2020 Citizens Report

YEAR IN REVIEW

May 21, 2020 When you turned to Page 16 of The News you saw a piece of artwork that said ‘Be Brave’ with a rainbow and unicorn. That artwork was part of the ‘Card of Hope’ project at Kanaka Creek Elementary School that blossomed into a citywide program where students created cards for local seniors that were unable to have visitors due to COVID-19. Kindergarten teacher Dawn Flanagan wanted to create connections between students and seniors to help both of them deal with the community implications of the pandemic. There was concern that the paper might be a health hazard, so the program quickly pivoted to scanning the artwork so it could be emailed to seniors and displayed on iPads that became the way everyone was able to interact in those early days.

June 4, 2020 On the front page of the newspaper we learned about a ‘gratitude garden’ that had been created in the Albion neighbourhood. In 2019, Debbie Pearce donated a kidney to Geoff Dunsire and he has been thanking her for the gift of a normal life ever since. Near Debbie’s home at Zeron Avenue and Tamarack Crescent there’s a traffic island that the pair have turned into their gratitude garden. The collection of rocks highlights the importance of transplant donors and serves as a tribute to the medical team that are involved in transplants around BC. The garden continued to grow as friends and neighbours heard the news about this amazing tribute. Two people, whose lives are now intertwined, are incredible advocates and ambassadors for transplants.

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