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"Catching the Spirit": Caught on to a Great Start
by Susan Lin
Last week, "Catching the Spirit" officially started, as the program staff busied themselves trying to touch up some of the last minute glitches. From what I heard, it has definitely gotten to a positive start. I interviewed two of the three program supervisors, Hilary Young and Tonia Relkov, about how the program has been running this past week and a half. Hilary said, "It was definitely a great start" for the program, this past week and a half. Tonia agreed and said the reaction from the participants and the leaders, as well as the community park users, to the program was generally positive. Overall, program staff and participants are really enthusiastic about the program, had lots of fun, and feel really great about able to contribute something to Pacific Spirit Regional Park.
Our Spirit Ranger park patrol program had a larger turnout than expected, "and I think they [participants] are enjoying it," added Hilary, who was supervising the Rangers most of the time. "No one [park users] really want[ed] information from them [participants, but] it seems like any interaction with the public is positive." The Spirit Ranger program was established to get the youths in the community active in helping the park staff on a look out for the welfare of the park users. Generally, these Rangers, either on bikes or on foot, patrol in pairs in designated routes around the Park, providing information and direction for the park users as well as noting down in their notebooks things they have observed around the park, which would later be reported to the park staff.
Tonia and Camillo, another program supervisor who was unavailable for an interview at the time of this article publication, supervised our first Spirit Steward weekend restoration program camp. "First camp was awesome," commented Tonia, "They [participants] completed four sections of the boardwalk in one day�� In about 6 hours. [And the] rest of the weekend was really packed with activities." The Spirit Stewards is a program that allows youths to work on park restoration programs, such as working on the Camosun Bog boardwalk, for a morning, meet other youths of similar interests, and learn how to camp using the low impact method. The Bog, where the campers camp out for two nights, is a environmentally sensitive area. There is usually about 10 campers, which minimize the impact the campers have on the land, and the campers are taught the importance of "leave nothing but footprints."
On a lighter note, I asked Hilary if there has been any funny stories to tell the readers, she said, "No major problems to report except [one or two] crash[es] into the tree��" Well, I hope our Spirit Rangers, don't get hurt badly, as we are in need of more participants in the Rangers program already!
Hilary told me that what she enjoyed the most about this past week was finally meeting up to the task of decorating our "Catching the Spirit" trailer! As Hilary spent much of her time by the radio in the trailer, staying in contact with Spirit Rangers, she can honest appreciate a warmly decorated trailer, as the official headquarter for our program. Tonia thought "getting back to the camping experience is so much fun it's so fun living in tents, I just love it!" And she is also glad to find that the participants were all really enthusiastic about the program that she had co-worked for the past few months.
There are little special problems to report this week but there is always room for improvement. Hilary, still thinking about the trailer, said it would be great if we can get a couch donated somehow and make the trailer more comfortable for the program participants. Having people coming in on time would also be great, she added. Tonia thought most things went pretty smoothly for the restoration camp but she thought, "in terms for the rangers, we are still looking for more participants. We need to get the word out."
I think "Catching the Spirit" this is a great experience for some "beginners" as well as the experienced to get out in the park, maybe away from home for a few days, and actually get involved working in the park, all the while meeting other youths. When one is working/camping out in a make-shift "wilderness," it is easy to forget that one lives in a large and modern city such Vancouver. For example, the Bog is a special habitat for plants adapted to moist and acidic soil. To have keep it this way means we will have one more unique ecosystem. Keep a diverse system of ecosystem is vital to keep a diverse variety of organisms in our world.
So I guess all is well and off to a good start. Tonia said the participants of the restoration camps "were all really happy about how things went. It's the combination of camping, which is always a lot of fun, and of the feeling of accomplishment [that we've actually got four sections of the boardwalk done.]" I'll be off to lead a restoration camp this weekend, then I'll get a first hand experience on how things go and will report back to you! For those of you who wish to join our Spirit Ranger crew, please contact us at
[email protected]. Great job everyone and until next time!
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