Browsing “Parks”

Of course there’s prizes for our latest fundraiser to sponsor a park bench! You didn’t think we’d run a fundraiser without a raffle now, didja?

We’re trying to raise $1,500 to sponsor a park bench and are selling raffle tickets for $25 each. Making only 60 tickets available, your chances of winning are 1 in 15.

WE WILL BE MAKING THE DRAW ON DECEMBER 10, 2011

About the fundraiser:
BC Parks recently launched their 100 for 100 Park Bench Challenge, opening up the opportunity for 100 community groups, businesses, individuals and families to come together and sponsor new benches in provincial parks. We’re hoping to sponsor bench #46 in Golden Ears Provincial Park and so far we’ve raised $485 towards our $1500 goal.

Help make it happen! For every $25 you donate you’ll be entered to win one of the four prizes pictured above. Only 60 tickets are available, giving you a 1 in 15 chance of winning.

[Note: those who contribute $25 or more will also get a charitable tax receipt from BC Parks]

This week in UNPLUGGED we’re shining a light on another fantastic project that BC Parks has launched as a part of their 100th anniversary celebrations. It’s called the 100 for 100 Park Bench Challenge and what they’re doing is opening up the opportunity for 100 community groups, businesses, individuals and families to come together and sponsor new benches in provincial parks!

Installed on a durable concrete slab, these limited-edition centennial benches have the appearance of wood but are actually made from recycled plastic. They’re cedar in colour and designed to withstand a wide range of temperatures and colour fading.

For only $1,500 you can sponsor your very own bench placed in the park of your choice (check THIS MAP for available locations). How cool would that be?

OR how could would it be if a bunch of people chipped in and raised $1,500 on behalf of Vancouver Is Awesome so that we could sponsor a bench in Golden Ears Park with a V.I.A. plaque on it? That’s exactly what we aim to do!

Help make it happen! Please consider helping us raise $1500 by making a donation through the link below. These benches are installed a few weeks after they’ve been paid for and are maintained in the park for a full 10 years. With your help we could all be enjoying a V.I.A. park bench on the lake by early spring!

This is what our bench will look like, except with a V.I.A. plaque!

Click below to donate, and please note that those who contribute $25 or more will get a charitable tax receipt from BC Parks!

It’s amazing what appears right under your nose when you don’t follow skateboarding closely. I spent more than a decade working as a creative director in the skateboard industry until this Vancouver Is Awesome project stole me away, and it was a pleasant (pun intended) surprise when I drove past where the old community centre was around Main and 16th in Mt Pleasant this weekend and realized that the new skatepark was almost finished! I soon called upon V.I.A. friend, park board commissioner Sarah Blyth, and asked her what the deal was, but not before snapping this photo below of a couple kids skating it prior to the official opening.

Identities blurred to protect the innocent!

Sarah told me that “As with all of our skateparks there is a lot of excitement and anticipation for young folks regarding the opening of the Mt Pleasant Skatepark. It’s amazing to see youth successful in political process and that young people get what they need in our parks.”.

She also told me that they’ve got some work to do yet around it before they can open it, including clean up, landscaping, and grading. And though it may have been a surprise to me (I noticed it on the plan for the park – which is very close to my home – months ago but didn’t know the timeline) the Vancouver Skatepark Coalition has been working with the Vancouver Park Board for a while now to ensure the skatepark is a success, just like all of the other 7 neighbourhood skateparks in Vancouver.

The skatepark (technically they’re calling it a “skatespot”) is a small part of the overall design of the new park and they’re hoping to open the South portion of it which also includes a playground and some garden pathways over the next few weeks. It’s not officially open yet but take a look at the above photo and prepare yourself for the awesomeness that’s opening soon in a neighbourhood that is home to a great deal of Vancouver’s skateboarder population!

Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many ‘hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. Metro Vancouver Is Awesome, and you should get out and explore it!

I know what you’re thinking.. Robert, this isn’t ‘Surrey is Awesome’ it’s ‘Metro Vancouver is Awesome’. Problem is there’s too much good stuff in Surrey to cover!

Remember, Surrey is the size of the University Endowment Lands, Vancouver, Burnaby, and New West combined. Or Richmond combined with Delta. It’s geographically the second largest municipality in the country, and by 2041 its population will begin to surpass Vancouver(!) at around 740,000 (Surrey’s population grows the size of White Rock every year). So how could I not write about Surrey?

Now that we’re on the same page, did you know Green Timbers Urban Forest Park, in eastern Whalley, was the first reforestation project in BC? As much of Metro Vancouver was being logged through the 19th and into the 20th century, Green Timbers was one of the last first growth forests to go. I’m told it made a bit of a name for itself as being the only virgin forest to be found highway-side between San Diego and Vancouver. And San Diego is a little ways off… (Remember Yale Road/the Pacific Highway from last week? Yep. That highway.)

Since the 1860′s there were requests to designate the area as a park. It wasn’t until the last trees were felled in 1930 that the provincial government set aside 35 acres and the BC Forest Service came in to begin replanting what would become Green Timbers Urban Forest. Various projects took bits and pieces from the area over the years, including Douglas College and the City of Surrey. Most recently, the Surrey Outpatient Centre is located on the edge of the park, and the RCMP E-Division Headquarters, consolidating all of the minor RCMP headquarters located throughout Metro Vancouver when it opens in late 2012.

There was a bit of a stir when, in 1987, 42 acres were cleared to create a sports complex. This is one of those situations that works out way better in the end, because residents were outraged, the Green Timbers Heritage Society was formed, and the group lobbied on behalf of the park for 8 years. In the end, the clearing was transformed into the lake you see above, and a surrounding meadow. It has become a hidden treasure for the city, and if you’re into fishing, the lake is stocked with Rainbow Trout during the spring and fall – usually around 250g, but if you’re lucky you might snag one of the 8lb broodstock!

Today, the Green Timbers forest covers about 560 acres, including the Ministry of Forests nursery and arboretum.

<3 Surrey.

Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found HERE.

Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many ‘hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. Metro Vancouver Is Awesome, and you should get out and explore it!

This week feels a bit like Nicholson Road UNPLUGGED. That’s a good thing! Because what would Metro Vancouver be if it wasn’t filled with amazing natural locations to explore?

On Wednesday I headed out to Lynn Canyon to get a much needed dose of nature. I tell you, there’s something about the forest (and particularly our temperate west coast rainforest) that does so much for the spirit. It doesn’t hurt that the western red cedar is one of my favourite plants, tied for first place with the sword fern. Mix in a blanket of moss, a crystal clear river, and a radiant late-summer sun and you’ve got an adventure aching to begin.

After a short jaunt across the [free!] suspension bridge, we headed down the trail past Twin Falls, hopped across the creek stone by stone, and explored the western edge of the canyon down to the Inter River Park and back. On the way we found a number of ponds packed full of coho salmon fry! Now I’d watched salmon grow from eggs in a classroom aquarium back in grade 6, but I’d never actually seen any in our rivers before. Add another awesome point to the day. More points were rewarded once we ascended the canyon walls around the river bend where the land goes up while the river goes down. For a while, we walked perilously close to the edge of 100ft cliffs, lined with moss and ferns, overlooking Lynn Creek far below.

At 617 acres, Lynn Canyon Park is one of the largest parks in Metro Vancouver. Created shortly after the completion of the suspension bridge in 1912, the park, then only 12 acres, was envisioned as a way to attract developers to the area, which had seen its fair share of logging (the forests are now second growth, as evidenced by the various old growth stumps located throughout). All of this brings me to the photo above, of the beautiful Lynn Canyon Café.

Designed by Davi Narine + Associates, the structure, and particularly its grand glulam (glue-laminated timber) columns, fits in wonderfully with its surroundings while providing a place to relax, grab a coffee or a burger, and enjoy a moment away from the city. While we were there, we saw people who appeared to have come solely for the coffee – which claims to be the only siphon coffee available in Metro Van.

Now I ask you, where else are you going to find a sun-speckled patio in the midst of a thriving rainforest, on which to enjoy brewed-to-order speciality coffee, but in Metro Vancouver?

Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found HERE.

The annual Victory Square Block Party is coming up soon! In case you’re unaware, Music Waste and Megaphone Magazine have been teaming up since 2004 to present this free event in Victory Square Park that celebrates both community and the city’s local music scene. It promises to be a great party and an awesome last blast of summer that’ll support the great work that Megaphone does for the Downtown Eastside: all proceeds from the event’s sponsors and the day’s raffle will go toward this local magazine that is sold on the streets of Vancouver by homeless and low-income vendors.

We asked two of the festival’s organizers – Sean Condon of Megaphone and Cameron Reed of Music Waste – to share their favourite moments from the ghosts of Victory Square Block Party‘s past. Here’s what Cameron had to say…

“As devastating as it was, my favorite Victory square Block Party moment has to be in 2007 when the park sprinklers came on during the event. For the second year in a row. The first year the sprinklers went off, the city was on strike and we just failed to consider that it could even happen. The second year, we made sure to confirm with the city that the sprinklers would be turned off. I remember everyone I spoke to that day ribbing me saying, “So, are the sprinklers gonna go off again?” I laughed it off and assured them they wouldn’t. Then the sprinkers went off at the exact same time they had the year before. Some people put sandbags on them, some sat on them, most just ran for cover. It was madness. All the organizers pulled out their phones to get in touch with the city. They were eventually turned off and most of the concert-goers had already moved closer to the stage to watch the headliners. In retrospect, it was pretty funny. I promise that the sprinklers will not go off this year. Probably.” – Cameron Reed

Photo: David Look

The Victory Square Block Party goes down in the public park at Cambie and West Hastings on Sunday, September 4th from 2-9PM. It’s FREE. You should totally go.
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