soccer stadium they had talked about building way back when.) I didn't realize it had gone up so fast-it's been awhile since I've seen Vancouver from the water.

This area of the port is pretty busy with small charters taking off and landing all the time. I've ridden in a small plane once and I don't think I will ever do it again. I like to fly, but I am not keen on small aircraft.

Paddle boat cruises trolling along...

A sulphur mill....

The Lions twin peaks in North Vancouver. (Not the best shot ever, but hey, it was sunny and we were on the seabus so the pic was taken through the smudgy glass.)

Our final destination, Lonsdale Quay. (That's pronounced "key" in case you were wondering, not "kway".) This is a terrible shot of the quay, except for the sign. Looking at this pic, it looks like a high rise construction zone, but I promise you, it's not. The quay is a shopping area with restaurants and it has places you can sit and enjoy being on the waterfront. Sometimes there are buskers set up to entertain you while you enjoy lunch or a quick gelato.

And speaking of lunch, here's ours! Fish & chips, clam chowder and coleslaw. YUM! The eating area has glass garage doors that they open when the quay is open for business. There's a lovely breeze that blows in from the water and it's so nice to have lunch there.

After lunch we wandered through to shop. There was this little kiosk that cracked me up. I named it the "one stop Deity shop" because they had everything from prayer flags, to Buddhas, to Sacred heart of Mary prayer cards, to Jesus bracelets and Ganesha bumper stickers and some other religions I wasn't too familiar with. It was too funny and I wish I had taken a picture of it.

I bought a little set of prayer flags, about the size of ATCs. I am going to hang them in my back yard. I have several sets (including one that I got when I saw the Dalai Lama when he last visited here in 2004) and I keep meaning to hang them. I mentioned this to my son and he said "But if you hang them in the yard, they will just get faded and worn out." *laughs* I had to explain that that was the whole point-that they aren't hemmed so that they will fray as they blow and the prayers will be carried on the wind. Try explaining the symbolism of the impermanence of life to an 18 year old!

Anyway, we had a good time hanging out together and it's nice that he enjoys taking his mum on a "date" once in awhile. I am blessed with a great kid.

Next post: BIG NEWS!