Trained Senior Peer Counsellors like Christine (right) are here to help support local seniors like Betty.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Christmas is a joyous and cherished family and friends time of elation and celebration as folk gather together to share gifts, a fine meal and a sense of bonhomie.

Or so we are led to believe.  Unfortunately, for some it is a time of isolation and loneliness in which the glittering profusion of festivities only punctuates the sadness of those who are not part of all the glitz. And in no demographic is this isolation felt more profoundly than with some members of our seniors’ population.

It’s in dealing with the wants and needs of this element of society that Comox Valley Senior Peer Counselling (CVSPC) comes into the mix and works diligently to bring some deserved Christmas cheer to the lives of such residents of our community.

“The older you get, losses occur,” says Colleen Malek, chair of Senior Peer Counselling. “For many years of our lives we have our supports, but then people move away; our friends age, and some of them pass on.  What do you turn to?   It’s reality.  But, whom do you turn to when these life events happen?  Some people end up at a loss and they isolate.”

CVSPC was founded in 1992 as a non-profit society designed to help Valley seniors in overcoming such challenges in life as bereavement, isolation, illness, multiple losses and depression.

With CVSPC, confidential services are provided by trained, compassionate volunteers who are themselves past the age of 50.  The goal of these volunteers is to develop a relationship of trust with the client in which they provide non-judgmental emotional support in order to promote wellness and reduce social isolation.

CVSPC programs include the Visitors program, which provides weekly social visits to lonely housebound seniors, Group Outings for isolated seniors unable to drive, and  Caregiver Support Groups, which meet each month for support, education and social contact.  One group is specifically designed for Alzheimer’s and Dementia caregivers.

As well they offer respite care, where trained volunteers provide a few hours relief per week to caregivers of seniors with Alzheimer’s or dementia and individual counseling, where trained volunteers again provide guidance, support and encouragement to seniors facing challenges in their lives.  This is not professional counseling, nor does it replace it.

As far as gender disparities are concerned at this stage of life, Malek says that women are usually better off than men in terms of relationships in later life, and this often results in men being left in the lurch, in the case of couples, if the wife predeceases the husband.

“Women make the social arrangements for the most part, and they have done so for decades throughout the marriage” she says.  “So if the woman dies first the grieving husbands have never really learned how to reach out.  They (the widowers) too often end up turning inward and isolating.”

A very poignant time in this regard is the Yuletide season.  And in that context the CVSPC attempts to bring some light to what should be a joyous season, but is often a huge challenge for seniors—much as it often is for other groups in society.

As far as Christmas is concerned CVSPC arranges outings and various other programs with a seasonal flavor. They take members out to look at Christmas lights and to hear the children’s choir.  Christmas, Malek says, is a time many people find difficult—not just seniors.  But, in the case of seniors the problems can be exacerbated by age and loneliness.

“We try to offer a number of seasonal things,” she says.  “And, as we’re a non-profit much of what we’re able to do depends on the money available.  But it doesn’t need to be elaborate in order to address the need in somebody.  Sometimes it takes something just as simple as a phone call.  Sometimes the person just needs someone to speak to in order to get them thinking in a different way.”

The problem with Christmas, she says, is that there is a huge emotional buildup leading to the day, and then when the 25th arrives, everything closes down and for those who are isolated, this only punctuates their aloneness.

That said, clients of CVSPC can anticipate a special Christmas dinner, albeit not on Christmas Day, and they are booked to hear the Children’s Choir, as well as other seasonal offerings.

And the volunteers are also remembered at Christmas for their tireless efforts.  For them there will be a special luncheon at Crown Isle held in the Christmas season, and for which Crown Isle pays half the cost in recognition of the work that the volunteers do in the community.

The volunteers in CVSPC (whom Malek cites as “wonderful”) regularly do extra for their clients at Christmastime.  At the same time, they are ever-vigilant in not encouraging dependency on the part of a client.  Indeed, the discouragement of dependency is a basic credo of the organization in all their dealings.

“Individual peer support is offered,” she says.  “This is designed to show means of enhancing quality of life, with the idea being that ‘you’ (the client) can change what you do with what is left for you. Ultimately the client is encouraged to move in the direction of being empowered to take action.  The goal is to encourage independence and to not have the volunteer peer counsellor in effect ‘stuck with’ a client.  We try to encourage the attitude that life is a journey not of losses but of change, and acceptance of new realities allows change to take place.”

Of course there are complications in their dealings with seniors, Malek readily concedes.  “There are some clients on the road to dementia and they won’t get better,” she says.  “I had one client who went that route and I simply carried on as an advocate for her even after she moved into a facility.  She seemed to value the tie because she had nobody else.”

While some clients continue to live fulfilling lives well into their 90s, others deteriorate at an earlier stage.  In those cases they are sometimes victims of their genetics, but Malek also firmly believes that attitude plays a major role and volunteer counsellors work diligently to encourage attitude shifts.

“We work to empower,” she says.  “We want to encourage the client to realize that hey, I can do these things.  I don’t need to depend on somebody else to do them for me.”

Malek believes the function of what they do is invaluable in the community and is becoming increasingly vital as the population of the community ages.  She regards the organization is being an aspect of overall health care.

“I’ll give you an example of a reality for an older person,” she says.  “The older person, due to age, loses a driver’s licence.  He or she is left looking at four walls, with little ability to get out and about.  With no outside stimulus they end up getting depressed. This costs the health care system.  Yet, just one outing a week can make a huge difference to that person’s quality of life.”

So, the role of the peer counselor is to have the client realize that even though a change has taken place—the loss of the ability to drive and being left having to rely either on friends or public transit—life can still go on at a quality level.  Adjustments must be made and the counselor must diligently move the client away from turning inward and isolating.

So, outings are set up.  Outings to see Christmas-themed events like the ones mentioned, or outings for shopping.

Meanwhile, Malek is unstinting in her praises for the dynamic and dedicated nature of the CVSPC board through the years.  It has consistently been the glue that has held it all together.

“Without the board there would simply be no society,” she says.  “But, we need people to assume board positions.  We have voids that must be filled if we are to continue as we have been.  We’re looking forward to a new chair and the board definitely needs new blood.”

In that regard Malek, as current chair, notes that she is planning on stepping down as chair, having served the organization for many years.

“The society is rebuilding from the ground up,” she says.  “It’s an exciting time.  With change comes growth.”

For more information about Senior Peer Counselling, and especially if you are interested in volunteering, please contact them at 250-890-0099, or www.cvspc.wordpress.com

“The plants are the catalyst by which healing happens,” says Horticultural Therapist Lisa Hamilton.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

But there is a therapeutic field (no pun intended) that takes healing out of the clinics and hospitals and into the garden.  A field where the healing properties of dirt are embraced.  Known as Horticultural Therapy (HT), this little-known but widely-practiced treatment harnesses the power of the garden for healing.

HT is used around the world to help a huge range of people—veterans dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress-Disorder, physically and mentally challenged children and adults, survivors of sexual abuse, the terminally ill, and people with brain injuries.

Most gardeners will tell you that gardening is therapeutic—physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.  HT draws on this potential by having a trained Horticulture Therapist design and facilitate programs specifically around a client’s needs.  HT activities encompass everything to do with the garden, from sowing to weeding and watering to harvesting and using the harvest in many different ways, as well as the simple power of just enjoying a garden’s beauty.

“The plants are the catalyst by which healing happens,” says Courtenay resident Lisa Hamilton, a certified Horticultural Therapist.  Hamilton recently graduated with an HT diploma from Vancouver Island University (VIU), which runs the only HT program in Canada west of Ontario.

Hamilton has joined forces with Chanchal Cabrera, another Horticultural Therapist, Master Gardener, medical herbalist, and the founder of Gardens Without Borders (GWB), a new Comox Valley non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and providing Horticulture Therapy locally and, eventually, globally.

These two women are a perfect fit.  When Hamilton graduated last spring, she was faced with the challenging prospect of carving out a path as one of the first certified HTs in the Comox Valley.  Cabrera was just in the early stages of founding Gardens Without Borders and needed support.  It was a natural step for Hamilton to join GWB, helping with all aspects of founding and running a non-profit, as well as coming on board as a working Horticultural Therapist.

For Cabrera, GWB is in many ways an evolution of the work and training she has done over the past 20 years.

“I’ve been a medical herbalist all my working life,” says Cabrera.  With a Masters in Science in Herbal Medicine, she works as a clinician, treating patients much as a Naturopath does, and also an educator, teaching herbal medicine at institutions and to the general public.  She has also been an avid gardener her whole life and qualified as a Master Gardener in 1999.

Cabrera first encountered Horticultural Therapy while browsing at Vancouver’s Banyen Books.  Intrigued by the title, she picked up a book called The Healing Fields, by Sonja Linden and Jenny Grut.  This account of using HT to treat refugees and victims of torture moved her deeply.  “It was a real ‘aha’ moment,” she says.  “I’d been gardening and working as a healer for years, and never realized there was a discipline that put these two together.”

At that time the VIU program didn’t exist, but there was an excellent HT educational centre in the Cowichan Valley called Providence Farm.  Cabrera, originally from Scotland and living in Vancouver since 1988, enrolled in their linking program for students who already have a relevant professional background.  A one-month “extremely full-time” program qualified her as an HT.

When the idea for Gardens Without Borders first came to Cabrera, the focus was international, but as it turned out the first step involved putting down roots in local soil.

“I dreamed up Gardens Without Borders out of a sense of outrage, to be honest,” Cabrera explains.  “I was reading about what was going on in Palestine.  Here was a fourth generation born and raised and probably going to die in refugee camps.  Olive groves destroyed, farms destroyed, people’s capacity to grow food and medicine destroyed.  People’s roots literally torn up.  It made my blood boil.

“So my initial idea was to go to places where trauma has occurred and help set up gardens there to grow food and medicinal plants.  But it became apparent really quickly that there was a need right here, and I thought I should learn more before landing in a foreign country and just being a nuisance,” says Cabrera.

About five years ago Cabrera and her husband bought land in Royston and founded Innisfree Farms as a multi-purpose agricultural centre, growing and marketing produce and medicinal plants, running courses, hosting the Comox Valley Seed Savers, and providing a home base for Gardens Without Borders.

The garden at Innisfree is designed specifically for therapeutic purposes.  There are raised beds which are accessible to people with impaired mobility.  For people with vision limitations, there are many tactile and scented plants and a water feature so they can hear where they are to help stay oriented.  Also, the garden is contained, which provides a feeling of safety and also ensures that clients can’t wander off across the fields.

GWB started offering Horticulture Therapy at Innisfree about a year ago.  Programs are custom-designed.  Hamilton conducts a thorough initial consultation with clients and, if appropriate, their caregivers, assessing needs, limitations and goals.  She then designs activities for each session.

Hamilton says that HT involves less actual gardening than most people imagine.  Success is not measured in rows planted, weeded or harvested, but rather by improvements to the client’s well-being.

Clients range greatly in their abilities and needs and the HT’s job is to find a balance between what clients can do, what they want to do, and what will be most therapeutic.

“If we have someone with severe Down Syndrome, we need to figure out how they can benefit.  How do we know what’s good for them?  They may not have language skills but they do communicate.  We can tell they like having their hands in the dirt.”

“The program is very flexible and ultimately depends on the weather and how the client is doing on that day,” Hamilton says.  “It could just be walking in the garden.  It could be creating a tea-cup garden that they can take home or give to someone, or a craft such as making pressed flower cards.  It could be photographing the flowers, feeding the chickens, or walking the labyrinth.

On the other hand, there are plenty of instances where HT involves full-on gardening and farming activities.

Sessions at the farm include lunch, which the clients help prepare and serve.  This adds a social element and provides opportunities to learn cooperation, communication and planning.

Because GWB is a non-profit society, it keeps its fees very low—just $15 for a three-hour session including lunch.  Clients have a variety of funding sources and Hamilton is trained to make formal reports on the HT sessions for funding authorities when needed.  As well, GWB offers group programs, such as a recent afternoon session with women from the Comox Valley Transition Society.

There are countless ways that gardens can be therapeutic.  “Physical agility and dexterity happen.  People learn skills that could help them get a job, so there’s a vocational training element.  And there’s also a huge emotional and spiritual healing,” says Cabrera.

There’s plenty of research proving that access to nature is therapeutic.

“Just breathing dirt helps calm anxiety,” says Hamilton.  “There was actually a study done measuring this with children with ADD.”

“And there was an article in [British journal] The Lancet looking at what factors influence health in inner city populations,” says Cabrera.  “The single most important criterion was access to green space.  It trumped income and education.

“And here’s another interesting one: they compared two groups of people who’d just had gall bladder surgery.  One could see green space from their room, the other faced a brick wall.  The ones who could see nature had, overall, a quicker release, needed fewer pain medications, and had fewer complications.  Just from seeing nature!”

Science is just confirming what writers and artists have been telling us for centuries.  From Van Gogh’s radiant sunflowers to the children’s classic, The Secret Garden, where a broken family is healed through the magic of a garden, our culture has always reflected on nature’s healing powers.

In fact, Horticulture Therapy has been around in various forms since long ago; it just wasn’t given that name.  In Ancient Egypt, physicians prescribed “walks in the garden” to aid in the recovery of their patients.  In Europe and America, throughout the 1700s and 1800s, it was a common practice to have people with mental health challenges work at farms and gardens to treat their symptoms.  In the 20th Century, after WWI, therapy gardens were founded across the United States at veterans’ hospitals to help returning soldiers heal their physical and emotional wounds.

Today, you can find therapy gardens at prisons, psychiatric hospitals, schools, and residential care facilities.

It’s hard to pin down the exact moment HT was launched as a formal discipline.  Some would say it was in 1955, when Michigan State University created its first Masters of Science degree in HT.  In 1973, the American Horticulture Therapy Association was founded, and in 1987 its Canadian counterpart came into being.  HT is also widespread throughout Europe, especially Germany and England.

No one has an exact count of Horticultural Therapists, but the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association has 175 members.  The discipline has strong roots in BC, thanks largely to Providence Farm, which has been offering HT programs since 1979.  It was the founder of this program, Christine Pollard, who launched the VIU program Hamilton attended.

To become a certified HT, Hamilton attended the university full-time for two years, combining horticultural studies and education in community support work.  Training ranged from the technical, such as how to design and build gardens that are accessible for people with disabilities, to interpersonal, such as how to develop an effective therapeutic relationship.  Although she has many of the skills of a traditional therapist, Hamilton sees her role as more of a facilitator.  “I don’t try to steer the clients to any sort of rehabilitative solution; the clients themselves hold the key to their own healing.”  Ultimately, she says, it is the relationship with the plants that brings healing.

“Being with plants speaks to something non-verbal in us.  People who’ve been traumatized often find a very deep sense of peace from sitting in a garden, walking in the woods, or digging,” says Cabrera.

“And there are so many ways gardens provide metaphors for our lives.  Think about composting.  You discard all the bits you don’t want, that don’t work for you.  But then you have to turn it regularly, and although it’s stinky and ugly, you have to see it, work it, poke at it till it transforms into black gold.  Out of that, something nourishing and beautiful will grow.”

Although HT focuses on bringing healing to specific people, there is a wider relevance to the whole endeavour.  As our world becomes ever more mechanized and our reality ever more virtual, our need to reconnect with nature grows more and more urgent.  You could argue that human society itself needs some Horticultural Therapy.

In fact, Cabrera points out, Nature Deficit Disorder is increasingly recognized as a problem affecting our health as individuals and communities.  Richard Louv, who popularized this term in his book, Last Child in the Woods, links the lack of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation to disturbing childhood trends, such as the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.  His book has helped galvanize a “no child left inside” movement aimed at getting kids back outside.

Louv emphasizes that Nature Deficit Disorder is not an individual affliction but rather a social disorder.  We can see society’s desire to reconnect with nature expressed in everything from the rising popularity of farmer’s markets to the hit film Avatar.

In a society afflicted by Nature Deficit Disorder, the garden increasingly seems like the perfect setting for healing.  Clearly, the time is right for Horticultural Therapy and for Gardens Without Borders.

“People are so hungry for a relationship with plants,” says Cabrera.

For more information about Gardens Without Borders visit: www.gardenswithoutborders.org

“Our main focus here is to help people with mild to moderate health conditions get well,” says Ania Kastashchuk, who operates Fresh Start with her husband Vasili. “These are serious programs. We’re not a spa.”

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

It all started when Ania was pregnant with their oldest child in Lacombe, Alberta.

“A week before our son was born my husband got whooping cough for the second time in his life,” says Ania.

The couple was immediately prescribed antibiotics and told Vasili would need to stay away from the baby for a while.  The antibiotics would make Vasili safe to the general public, but would not kill off all of the bacteria that causes whooping cough.  His body would eventually do that itself.  Until then, their baby could catch the bacterial infection from him.

“We did our research and learned that in nine out of 10 cases if a newborn baby gets whooping cough they’ll die because they don’t have well enough developed lungs to cough up the phlegm,” says Ania.

Without any other family nearby—both Ania and Vasili came to Canada from Belarus as students—the new family was faced with a dilemma: leave Ania on her own to care for the new baby and delay bonding as a family, or put their newborn baby at risk of catching a potentially fatal illness.

It wasn’t a choice either Ania or Vasili were happy with.  “It was a wake-up call for us,” says Ania. “We wanted to do something about our health.”

They also needed a place for Vasili to recover away from the baby.  Together, they decided Vasili would participate in a 10-day total body cleansing retreat at the Abundant Life Wellness Centre in Lavoy, Alberta.  The couple hoped the program’s emphasis on finding the cause of illness rather than treating the symptoms would not only heal Vasili, but help them understand how he caught whooping cough twice.

“That was supposed to be impossible,” says Ania.  “He was supposed to have immunity.”

The retreat was a turning point for Vasili, who changed his whole perspective on health and lifestyle.

“He came home a changed man,” says Ania.  “We changed our eating habits and became much healthier.”  The family began to live a simple natural health philosophy of healing from the inside out, by paying attention to what they put in and on their bodies. The effect was dramatic.  Their energy levels increased, they experienced fewer common illnesses like colds, and Ania’s acne cleared.

The experience was enough to convince, Vasili, who had come to Canada for religious studies and a career in ministry, that this was what he wanted to do in life.

“I would like to help people get well,” he says.  Ania agreed.  “It changed our lives, and now we want to change the lives of others.”

Within a year, Ania and Vasili had purchased the Abundant Life Wellness Centre from the original owners, who were moving to the east coast to be closer to family.  For the next five years, they operated and grew the business out of the same 100-year-old hotel in Lavoy where Vasili had his first retreat.

“We had good programs, and good results,” says Ania.  But the facility wasn’t as conducive to healing as they would have liked—the rooms lacked many modern amenities, the grounds were small, and the winters harsh.

Ania and Vasili started to look for a new location.  Then, the family took a trip to Hollyhock on Cortes Island in 2010 and, on their way back, spent the night at Ocean Resort.  The resort’s location, and its focus on spirituality and conscious health, proved to be an inspiration.

“I said, ‘I don’t know how, but we’re going to be here’,” recalls Ania.  “This is the perfect place for our retreat.  Tremendous facilities, brightly lit rooms, large meeting rooms, the ocean…  It’s just perfect for Fresh Start.”

Vasili and Ania approached Ocean Resort owner Lucas Stiefvater with their idea, and over a period of two months, rewrote their business plan, rebranded the business as Fresh Start, packed up home and business, moved from Alberta to BC, hired staff and re-launched their programs. The result is an eco-friendly, natural health, healing place for individuals wanting to increase their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, all in a spectacular west coast setting.

Fresh Start specializes in five, 10 and 14-day health restoration programs using whole body detoxification (intestinal, liver, gall bladder and blood cleanse) and a focus on digestive health.  The programs integrate detoxification and cellular nourishment with organic raw vegan cuisine and fresh juices, lifestyle education, emotional health workshops, infrared sauna treatments, exercise, steam bath, colon hydrotherapy, massage and other health spa services.

On staff are a naturopathic doctor, registered acupuncturist, registered massage therapist, reiki master, massage and reflexology practitioner, colon hydrotherapist, acupressurist and yoga instructor, in addition to a chef and other support staff.

“Our main focus here is to help people with mild to moderate health conditions get well,” says Ania.  “These are serious programs.  They are well structured and well organized.  It’s not a boot camp, it’s not a spa, it’s not a medical facility.  It’s a place where people come to get well with natural means.”

Participants go through a rigorous pre-screening process, and typically complete a 30-day protocol before arriving to help them prepare for detoxification.  All participants receive personalized treatment.

“I’m often concerned people perceive us as a spa,” says Vasili.  “We’re not a spa.  People come here to be naturally, gradually improving their health.  They aren’t coming here for the pampering.

“It is intense,” he adds.  “People who need a hospital aren’t right for this program.”

Of the people who do come, it’s “because they want a fresh start,” says Ania, hinting at where they got the new name for their program.  “They are sick and tired of being sick and tired, and they want to jump start a healthy lifestyle.”

And it’s that commitment to improving health that gets participants their results.

“People often ask me, ‘Why does it work?’” says Vasili.  “The secret to the program is quite simple.  We follow common sense health rules.  When you put the body in an environment where it can heal itself and get rid of the substances that prevent healing and you empower the body with substances that actually empower healing, the body does the rest.  It’s a self-healing mechanism”

Adds Ania:  “We have a saying here—‘in finding the cause, you find the cure.’”

With that in mind, education makes up a large part of the program.  “Education is a huge part of the program,” says Vasili.  “Yes the cleanse does what it’s supposed to, but without education there is no understanding or follow through.”

That education helps Fresh Start participants connect some important dots.  “You don’t learn anything new here,” says Vasili.

Ania agrees.  “Everyone knows fruits and vegetables are good for you,” she says.  “Nobody is going to argue with that.  The question is why don’t we eat them?”

“So when the participants taste our food and say, ‘Boy, it can be that good?  And it’s that simple to prepare?’  Dots connected,” says Vasili.

Ultimately, Fresh Start strives to give its clients the knowledge and experience necessary to improve their own health through high-quality natural health service.  The program is a living example of what a conscious choice to pursue health can do for anyone.

“It’s motivation and inspiration,” says Ania.  “Many of the people who come here have been searching for so long for an answer to their health conditions.  Why do I have this? What can I do to heal this?  Here are some answers.”

Looking back, Ania says of their journey: “I would say somehow we were drawn into it.  I don’t even think we chose that.  It just happened.  It wasn’t something we were dreaming about or we were planning for years.  But if I look back, I don’t regret anything that happened.  Because right now we both know what we want in life, and we make a difference in lives and we’re very focused.”

For more information about Fresh Start visit: www.healthretreat.ca.

Resident Bernice Loudfoot takes part in a “Better Balance” class at the Views.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

The Views at St Joseph’s contains two wings: Eagleview with 75 residents with varied care needs and Oceanview, with 50 residents who generally have higher care needs. Eagleview was opened in 1982 and Oceanview followed 11 years later in 1993.

Jill Nelson, a rehab assistant and one of my tour guides, explains why the name the Views better suits what used to simply be known as the Extended Care Unit: “That was very clinical—when you walk around you see the view of the eagles and the ocean. It feels almost like you’re on a cruise ship. You’re on top of the water here, it is really quite beautiful.”

To orient me to the Views and the care provided there, I met with Brenda Phillips, Director of Resident Lifestyles and Community Programs, Maggie Ziegler, Director of Residential Services, Chaplain Brian Ducedre and Nelson from Therapy Services. We discussed the changing nature of what used to be called extended care. What is the difference I wondered between the two words, extended and complex, when it relates to health care?

“Complex care is fairly new terminology,” says Maggie Ziegler. “It means that the people that live here have a variety of health problems or inability to meet their own needs in their own activities of daily living so they require assistance on different levels. More assistance than what they would need to be able to live in their own home or in the community in an assisted living type of facility. People in complex care require more intensive nursing interventions on an around-the clock-basis.”

Brenda Phillips elaborates on new trends in seniors care needs: “People that are coming to live in complex care facilities; the acuity level is much higher. People are being managed in the communities, by families, by home community care for a longer period of time. So by the time this person does come to live in a complex care facility truly their medical needs are complex and their care requirements are complex and they need that whole 24 hour care.”

Adds Brian Ducedre: “Living in your own home is always the highest want. But, we try to provide that home experience when that choice is no longer there. We can provide the nearest thing to that. And we can assist residents and families as they are grieving and going through this change in their lives.”

Phillips agrees: “It is often a difficult choice for families or the resident to make; that this is the care that they require. And they can come in with a sort of sense of loss of independence, loss of freedom. That’s quickly turned around because there are so many choices and so much going on.”

The staff must work with each person to tailor their care to their needs. “The care is resident focused, based on what that resident’s identified goals are,” says Ziegler. “It’s very much about finding a balance between their physical needs, social concerns, spiritual needs and emotional wellness.”

“We try to encourage them to live the life that they would have had at home,” adds Phillips. “So, maintaining their relationships with family, also getting out in the community. We have a bus that goes out and there are various outings to restaurants and so on. Also continuing hobbies that they used to do, and having that continue here and putting in place the resources and volunteer support and staff to have that continue on. Computer skills are another one that is up and coming. So we now have communication with families through Skype and email. And we’re getting more people who want to do that.”

Sixty-five per cent of the residents at the Views are active and can either walk or mobilize themselves in a wheelchair. “We have healthier seniors now than we did before,” says Nelson. “So they’re now coming to us for whatever reason that they cannot live alone, and they are more active.”

In order to meet those needs the Views offers a long list of programs that include better balance, walking, swimming, chair exercise, tai chi, healing touch, gardening, and Swiss ball therapy. “I think in the whole culture of care there’s greater emphasis on activation and maintaining levels of physical functioning rather than just maybe accepting that that is a natural part of aging to lose your physical abilities. The culture of care is very much changing to staying active and keeping muscle function and keeping core strength and stability and keeping those things for as long as that person can,” Ziegler explains.

All that increased resident activity has created a need for more space for exercise programs. A fundraising campaign is currently underway to raise $200,000 for the PARC at the Views, the Physical Activation and Recreation Centre. The goal is to raise the funds for the renovation by next spring. So far residents, staff and volunteers have raised $70,000 through such innovative activities as the recent Stroll-a-thon, which brought in just over $3,000. The next event will be a Fashion for Fitness show on October 6. The St. Joseph’s General Hospital Foundation is also fundraising for the PARC project through its “Buy-a-Brick” campaign. Donors can honor loved ones or simply have their names placed on a brick in the donor wall. The donor wall is located in the Views and features a beautiful mural created by local artist Kelly Everill.

Resident Bernice Loudfoot underlines the importance of the expanded facilities when she explains what she does on an average day? “There are exercises and I have to do my exercises every day.”

Loudfoot worked in health care for 20 years and knows good care when she sees it. The native of New Brunswick had two bouts of pneumonia last winter and says “they couldn’t have treated me any better. They were grand to me.” While exercise is a main focus for her day, bingo is her favorite activity and reading is her passion. She says she likes to read “anything I can get my hands on” and that is how she likes to keep busy, but “there’s lots to keep you busy here, if you want to be busy you can be busy all day.”

Out in the garden Roy Benson is busy deadheading one of the roses he planted this spring. Benson has lived at the Views for eight months. The roses were a gift from his wife and he was very pleased to be able to plant them in the garden. I asked Benson if he likes living at the Views. “Surprisingly I do,” he says. “I didn’t think I would. They treat you very very nice. You don’t have to worry about anything.”

The third resident I spoke to, Anne Wilde, has been a resident for 12 years. Born in Holland, Wilde moved to Canada in 1948 and has lived in the Valley since 1971. Asked how she likes living at the Views, she says: “I’m quite satisfied. I don’t have to cook, I don’t have to bake, I just sleep and eat. Plus playing cards, going places, doing things. I’m very happy here.” Wilde’s schedule includes swimming, greeting newcomers, and working on the Café Esperanza project.

Café Esperanza has been run every Friday for the last three years to raise money to support training of nurses and doctors in Nicaragua. The residents volunteer to sell baked goods and fair trade coffee in the Views and also take a coffee cart throughout the hospital. “There are two ladies that do the baking, another man goes upstairs to sell, I sell down here, so it’s a foursome, more or less,” says Wilde. “It makes me feel very good because I feel I do something.”

So far the Café has raised nearly $20,000. Ducedre describes the added benefits of the project: “It not only encourages the residents to live full lives here but shows how they can contribute to not only the Comox Valley community, but also across the world. So it really empowers them to use all their gifts, their talents and their abilities.”

Wilde also enjoys visits from volunteers and their dogs. On this particular day she is accompanied by volunteer John Patrick and his dog Ginny. Someone who has always had animal companions, Wilde tells me she has “quite a few four legged friends at the Views.”

John Patrick is a retired civil engineer who has lived in the Comox Valley for 35 years. He has been volunteering at the Views for the last eight years, helping residents go on outings, playing cards and, in the last five years, he has been accompanied by Ginny. “I usually walk the dog three or four times a week and I’ll walk through,” he says. “And if Annie is free to play cards, or some of the others, I’ll do that. On Saturdays I come specifically to play cards with Annie and a couple of the other residents.”

Patrick also donates his time to the Hospital Foundation. As a Foundation Director he enjoys helping to raise funds. He notes the important difference improvements such as the PARC Project can make: “I think it’s great. I know the exercise area that they use there now is a little cramped. With that additional space they could have more equipment and certainly more room and I think probably more residents would participate too.”

Volunteers like Patrick play a big part in making the Views a warm and vibrant place. “We depend hugely on our volunteers and our community is very generous with their time and coming in and helping us out,” says Ducedre.

There are 125 volunteers who help directly with resident activities or behind the scenes in such roles as volunteer recruitment and computer work. Many community groups visit regularly, such as the St. Johns Ambulance pet therapy program, the Kiwanis offer special pancake breakfasts, the Old Time Fiddlers and the Valley Echos provide entertainment, 888 Wing assists with BBQs and the horticultural society helps maintain the gardens.

Fourteen to 18 year olds are included in a youth volunteer program. Many of the youth volunteers have participated in the Grandbuddy program in previous years. The current Grandbuddy program pairs residents with Aspen Elementary Grade 5 and 6 students. This intergenerational program is popular with the residents and obviously has a significant impact on the student participants. “It’s interesting now because we are getting youth volunteers who used to be Grandbuddies,” says Ziegler. “And now we’re getting first year nursing students who used to be Grandbuddies coming back. So it is kind of neat to see how the relationships are continuing.”

There are many ways to conclude this snapshot of what life is like at the Views, but Anne Wilde sums it up best: “I’m really satisfied. It took me about a year to get used to living here and sitting in a wheelchair. But I got used to it.”

When asked if she had to make a lot of adjustments, she replies: “Oh yeah, I think everybody does. When you first come here and you have been in your home and you have done your own things and suddenly you’re stuck. You sit. And that wasn’t very easy to just sit. But I got used to that too.”

When it is pointed out to her that it doesn’t look like she sits still very much she laughs, and replies: “No, I haven’t got time for that!”

The Comox Valley Child Development Association has been an invaluable resource to local couple Rick and Jay Doberstein, whose eight-year-old son, Max, has a severe form of cerebral palsy.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

A Grade four student at Miracle Beach Elementary School, Max says his preferred subjects are math and music.  His favorite thing to do is to ride on the tractor with his father, Rick, to ‘help’ spread manure on the family’s Black Creek dairy farm.  The thought of this makes him grin.  He smiles from ear to ear when there is any mention of anything to do with bodily functions.  He tells me his favorite joke… it mentions ‘chicken poo’… and he giggles with infectious glee.  (It must be a boy thing.)

I learn all of this from Max’s mother, Jay Doberstein.  Although Max tries hard to verbally communicate, he can’t speak clearly.  Nor can he voluntarily move his head or any of his limbs.  The day I meet Max his mom acts as both his interpreter and, quite literally, his physical support.  Max has asked her to take him out of his wheelchair to hold him.  He’s growing up to be a big boy but he still finds comfort cradled in her arms.  When he asks what time it is she lovingly places a hand on each side of his head to support him and turns so he can check the clock.

“Max has one of the most severe forms of cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that permanently affects body movement and muscle coordination,” explains Jay.  “Max is a quadriplegic.”

She tells me all of this as a matter of fact, much like other moms might say “Matthew is a soccer player” or “Johnny likes to fish.”  For Jay and Rick, eldest sister Sasha, 20, sister Hayley, 18, and brothers Drew, 14, and Chad, 11, as well as their extended family and friends, Max’s condition is just that—a matter of fact.

Cerebral palsy (CP), Jay explains, is caused by abnormalities in parts of the brain that control the muscle movements.  The majority of children living with CP—like Max—are born with the disorder, although it can also be caused by brain injury or infection.  His condition will not worsen over time but, at present, there is no cure.

Despite the Doberstein’s intuition that something was wrong with Max soon after he was born, their baby was nine months old before they received this diagnosis.  Needless to say, it rocked their world.

The family is sharing Max’s story to help people understand how challenging it is to have—and be—a child with special needs.  But there are organizations out there who lend an invaluable hand.  One of these is the Comox Valley Child Development Association (CVCDA).  The Dobersteins, along with other families in the region, express a great depth of gratitude for the people and the resources available to them from the CVCDA.

The CVCDA is a non-profit society that has served children who need extra support for more than 36 years.  In addition to the Comox Valley, the geographic area served by the CVCDA ranges from Oyster River south to Mud Bay, and includes Denman and Hornby Islands.

Operating out of their premises in Downtown Courtenay, CVCDA programs for children and youth include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, supported child development, infant development and community integration.  Four new services have been added in the past six years—an autism program, a youth project focused on helping young adults who have life-long disabilities, the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren support group (in partnership with the Comox Valley Transition Society) and JumpStart Preschool (in partnership with School District 71).

The CVCDA is a non-profit society governed by a volunteer board of directors comprised of individuals from local businesses, municipal governments, service organizations and parents.  The board is actively engaged in advocacy and fundraising, particularly the annual Children’s Telethon, which has taken place the first Sunday in November for the last 34 years.  This year’s event is November 7.

“We are continually seeking community support,” says CVCDA Executive Director Lorraine Aitken, at their offices in Courtenay. Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Prior to 2002, Jay and Rick Doberstein had heard about the CVCDA’s Annual Telethon, but they knew very little about any the above-mentioned services and programs offered by the association.  Why would they?  They had four healthy children and were excited about the pending birth of their fifth child.  Much to their alarm, on December 17, 2001, Max was delivered 16 weeks premature.  He spent the first four months of his life at the BC Children’s Hospital.  Jay and her then three-year-old son, Chad, stayed in an apartment funded by YANA in Vancouver during this time.  Rick commuted between Black Creek and Vancouver every weekend, while continuing to oversee the older kids’ school schedules and the chores on the dairy farm.  Friends and family helped get them through this difficult time.

Four months later, Max came home from the hospital on what would have been his due date.  He was a frail little baby, hooked up to oxygen while his tiny lungs matured.  The Dobersteins were welcomed home by their loving family and an unexpected phone message.  “We want you to know that we are here for you,” a support worker from the CVCDA said.  “When can we come to see you?  We can help.”

For the Dobersteins, that was the day the CVCDA stopped being just another community association and transformed into a support network of kind and caring individuals.

From regular visits and physiotherapy sessions for Max to respite care and emotional support for his parents and siblings, to guidance and information on how to secure government grants for much-needed renovations to their home to accommodate Max’s special needs, the CVCDA was there for the Dobersteins as promised.  And, even though Max has “aged out” of many of the programs available to him through this organization, the staff has kept in touch with the family and continue to share information about new resources with them.  Jay is so indebted to the association that she now serves on their community advisory committee.

Last February, the Doberstein family was faced with another life-altering experience.  Their daughter Hayley, then 17, had been in a horrific single car accident.  Severe head trauma had put her in a coma. For the second time in eight years the family held a bedside vigil—this time at a hospital in Victoria. They prayed for their daughter’s recovery and asked for a miracle, despite the medical team’s advice to prepare for the worst.

And, for the second time in eight years, the people of the Comox Valley rallied around the family to enable Rick and Jay to be at Hayley’s bedside during those first critical weeks.  Amongst this network of support were individuals from the Child Development Association, who were there immediately to support the Dobersteins in any way they could.  Thankfully, Hayley is now back at home, still recovering from her ordeal, but recovering never the less.

According to the Dobersteins, the Child Development Association provides an amazing service to families, like them, who are in need of extraordinary community support.  At present, the association is working with more than 360 individual children in the Comox Valley and beyond.  Over the past 36 years they have helped countless thousands of kids and their families.  Obviously, securing funding for these programs is a tremendous responsibility.

“As is the case with most charitable organizations,” explains executive director Lorraine Aitken, “we are continually seeking community support.  Our programs and services are funded about 95 per cent through contracts with the government, notably the Ministry of Children and Family Development.  Our fundraising efforts for the remaining five per cent, however, supplements and enhances existing revenue and helps us purchase new equipment and supplies, maintain our facility and upgrade our therapeutic lending library.  That extra five per cent may seem insignificant, but it makes a huge difference in what we can do for the children.”

An annual telethon is their major fundraising activity.  This 100 per cent volunteer-run event features a live telecast staged at the Old Church Theatre on Harmston Avenue in Courtenay.  It runs from 12 noon to 8:00 pm on Shaw Community Television.

The CVCDA is eternally grateful that Shaw Television has embraced the concept of the Telethon for 35 years by providing the equipment, technicians and airtime at no cost.  Aitken says that Shaw’s program director, Gord Darby, and his team are amazing to work with.  It is important to note that this annual event is one of the last ongoing live —not pre-recorded—telethons in North America.

Ensuring eight hours of non-stop live entertainment falls into the capable hands of volunteer talent coordinator Edwin Grieve.  He spends months organizing a seemingly never-ending stream of local talent—some famous and some up-and-coming stars.  This includes singers, dancers, acrobats, storytellers, musicians, actors, artists and more.  All donate their talent, energy and time to support the work of the association.

Spectators are encouraged to drop by the Old Church Theatre to watch the performances throughout the entire broadcast.  There is no admission fee but it is appreciated if you can bring a handful of toonies and loonies and/or your chequebook to support this worthy cause.  Donations can be made in person or on the phone.  “And, if the technology gods work with us,” says Aitken with a smile, “we will have online donations for the first time also.”

Individuals, businesses and service organizations are invited to participate in the Telethon either by volunteering or by holding their own fund-raising activities and donating the proceeds to the CVCDA. There are plenty of volunteer roles to fill and new volunteers are always welcome.

“It is also important to note that we would not be here today without the on-going support of our local service clubs such as Rotary, Lions, Elks and many others,” adds Aitken.  “In addition to supporting our programs with donations throughout the year, members of the various service clubs answer the phones for the Telethon.”

Over the past 34 years the Telethon has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help local families. Two years ago was a record-breaker with more $100,000 in donations.  Recognizing the ups and downs of the economy, the association doesn’t put pressure on the community by setting a specific target each year.  This year, however, in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the event, they are hopeful for another banner event.

Kenny Shaw is one of the volunteers who will do everything in his power to help make this year’s telethon the best ever.  This local musician and comedian, who considers himself a “Career Master of Ceremonies” has been the event host for more than 25 years.

“I have been involved in global efforts to raise money for charity,” says Shaw, “and even though they were all important causes, I didn’t feel the community connection like I do with this telethon.  It feels good to see the results of our efforts directly benefiting kids in this community.”

Pam Crowe, president of CVCDA and telethon coordinator, has been volunteering for the event for 30 years.  “Volunteering for this organization fulfills something inside of me,” says Crowe.  “I get back more than I put in.  I believe that grassroots initiatives like the Child Development Association are what make the Comox Valley a great place to live and make a genuine difference in the lives of children and families here.  I have a deep respect for the families we serve and for the professionals that work with them.”

Adds Aitken:  “I think that we, as a society, are making huge progress when it comes to caring for kids with special needs.  We are able to support kids living at home and being a part of the community.  We are able to give them the tools and skills to live a meaningful life.  That’s what it is all about.”

If you are reading this story after the Telethon on November 7, you can still show your support of the Comox Valley Child Development Association.  Donations are always welcome and are tax deductible. Visit the CVCDA at 237 3rd Street, Courtenay; call 250.338.4288 or go to www.cvcda.ca.

To volunteer for the Telethon or help the CVCDA in any capacity, contact Lorraine Aitken at 250.338.4288, or email lorraine@cvcda.ca

“I make the Bees’ Nest kind of a metaphor for recovery,” says Lise Carignan, who with partner Rod Braun, aims to help their residents get back on their feet. “Change is never easy.”

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Rather than fostering a helpless and possibly ‘wounded’ child, Lise Carignan took on a small group of metaphorically wounded adult men and gave them that haven. A haven that has, in its two-and-a-half years of existence, become a kind of metaphor for ‘safe’ recovery for a number of men. Welcome to the Bees’ Nest.

What Carignan—who is frank and honest about the fact she is a recovering alcohol abuser with a number of years of good sobriety—realized as a virtual inspiration one day during a time of quiet meditation was that if people were given the opportunity to occupy a safe, sane and sober dwelling during that perilous period of early recovery, then they might stand a much better chance of returning to the realm of productive and sane citizenry.

What she appreciated was that people coming out of a recovery facility often have no safe place to go. While the clients may have had 28-days (or more) of structured security while they travel through their first stage of recovery, there is a huge paucity of safe and inexpensive housing for these people as they move into their second stage of recovery. The lack of affordable housing in the Comox Valley (and other communities) is a grievous social ill and is yet to be solved.

Carignan, however, had a house that she was either going to move into (possibly with that foster child), or that she might rent out, or that she could use to fill that safe housing gap in her own community. Fortunately for many, she chose the latter and she, her residents and the community gained as a result of that decision.

“I offered up a prayer in which I actually asked what I should do with the house,” she says. “The foster child idea that I seriously considered was something that would enable me to help teen girls, and to maybe act as a mentor for the girls. When I think of my own teen years and how difficult they were, I know my life might have turned out differently if I’d had a strong female mentor.”

But, the idea of being a single foster parent, she came to realize, was too daunting a prospect for somebody who was working full time at a stressful job. So, from that she moved on to the idea of helping people through second stage recovery.

“I was growing in experience in my own recovery,” she says, “and I felt a sense of obligation to the community. This was especially true after the homelessness study was published and I realized how dire the problem actually was. So, here I was, sitting on a house and trying to figure out what to do with it. The answer became an obvious one.”

Carignan also candidly admits that in choosing the road that she did, it hasn’t been an ‘easy’ bit of traveling.

“But, I make the Bees’ Nest kind of a metaphor for recovery,” she says. “Change is never easy, and if they think they can come out of CVRC (Comox Valley Recovery Centre), say, and then will move into a nice and simple life, they would be wrong.”

Carignan says her goal with the Bees’ Nest is to aid the residents in getting steady on their feet.

“Stage one recovery, in a facility, is baby steps,” she says. “This isn’t to demean it, because those baby steps are vital to the process, it’s just to suggest that a person at that stage has just begun, and if he doesn’t want to do the hard stuff—and there is a lot of hard stuff—then he is going to fail. It takes guts and perseverance. But, if the person is physically in a safe place, it can make a world of difference.”

Carignan is candid about the fact she entered the Bees’ Nest venture quite oblivious to the trials and tribulations that were going to manifest. And manifest they did, with a vengeance, it seemed at the time. The first big test stemmed from something as prosaic as lousy weather and a bad drainage system in the less-than-new Courtenay house that had only recently become the Bees’ Nest.

So, the drains backed up and it was a hideous mess that ruined the flooring in the ground floor area where the residential rooms were located. She was heartsick at the mess and wondered if she’d made a grievous mistake with the venture. She was in debt and knew she had taken on an onerous, possibly even impossible, task. And those were just the physical realities of the venture and had nothing to do with the residents per se.

Just who are these ‘strangers’ she was letting take up residence on her personal property? They are males aged 19 or older who have either successfully completed chemical dependency treatment within the previous 30 days, or who have 60-plus successive days clean and sober. They must have a recovery plan in place and they must be doing all that is needed to maintain their newfound sobriety, such as attending 12-Step meetings and are totally abstinent from any and all drugs and alcohol. About this last point Carignan is adamant and unwavering.

“It’s one strike and you’re out,” she says. “You use, you lose.”

It has to be that way, she says, both for their stage two recovery, and also because any hint of use is distressing to other residents. Furthermore the residents, if they are not advancing their education, must be actively seeking employment. Added to which they must be able to participate in house activities and are responsible for their part of the rent each month.

Carignan says she thought long and hard about many aspects of bringing the Bees’ Nest into being. While she had the house, there was still to be huge costs involved with needed renovations to render it a suitable dwelling for multiple tenants. She wanted grace and comfort within, and nothing resembling depressing squalor, because too many prospective residents came from such less-than-adequate accommodations.

And then there is the unanticipated, such as the flooding and the expenses that dumped in her lap. Finally she was (at that point) going it alone and that led her to feeling a keen sense of isolation at different times. Those were the times when she wanted to just pack it in, but her resolve, her faith and her own recovery kept that from happening and she soldiered on despite adversity.

“When I started the Bees’ Nest it was similar to my experience in recovery in that I initially wanted to be invisible,” she says. “I shortly learned that would be impossible. In setting up I realized I now had a certain obligation to the community, but at the same time I couldn’t ‘not’ make mistakes. They would happen and I would have to deal with them. At least I was willing to learn.”

Carignan readily admits that it hasn’t always gone smoothly, but she suffered no delusions that it would. She knows what the recovery process, with all its pitfalls, is like.

“You bring in some people and within a couple of weeks you wish you hadn’t,” she says. “These are the ones for whom when it gets hard—and it will get hard, that’s a guarantee, especially at the beginning—they go back out. It’s frustrating and sometimes I feel like a parent who has, she thinks, created a perfect environment, so why would anybody want to reject that? But, that’s the way it works and I know that.”

And it is a pleasing environment with five comfortable and clean rooms, a good kitchen, a nice living-room lounge and meeting area replete with big screen TV, stereo and virtually anything most people would want.

To Carignan’s delight her rather solitary and frustrating quest to make this thing work to the advantage of everybody, changed much for the better. A man with whom she’d long been acquainted came into her life, not only as a partner in operating the Bees’ Nest, but also as a life partner. She couldn’t be happier about that, at many levels.

“I couldn’t be happier at the role Rod (Braun) has played in this for the last year,” she says. “Now that there is a couple running the house it gives it more credibility. Now, every Sunday evening we all, Rod and I and the residents as well, meet for Sunday dinner and to discuss what is going on in the house. We talk things out and it has made a huge difference to the operation.”

While Carignan has huge praises for Braun, she also has no small praise for her facility being in the same community as CVRC, the residential 28-day facility on Menzies Avenue in Courtenay that has long been a feature of the Comox Valley and is deserving of accolades in its own right.

With Carignan’s strict criteria for admittance to the Bees’ Nest, Comox Valley Recovery Centre’s clients are made-to-order and she says the facility has cooperated with her wants and needs in a mutually beneficial way. “I’d be dead without them,” Carignan says of CVRC. “They feel fully confident in sending people my way because they know that I follow the fundamental CVRC rule of one strike and you’re out. That’s the way it is there, and that’s the way it is with the Bees’ Nest. I must adhere to that, both because I believe it’s realistic, but also because it is essential for CVRC to trust me.”

In respect to a program that some might see as too rigid, Carignan defends the stringent standards of the Bees’ Nest. “It’s not as much about control as it is about the comfort and safety of the other residents,” she says. “If somebody is using and lying about it, it upsets the tone of the place and the other residents are often stricter than I am about this. And why not? This is their home for however long they want to make it their home. A breakdown in morale impacts everybody and then the place starts to lose credibility.”

Why Bees’ Nest? In one respect that is due to a personal bit of philosophy Carignan has adhered to for a number of years, and she figured that the metaphor worked at a few levels, so she went with it.

“The bee has long been my symbol,” she says. “It’s based on the idea that I went for a long time being a human ‘do-ing’ rather than a human ‘be-ing’. So the bee represented a transformation within me. At the same time, with the Bees’ Nest I am definitely not the Queen Bee, nor are the residents my drones.”

How long can residents stay at the facility? Carignan says that when she established the Bees’ Nest she set a cap of a year, working from the assumption that by the time a year was completed in complete sobriety and with a good recovery program, clients should be in a position to move on and let somebody new utilize the space.

Today the duration of residency depends on the circumstances. She still holds to a year if the client has secured a job.

“If you’re working, then it’s time to move on,” she says. “However, if you are upgrading your education in order to improve your employment opportunities, then you can stay longer than a year. I have one resident who has been there for two years. He’s actually a huge asset. He’s at NIC and he also has such good recovery that he can act as a mentor for new residents.”

She reiterates the fact that strict adherence to the zero tolerance of the house is the one thing that can keep the whole thing going.

“For the residents there must always be that element of trust,” she says. “It also means that former belief systems must be set aside as residents enter that new world of sobriety. In the ‘using’ world you would never rat somebody out. In the recovery world you must, or all will fall. It’s as simple as that.”

Carignan says she hates expelling a resident, but she is realistic about it. While she feels for their pain, she also is piqued by the fact that she loses the money they would have been paying to stay. After all, it is a business.

“I lose money a lot,” she says. “They relapse and I don’t get their rent. But, if they straighten out and get sober again they can return after 60 days. So they always retain the option of coming back.”

As far as money is concerned, the Bees’ Nest has been a huge investment on her part and she can only express delight in how generous the Comox Valley community has been in helping her keep the place going. The testimonial list she would like to create would be huge, she says. But, as it stands she is overwhelmed by how the community has banded together to play a part in helping to solve two serious problems—addiction and the lack of safe housing—in the Comox Valley.

In that, she cites the case of one group of businessmen who made an anonymous donation of $1,000 for the facility.

Over the two-and-a-half years of the Bees Nest help of many kinds has also been received from (in no particular order): Pilon Tool Rental, Home Depot, ReStore, the Salvation Army, Torry & Sons, AHERO, Wachiay Friendship Centre, Alano Club, Shamrock Veterinary Clinic, Comox Valley Recovery Centre, Bob (The Builder) Dehaas, Mike Claire, Tracy Forbes, Corix Water Products, Lee Gingrich and SD 71 students, Second Chance Recovery Centre, Ronni Lister (Remax), Grasshopper Graphics, Andrew Sheret Ltd., Bartle & Gibson Co., Complete Auto Care, Highland Precast, residents of the Bees’ Nest, the Comox Valley Homelessness Commission, Rod Braun, Ian Lidster, Gary and Stan Pawlak, and numerous volunteers and anonymous donors. “The Bees’ Nest wouldn’t have continued to exist without the help of all those mentioned,” Carignan says.

For more information on the Bees’ Nest project contact Lise Carignan at 250.218.1602; liselight@shaw.ca

Keane, who moved to Vancouver Island in January, has just published Wild Medicine of Coastal British Columbia, a practical guide to BC’s medicinal plants. She estimates that it is her 25th book—or thereabouts.  In fact, she’s lost count.

“I’m putting the folk back in folk medicine,” says Kahlee Keane of her research and books, such as the recently published ‘Wild Medicine of Coastal British Columbia’. “My goal is to protect bio-diversity.”

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Keane has spent more than three decades researching and writing these books, as well as teaching workshops, leading educational walks, and writing newspaper and magazine articles.

Along the way she has been renamed, honored, and royally told-off.  She’s made great friends and stood up to worthy enemies.  And she has consistently been awed at the healing powers of the plants that grow in the Earth’s wild places.

Keane’s work has taken her into communities all over North America, where she has played a number of pivotal roles: anthropologist, historian, biologist, educator and activist.  Wherever she goes, she galvanizes people to understand and appreciate the healing properties of native plants, to treasure them, and, if necessary, to campaign for their protection.

Each of Keane’s books is dedicated to the plants of a certain geographical area, as broad as the province of Ontario or a specific as Grand Manan Island, a 135-square-kilometre fishing community of 2,500 people off the coast of New Brunswick.  And each book has a different tone and structure, reflecting not just the local uniqueness of the botany but also the needs and inclinations of the locals.  Although her books are all about plants, her research very much includes people.

“Wherever I go, the first thing I do is look at the lay of the land and talk to the people who live on it.  In Newfoundland, people had lots of information and what they needed was for me to collect and publish it.  They were happy when I published their recipes.  In Ontario, there was a real lack of information, so my job was to offer what I knew,” she explains.

Her new book, she says, reflects her observation that BC is a relatively sophisticated audience for this material.  “The knowledge is already very alive here; there are lots of people teaching, learning about, and using wild medicinal plants.  So I included more detail, such as the chemical constituency of the plants.”

One thing Keane loves about her work is the connection it gives her to other cultures.

“Because this is North America, I get the chance to learn about different approaches.  For instance the Ayurvedic tradition [from India] has a huge body of knowledge.  All our different immigrant groups bring their experience and information with them.”

Keane says she is happy to trade information with different cultural groups, but she also needs to respect their autonomy.  “For instance, in some areas the First Nations people have suffered a great injury in the loss of their medicine.  But it’s not for me to replicate their traditions.  All I can do is offer what I have.”

It was a multi-cultural encounter that gave Keane her nickname, Root Woman, under which she wrote several books.  “I was researching down in Mississippi.  The people of color there have a rich folk healing tradition.  They were quite wonderful, and we all got to know each other pretty well.  One day we were out working in the soil together and they said to me, ‘We name you Root Woman.’  That’s what they call their healers.  I was so moved, I sat down and cried.”

Keane’s mission is to restore balance in the relationship between people and medicinal plants, both for the sake of the plants and for the sake of the humans.

“I’m putting the folk back in folk medicine,” she explains.  “I want people to understand that this knowledge is their birthright.  It behoves them to learn about their allies.”

It also behoves them to make sure these plants continue to grow and thrive in their natural habitat.  This is the other component of Keane’s mission.  “As an eco-herbalist, activist and conservationist, my goal is to protect bio-diversity.  My craft insists on a heightened ecological awareness and a deep respect for the living Earth,” she says.

Not everyone understands that Keane’s work aligns with environmentalist aims, she adds.  In fact, some people think she puts the plants at risk by encouraging humans to harvest them.

“Oh, I’ve been confronted pretty aggressively,” she says with a wry chuckle.  “I remember hearing a loud knock on my door one day, and I opened it to this big tall environmentalist who started in on me—‘How dare you publish this? You have to stop immediately!’ That kind of thing.

“I was actually scared of him.  But when he stopped talking long enough for me to answer, I told him: ‘I teach people to use the plants so that they respect and protect them.’  And it has always worked that way.”

The angry environmentalist did have a valid point, says Keane—medicinal wild plants are being lost due to over-picking.  But Keane says this is a result of commercial harvesting, where big companies harvest in bulk to make products they sell all around the world.  This is a far cry from what she teaches.  In her books and workshops Keane encourages small-scale wildcrafting, where individuals go into the wild to harvest plants for the use of themselves, their friends, and their families.

Wildcrafters respect the plant, and are often willing to work hard to protect it, she says.

“I’ve seen this just about everywhere I’ve worked, but it really came forward for me in Saskatchewan,” she says.  “I stayed there for 15 years, trying to save one plant—Seneca Root—which is a powerful remedy for the respiratory system.  It is also an old snake-bite remedy. The problem is, you need 250 roots to harvest a pound of it, and it takes seven years to grow one plant.”

Seneca Root was being threatened both by over-picking and loss of habitat due to development.  Keane worried it might be headed toward extinction.  She’d seen this before—for instance, with Wild Ginseng in Ontario, which, she says, is now completely gone.

“But the way to save it is to get it listed as endangered or threatened, and it is very, very hard to do that. You need to count it and monitor it, which is a huge undertaking.  Thankfully, the little farming communities of Saskatchewan have a great understanding of their medicinal plants, and they grasped the particular situation of this plant.  They came forward and volunteered to help, counting, recording, monitoring, so I could make an evidence-based case for the plant.”

Keane and her allies formed a non-profit group, Save our Species, which took as its first task the preservation of Seneca Root.  They are still working on it; Keane remains hopeful, although cautiously so.

While the fate of Seneca Root in the Canadian Prairies still hangs in the balance, the ongoing campaign to have it listed as endangered has brought people together in a powerful way, says Keane.

“My years in Saskatchewan were very exciting; there was so much camaraderie, so much willingness to cooperate and pitch in to do the work to save this plant,” she says, sitting back in her chair with a smile of satisfaction.

Another source of satisfaction, for Keane, is seeing people wake up to the realization that they can use plants to heal themselves.

“I’m giving people control over their own health,” she says.  “These days, we are steeped in pharmaceuticals, and people are looking for alternatives.”

Humans have used plants for healing for millennia, all over the world, she points out.  Our modern pharmaceutical system is, in a way, an outgrowth of this.  Nearly 50 per cent of the thousands of medications prescribed today are either derived from plant sources or contain a chemical, synthetic imitation of a plant compound.

“Since we did not evolve with these synthetics, our bodies do not always have pathways for their distribution and elimination,” she explains.  Although synthetic drugs have certainly performed miracles and saved lives, virtually all of these drugs have side effects ranging from the unpleasant to the lethal.

Using wild medicinal plants not only offers an alternative to the use of pharmaceuticals, it also provides a very different experience of healing.  Instead of visiting a doctor’s office or a hospital, people go out into the forests and mountains; they can make the medicine themselves and they know exactly where it comes from.

“When people see that this works, they are thrilled!” Keane says.

Keane doesn’t consider herself a healer; she would rather see people learn to heal themselves.  This is why she became a writer.

Originally, Keane was an accountant, a profession she found “terribly dry,” she says with a merry laugh. Thirty-five years ago she left accounting to study herbal medicine.

“I was drawn to the plants. But I didn’t want to work in a clinical setting. I figured the best thing was to write.  I can educate people this way; a book gives them time to absorb the information by slow osmosis.”

When Keane feels her research is complete and she is ready to write a book, she throws herself into an intensive period of writing, writing, writing till it’s done.

“I chain myself to the computer.  Something happens—an upheaval in my brain, and I start to see the whole book form.  I work 8-12 hours a day.  I just keep going and going.”

The new book has been particularly gratifying because it represents her return to BC, where she lived decades ago.  “I love it here; it’s like heaven to be back.”

Keane says BC has a plethora of wonderful healing plants.  However, she is able to choose a favorite.

“I’m very fond of Devil’s Club.  It only grows here in BC, a little bit in Northern Alberta, and in one very small enclave in Ontario near Lake Superior,” she says.  “It’s strong, it’s a warrior, it’s substantial and resilient.”

Recent research has confirmed the use of Devil’s Club, a member of the famous ginseng family, for respiratory problems, including Tuberculosis.  This is of particular interest to the medical world, since some strains of Tuberculosis have been developing a resistance to commonly used pharmaceutical drugs.

There is more information about Devil’s Club, and 42 other medicinal plants, in Wild Medicine of Coastal British Columbia.

For more information and to order books visit www.gaian.ca.

Anne Wilde, an 86-year-old resident at The Views has developed a strong bond with dogs like Samara. “I love the dogs, and I have one favorite and it’s Samara!,” Wilde says “She’ll sit in my chair beside me and look at me, and I say, ‘Okay’ and I get a kiss and a slurp on the cheek. She is so sweet, so sweet.”

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

It’s easy to see why Samara, a 10-year old Samoyed, is a beloved pet. Her luxurious white fur calls out to be petted, her dark eyes brim with steady affection, and the curl of her bushy tale clearly says “happiness” in a language everyone can understand.

But Samara is much more than a pet. She has an occupation. In fact, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to call her a health care professional.

Samara works one-on-one with seniors who face multiple, often debilitating, health challenges; she teaches life skills to youth with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder; she even helps children learn to read. She has been credited with bringing people back from the brink of death, and has helped ease the passage of those who can’t be brought back.

Samara has spent the last eight years as a therapy dog with the Comox Valley division of the St. John’s Ambulance Therapy Dog Program.

Every Monday afternoon, Samara, along with her human guardians, Dave and Carol Fletcher, is on duty at The Views, St. Joseph’s Hospital residential care unit. She also regularly visits Abbeyfield House and a number of other facilities, she assists in evaluating and training new dogs for the program, and she accompanies Fletcher to speaking engagements and community events as a canine ambassador for the program. All in all, it’s a job that requires lots of time, dedication and a variety of skills.

I see these in action one Monday in mid-February when I accompany Samara, Dave and Carol on their rounds at The Views. As we get started, Fletcher points out, with obvious pride, that this is Samara’s 701st visit.

The Views is both a heart-wrenching and a heart-warming place. Heart-warming because you can see how much care and energy goes into making the residents’ lives comfortable and meaningful. The staff is kind and attentive; there are big windows letting in light and a view of the estuary; there are bingo games, card games, manicures, visits by a hairdresser and other organized activities.

But it is also heart-wrenching, because regardless of all that, The Views is still an institutional setting, a far cry from the warm embrace of a family home. Residents of The Views often have multiple medical conditions, such as dementia and limited mobility. Quite a few are in wheelchairs.

“For most people, this is their final address. The average life-span of people who move here is five months,” says Dave Fletcher, who as well as being Samara’s guardian is also the unit facilitator of the local St. John’s Ambulance Dog Therapy Program.

Samara’s role, in this setting, is to cheer people up and encourage them to connect to the world around them.
She is very good at her job.

Dave leads Samara around The Views on a leash, stopping to meet people in the hallway, visiting residents in their rooms, and making their way around tables in the common area. It is there that Dave spots Mike, reclining on his wheelchair. His facial muscles are slack, his eyes unfocused.

Dave heads over to Mike, pulls a chair up beside him, and motions for Samara to jump up onto it. Many of The View’s residents need Samara to come to their level so they can see and touch her. For a moment Mike’s eyes remain dull, his face passive, but then a bright spark of interest shines as he recognizes who it is. Slowly, he turns his head, which is supported by a headrest on his chair, in Dave and Samara’s direction. Dave says hello and moves easily into friendly small talk as he reaches down, picks up Mike’s hand and places it into the soft fur of Samara’s neck.

As his hand connects with Samara’s warm body, Mike’s face transforms—the change that comes over him is as dramatic and uplifting as when the sun suddenly emerges from the clouds after hours of rain and gloom. His hand works in Samara’s fur, and he starts to answer Dave’s questions. Samara sits calmly, looking right at Mike, and, I would swear, smiling.

This sort of scenario repeats throughout Samara’s hour-long visit. It has been proven that therapy dogs can improve physical and mental health, enhance vocabulary and memory, and increase sociability and movement, and that petting a dog reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, distracts from chronic pain, and helps people deal with grief. But it is one thing to read these assertions in print and quite another to see it in action.

Many of the residents know Samara, and are ready for the weekly visit with dog treats stowed in their pockets.

“The dog provides emotional support for people,” explains Fletcher. “They get to know Samara and look forward to her visits.”

“Our mandate is it has to taste good, it has to support the economy, and it has to help the producers make a living,” says Angeline Street, with husband James and their kids inside Brambles Market in Downtown Courtenay.

Photo by Photo by Boomer Jerritt

These days it’s quite possible to go out grocery shopping and for very few dollars you can score yourself a fresh-from-Hawaii pineapple that tastes like it just recently left a Maui plantation.

Angeline Street has no problem with our ability to do that, and she confesses that there are times she has a hankering for out-of-season strawberries and will make that purchase, knowing the strawberries didn’t originate here.  At the same time the philosophy and marketing belief she shares with her husband and business partner James is to encourage a local and healthful connection for your grocery marketing wants and needs.  The bonus is, the Streets provide access to localized shopping.

That’s partially what Brambles Market is all about, though it’s also more than that.  The ‘more’ part is for us, the consuming public, to be able to explore the wonders of our foodstuffs, their purchase and how much better the eating and family feeding experiences can be with a shift in long-held attitudes about convenience and access.

“Our mandate is it has to taste good, it has to support the economy, and it has to help the producers make a living,” says Angeline.

Brambles Market has just celebrated a year in business at its site in Downtown Courtenay, on 4th Street across from the Courtenay Museum.  Situated in a highly popular spot that boasts a rather European town square ambience—what with a popular coffee bar and café with its extensive patio, as well as a gelato purveyor—Brambles effectively completes the picture.

“We saw a need,” Angeline says quite simply of their inspiration for bringing Brambles into being.  With her long background in retail, and James’ training as a chef, food purveying seemed like a natural.  That, combined with their beliefs, was the guiding force behind their move into the former Island Inkjet site.

“What we had come to realize was that a lot of small producers couldn’t sell their meat and produce to the big supermarkets,” Angeline says.  “They had no outlet other than the Farmers’ Market, and not everybody goes to the market.  While the larger stores take some local produce, for example, that access has been diminishing.”

The other belief revolves around buying locally whenever possible, followed by items from elsewhere on Vancouver Island, and ultimately from the rest of the province.  She notes they had arrived at this local purchasing conclusion well before the now widely-embraced 100-mile-diet came into vogue.  At the same time, the renewed boost by the 100-mile philosophy was welcomed because it both raised public awareness and gave a nice boost to business.  It was a good bit of synchronicity, Angeline says.

“People have no idea about the array of local items that can be bought,” she says.  “Of course there are exceptions to this, and we’re certainly not fanatical about it.”

She notes that various fruits like bananas and oranges obviously don’t grow here. Likewise, if you are fond of rice and rice dishes, it has to be imported.  But, at the same time, people will automatically buy a certain brand of, say, flour, and be understandably oblivious to the fact that there is flour available—carried by Brambles—that is grown and milled on Vancouver Island.

“Part of our role is to provide access not just to the obvious items like fresh produce, but also to brands packaged on Vancouver Island,” she says.

While the current store is fine for their needs at the moment, Angeline says they would ultimately like to be bigger.

“We started the process five to six years ago,” she says.  “Once the book (The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon www.100milediet.org/book) came out, along with the TV show, we really started thinking seriously about it.  From there we had to find a place and financing for it.”

One of the motivations they wanted to satisfy with Brambles, she says, was to recognize that, as affectionately regarded as the Farmers’ Market is amongst Valley residents, it has its limitations.  There were gaps.  Brambles was designed to fill in those gaps.

“There are many other options beyond meat, bread and vegetables,” Angeline says.  “We can provide those in terms of products that originate locally or on the Island.  You want to buy frozen French fries?  We have those but they don’t come from McCain’s—they come from Victoria.  For a while we were offering, though sadly it’s no longer available, Worcestershire sauce from Saltspring Island.”

As far as competition goes, the opening of Brambles begs the question as to whether Edible Island doesn’t have that market sewn up locally.  Angeline says their direct competition isn’t actually Edible Island, but the Courtenay Thrifty Foods store.  In that context, she says, any chain supermarket gets a huge customer base because of not only the vast array of products available, but also due to shopper habits. It is those habits that Brambles wants to change.  And thus far they are succeeding nicely.

Human beings are creatures of habit, Angeline asserts, and contemporary householders are busy.  When they shop they think of it not as an experience for the most part, but a task to get over and done with.

“We shop by routine and rote,” she says.  “We buy the same things all the time.  It’s not necessarily brand-loyalty, but habit.  Something is familiar and we buy it yet again.  Not necessarily because we like it, but because it’s familiar.  What we want to do with Brambles is let the buying public know there is a wide world of options.  We want people to know they can buy items with healthful ingredients.  In terms of BC produced and packaged items we have stringent standards in the province and we don’t permit genetically modified items.  For products from elsewhere, such standards aren’t as stringent.”

Brambles’ produce all comes from organic growers, and local growers as much as possible in season.  Meanwhile, none of their meat has been adulterated with steroids or antibiotics.

Another area of motivation, adds James, is respect for local farmers and producers.  He is quick to assert that the agricultural community of the Comox Valley—one that is much more extensive than many residents realize—is a significant part of his heritage.

“My grandmother was a Piercy and they were among the pioneering farmers of the Comox Valley,” he says.  “I want the Comox Valley to respect and preserve what we have here, and one way we can do this is to buy their products.

“The Valley holds huge potential agricultural capacity,” James adds.  “The mainstream population of the Valley doesn’t know what we have here.  For example, we’ll go to a supermarket to buy peppers.  The peppers could have originated anywhere.  But, do people know we have a major pepper producer in the Comox Valley?  And those peppers are often cheaper than the ones from elsewhere, and much better.”

As they have to compete with the big chain stores, and that can be a daunting objective, it is essential that Brambles offers alternatives in order to retain and also expand its customer base.  James believes that their meat offerings cannot help but entice those who are seeking unadulterated quality.  Their sausages, for example, contain no binders or fillers.  That puts them well ahead of most commercial sausage brands which can actually contain such fillers as silicone dioxide—or sand, in other words.  Likewise many commercial chickens are injected with water, and the law permits up to 30 per cent water. Brambles’ chickens are 100 per cent actual chicken.

“Quite frankly our meat and poultry products are excellent,” James says.  “All the beef or pork comes from one animal that has been slaughtered locally, and we have a huge advantage of having an abattoir in the Comox Valley with Gunter’s.  What we have is delicious and unadulterated.”

In one respect what Angeline and James are offering at Brambles is nothing new.  This was the way marketing was carried out by everybody a few decades ago before chain stores established themselves and offered the conveniences they do.  At the same time, what Brambles is offering isn’t retro either.  That’s because all that is available must meet the scrupulous standards of the proprietors, as well as meeting stringent provincial codes. That wasn’t always the case in grandma’s day, not to mention the fact that marketing regulations were virtually nonexistent in days of yore.

So, what is this customer base that is seeking ground beef with which you can actually barbecue a hamburger and know the meat was just ground that day, on site, and finds its source in a single side of beef from a steer raised in the Comox Valley rather than perhaps multiple heads of cattle, slaughtered elsewhere with how long ago being anyone’s guess?

“Our beliefs go back long before the current ‘foodie’ trendiness,” Angeline says.  “What we are doing with the store is exactly the model we’ve had in mind for years.  Agreed there is a certain battle to sell a concept like this because most of society doesn’t buy in for reasons stated earlier.  At the same time, we have a definite customer base.”

While you might think that the bulk of Brambles’ trade would originate locally—and they assuredly have an ever-growing Comox Valley customer base—Angeline has also found it interesting how much the store appeals to newcomers, and especially those from larger centres like Vancouver and Calgary.

“They really buy into what we’re doing here,” she says.  “They want a certain standard of quality and service and that’s what we give them.  We actually had a call from some people from out of town wanting to buy a house here but also wanting to know what we had to offer in terms of what they had gotten used to in the city.”

That the Streets convey a combination of gratitude and support for their community goes without saying.  In the same context they are strong advocates for other localized businesses and believe that the public should give them all the support they can for fear of otherwise losing them.

In that sentiment they cite the case of the speculation around a large international chain restaurant considering setting up shop in the Comox Valley.

“The possibility made the front page of local newspapers and that’s really disheartening,” Angeline says.  “There’s a trickle-down effect with such places and people don’t seem to realize what happens to locally owned and operated restaurants when yet another big chain outlet comes to the community.”

Another service offered by Brambles lies in the realm of research of products, since, as Angeline explains, “We don’t always carry the full line of any particular product, but if you want to know anything about a particular product or whether other products are available from the company, we can call up the distributors and get you the information.”

She notes that to qualify as a BC product, the item must be at very least packaged in this province.  As there is no olive crop grown here, when you buy olive oil you are obviously getting something that originated elsewhere.  But, the olive oil can be bottled here—and some labels are—and hence becomes a BC product.

At the end of the day, what it comes down to is education, the Streets say.  It’s a matter of learning to appreciate what we’re eating both nutritionally and taste-wise.  “Eating for good taste and good nutrition has a lot of potential once you get into the swing of it,” Angeline says.  “Get into the habit of buying good food and preparing good and nutritious meals, and they can be done simply and quickly, you’ll never look back.

“And, with children, start them young,” she adds.   “If kids have a role in buying food they love being a part of it.”

The Comox Valley masters ringette team takes a break before a recent practice.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

The air is crisp and the sound of skate blades cutting through ice resonates around the rink as the players rush into the offensive zone. Terry Berger passes to Haley Humphrey, who pivots left, cutting around the defender, and shoots, aiming for the top left corner of the net. The goalie slides across the crease and pops up her hand, but she can’t catch the ring before it catches the net.

The players on this inaugural masters’ team come from all athletic backgrounds and they are here to be a part of one of Canada’s heritage sports: ringette.Ringette is a Canadian game that was first introduced in 1963 in North Bay, Ontario by Mr. Sam Jacks. Originally developed for girls as an alternative to hockey, ringette is a fast-paced team sport on ice in which players use a straight stick to pass, carry, and shoot a rubber ring to score goals.

The rules vary slightly from hockey and some of the key differences are that players must pass over the blue lines, body checking is not allowed, and there are only three players from each team allowed in the offensive and defensive zones.

The sport is growing, boasting more than 50,000 participants in less than 50 years. And, according to Ringette Canada, the growth “has continued internationally with the formation of associations in the US, Finland, Sweden, Russia, and France, as well as demonstrations in the Netherlands, Switzerland, West Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.”

The love of this sport began at age 15 for Haley Humphrey, one of the founders of the Comox Valley Ringette Association. “I lived in Burns Lake, way up north by Prince George,” Humphrey says. “The ironic thing was that it was a brand new association too. I was playing on a team with 11-15 year olds and I was the oldest player, so we had to compete at a higher age group.”

It isn’t an easy thing starting or playing with a new league in a small town and Humphrey’s dad, Doug Hill, played a big part in her young ringette life. A concerned look passes over Humphrey’s face as she recalls her dad’s efforts. “The closest team was Fraser Lake, which was an hour away. You can imagine the road conditions. It was pitch black every time we went to a game and the roads were icy and snowy. My dad would drive me to every game and we would lose every game but it didn’t matter. We would even go to Prince George, which was a three hour drive away.”

At that time, ringette rules dictated that players use colored sticks relating to their position. Defence players used red sticks, forwards used blue sticks and centres used white sticks. This meant that ‘red sticks’ could never go into the offensive zone and vice versa for the blue sticks. The rules have since been changed to speed up the play and players may go anywhere on the ice as long as they do not exceed three players in the offensive and defensive zones. Humphrey recalls the “good ol’ days” with a chuckle. “I started when the sticks were colored and I got the red stick, and I wasn’t allowed to go and shoot. That’s probably why I like playing forward so much now. I played for two years in Burns Lake and then I was too old to play on the team so that was it for awhile.”

Humphrey moved to Alberta in her 20s and started her family. Between her second and third child she found a masters team in Hinton and started playing again. “I just loved it,” she says, “and then after my third child was born I started playing full time and competed with the masters team there for eight years.” Before moving to the Island she got her dad to look around for a teams and “it probably would have changed where we moved if I had known that the closest team was an hour and a half away. I was in Comox and the rink was an hour and a half away in Nanaimo.”

Her dedication to the sport prevailed though, and she made the drive down Island once a week for eight years. She was thrilled two years ago when a few of her hockey teammates started playing ringette and she had company for the drive down. Humphrey wasn’t fazed by rain, wind or snow and her face lights up as she explains that “it doesn’t matter what the weather is like, when you love a sport this much you will do anything to get to the rink.”

But it wasn’t enough, and the same thought kept coming up: “I wish I could play in my home town!” Humphrey knew it wasn’t something she could take on herself, though. Jane Mowry, the woman in Nanaimo who started their association, kept encouraging Humphrey to start an association in the Comox Valley, but it wasn’t until she met Ed Harding that Humphrey thought it was possible. “When I met Ed,” she says, “and I knew he was retired but had a passion for the sport too, I thought, ‘Hmmm, this could work.’ We started talking and I told him that I would be right behind him if he wanted to go ahead and work on it.”

Ed Harding discovered Ringette 30 years ago when a Kinsmen buddy in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta asked him to help coach his daughter’s Ringette team.  “I had played, coached and officiated a lot of hockey growing up in Quebec,” Harding says, “so getting back on the ice was a welcome opportunity.”

Ringette was new to Fort Saskatchewan and the previous season, Harding’s daughter was the only girl on a Mite hockey team. Although she gained the respect of her teammates, she was physically way over her head.  Ringette was the perfect alternative. Harding became a ringette official and only stopped coaching his daughter “about the same time all teenage girls seem to drift toward young men. Then I coached my wife’s team for a few years.  My daughter and wife each played for about 15 years.”

The choice to get involved and stay involved with this fine sport has always been an easy one for Harding. “Ringette has offered me the opportunity to remain physically active on the ice as an official without having to deal with the aggressive violence and constant animosity that drove me away from hockey.  Off the ice, I’ve made many friends across western Canada through my involvement in officiating and administration at the local, zone and provincial levels.”

Harding’s ringette “resume” includes officiating, evaluating and instructing qualifications. Three years ago, Humphrey contacted him about possibly coaching and officiating in the annual Masters’ Tournament hosted by the Nanaimo Association (the only registered association on the Island at that time).  He was impressed with the number of other master ringette players who were regularly commuting to Parksville and Nanaimo to practice and play on what was then, the only Island team.

In discussing the differences between ringette and hockey with Harding and Humphrey, it is clear to see that ringette is the preferred sport every time. When I ask Humphrey (who plays both sports) which she prefers, she emphatically replies: “Ringette! There really is no comparison.”

She prefers the age groupings in ringette and the maturity level of the over 30 masters’ team, and finds hockey frustrating at times because even after years of playing she hasn’t seen huge improvements in her technique. Humphrey categorically states that she plays hockey for the ice time and for her skating. “If I could play ringette three times a week instead of once and drop hockey, I would in an instant.”

Other key reasons include her confidence and experience as a ringette player and the fact that once you have the ring on your stick you can go with it. “With hockey it takes my total concentration to keep the puck on the stick, but I know for other players it is second nature. Also, hockey is so much rougher, so much more physical. I like the strategy and the thinking of ringette and the team play. In hockey there are players that skate from one end to the other, shoot, score and no one else touches it. They can play as an individual. With ringette you can’t play it as an individual. You have to play it as a team and I love that.”

Ringette mom and master player, Terry Berger couldn’t agree more. “I love that ringette truly is a team sport. Yes, there are great skaters and shooters, but they can’t do it by themselves because they have to pass over the blue lines and abide by the rules of the zone play.”

Berger’s daughter, Michelle, started playing ringette six years ago in Thunder Bay. She hadn’t skated before, but was intrigued when she saw the game being played at a local arena. She flashes a huge smile and admits that “I didn’t know what the sport was. I couldn’t skate or anything, but it was so much fun! My mom signed me up and my coach taught me how to skate, how to play, what the rules were.” After moving to the Valley, her first opportunity to play was with the regional team put together for the BC Winter Games in 2008.

Humphrey’s daughter, Kyra also had to wait to play again until two years ago when Humphrey decided to put together a team for the BC Winter Games. Humphrey recalls that winter as the “winter of driving” for her practices and her daughter’s in Nanaimo. “That was a crazy winter but we got the team together and went to the Winter Games. Our goal was to score at least one goal but we didn’t do that. The hardest part to prepare for was just to have the kids mentally ready to be beat like that. Most of the teams at the Winter Games had been playing together for 10 years. Our girls had only been playing together for four months!

“We had a figure skater and a few hockey players so they could skate, but it doesn’t make up for the difference of playing the game and playing together. But, we had a great time and we focused on the other fun things happening at the Winter Games.”

Berger, Humphrey and Harding all have the same dreams for the future of the Comox Valley Ringette Association—more ice time, more players and more teams on the Island. Berger passionately explains what ringette and its future means to her and her family: “I believe that team sports build character and gives a sense of self worth.  We need something for our girls besides coed hockey.  Ringette is the perfect alternative.  We are really excited about the sport being available in the Valley and hope it will open up to more age groups in the future.”

Harding agrees. “My dream would be to see vibrant associations formed in more communities in the Island Zone, like Campbell River, Duncan, Oceanside, Port Alberni, and Powell River, so that we could have regular competitions with Victoria and Nanaimo, without the need to travel to the Lower Mainland.  The market for ringette is out there—we just need to do a better job of promoting ourselves.”

Humphrey is also happy the sport is growing, but sees the need for more ice time and players here, if the girls are to do well in tryouts for the next Winter Games team. “The teams in Victoria play at least once a week while our team only gets to practice once every three weeks.”

She is coaching the Winter Games team for the event in March and looking for ways to help the team after that as well. One of the ways the association is promoting the sport and making it more accessible is a floor ringette league starting in the spring. Humphrey emphatically states that her daughter Kyra’s game improved 100-fold after playing floor ringette. “Because there was no skating she could get checking and get in to the ring as fast as everybody else. Everyone notices such a difference this year and it is so good to see that it is all clicking.”

This spring, Humphrey would like to do a youth and an adult floor ringette league.

The interview is winding down and Humphrey is starting to put her gear on for practice. The gear is mostly hockey equipment, although there are lighter alternatives available, specifically for ringette players, and the sticks and face masks have to be approved ringette pieces.

As she laces up her hockey skates, Humphrey explains her vision of the future. “I would love to see players in every age group, from the five-year-olds all the way up to the 65-year-olds. I would love to play until I am that old and I would love to see the young kids be able to join at five.” After a thoughtful pause she adds, “The only way to sustain an association is to get them to fall in love with the sport at that age so that you don’t lose them to hockey.”

The players hop out on to the ice, full of excitement and chatter. There is a tournament this weekend and the newer players are still learning the rules. The convert hockey players are learning to pay attention to those blue lines and the goalie crease—which Ringette players aren’t allowed to cross. It is “Ringette Night” in the Comox Valley and the association is hoping that more players will “tune in and turn up.”

The youth league is open to 7 to 12 year olds and practices on Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30pm at the Comox Valley Sports Centre, Arena #1.  The Masters team is for players 30 and older and practices are Mondays from 10-11pm at the Glacier Gardens Arena.  Both divisions have ongoing registration and are open to girls and boys.

For more information visit comoxvalleyringette.com

If you are interested in sponsoring a team, the association is always grateful for sponsorship funds. Please contact Ed Harding at cvra@comoxvalleyringette.com