Maritime Traveler

It has been a busy three weeks. During the past three weeks I have been in each Maritime province for one reason or another. I was in Charlottetown to visit family one weekend as it was Father's Day and my parents 35th anniversary. We had a great time and my gift was one of labour. I got their flower beds back into shape for the summer months. They deserve a lot more but you can only do so much in one weekend. My sister, who lives in Fredericton now, also celebrated her birthday last week. She, as well, deserves a lot more than I can give but I will find a way to let her know that she is a wonderful sister and person. I also found myself in Dartmouth for a couple of reasons as well. One was the Nova Scotia Chapter of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Canada's conference entitled "Supporting Choices for Wellness and Recovery". This was an excellent conference that focused on helping those with mental illness begin their recovery journey. The recovery model represents a new way of looking at mental illness and their were some inspirational presenters at the conference that explained the model well. The other reason I was in Dartmouth was to see a specialist regarding my tooth that you have all heard so much about in prior posts. Well, she injected needles into my jaw and neck muscles, got out knots in these muscles and put me on muscle relaxants. Unfortunately, I must say that nothing has changed and therefore it may be nerve damage which means another trip back to Dartmouth.

Last week also marked the official beginning of summer! This means my time spent in the garden triples! Many things are in bloom right now (irises, phlox, dianthus, lupins, etc.) which means there is also lots of weeds that need pulled. I could spend every day in the gardens between fertilizing, watering, mowing, weeding, mulching and pruning. I will include a picture or two in this post so that someone else can appreciate all our hard work!

Groups in the community have also been very busy having their last meetings before summer and their annual general meetings. I attended the Canadian Mental Health Association - Saint John Chapter, the Saint John Federal Liberal Riding Association and the Self-Help A Rewarding Experience (SHARE) Activity Centre Annual General Meeting in the past three weeks. It was a chance for me to be reminded of all the great work these organizations do in our community each year. I also attended committee meetings for the Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative Education to Employment Committee, Centenary-Queen Square Care Centre and FUSION Saint John Inc. These groups focus on poverty, intellectual and mental illness and youth retention respectively. These issues are very important to me. I also helped organize a Youth Art Gala hosted by the Many Faces of Violence 2007 group that featured art by local youth. The art showed what violence was like through the eyes of the youth. It was a very successful event. Upon returning from Dartmouth I went right to a 3 year planning session that the Salvation Army - Booth Residential Services invited me to attend. They do wonderful work for homeless men in our city and everyone should support them as much as possible because the need is always increasing.

A few highlights of the past three weeks included the provincial government's community schools announcement, my acceptance into Dalhousie's Master of Public Administration program and the day I spent in Saint John's Mental Health Court. The Community Schools concept is one that I had envisioned for some time. Hopefully, the days will return, where a village raises a child and we all support each other. My day in Mental Health Court was inspirational because I got to witness first hand the love, understanding and support that community members have for people with mental illness. The judge, lawyers, families and service providers have created a model whereby people with mental illness are given the help they need to get their lives back on track. I commend everyone responsible for creating and administering the program on a job well done. You should all be very proud of what you have created.

Over the next few weeks, I will be waiting for the results of the post-energy audit that I had completed on my home last week. I recommend everyone to take a look at the programs created by Efficiency New Brunswick and try and do your part for our fragile environment. I also hope to purchase a violin soon and begin lessons. If anyone knows of some good teachers, I would appreciate the information. Finally, I must remind everyone that Coverdale Centre for Women's Annual General Meeting is Wednesday, June 27th at 11:30 A.M. at Germain Street Baptist Church.

Have a great few weeks!!

Summer is just around the corner.......

You can always tell when summer is approaching because it gets very busy all of a sudden. Groups I am involved with, as well as work, all try to have a last meeting, project or event happen before the summer slow down. So, the last few weeks have been extra busy. On top of the pre-summer rush, I have been busy with my spring garden chores. As I mentioned in the previous post, I am also filling in for my manager while they are on vacation. All of these things together have made the past few weeks extra busy and so I will be looking forward to my own vacation soon!
The spring garden chores included weeding many of the existing flower beds, dealing with the annual mass of dandelions, tilling the vegetable garden, planting the vegetable garden, splitting some perennials and spreading lime and fertilizer. I am trying some new veggies this year such as buttercup squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and parsnips. After my experience with blight last year I thought I better stay away from regular potatoes for this year. Of course, my tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and bugle weed are already blooming. See the inserted picture.

A quite a bit of time during the past several weeks was devoted to my involvement with Fusion Saint John Inc. We were allocated a summer SEED student through the provincial government. Therefore we had to do a lot of interviews in the evenings and find new office space. We also had to meet with the successful candidate and discuss some of the projects we want him to work on over the summer. Having the student will be a great addition to Fusion and I hope he will help us to market Fusion better and look into some new funding streams. Fusion also had a reception with Fusion Bangor representatives at City Hall in May. Fusion Bangor was modeled off of Fusion Saint John Inc. and a couple of times a year the groups get a chance to get together to discuss issues.

I attended the Human Development Council's Annual General Meeting in May. They had some representatives from Irving Oil as their guest speakers. The representatives talked about the new refinery that may be built in Saint John. I found it refreshing to see Irving Oil speaking to a social development group about how to potentially deal with the unintended social effects of a possible new refinery. I guarantee you that I will write more about this in future postings.

Other events that I attended in May included the Annual Harbour Passage Gardening Party, St. Joseph's Community Health Centre Community Health Fair and the AIDS Saint John fundraising auction. All of these events were great successes. The Garden Party had over 300 people show up and it was the hottest day of the year yet. I was involved in the Community Health Fair as the Many Faces of Violence Project was doing some public awareness during the fair. There were also many people at the AIDS Saint John auction. I am not sure how much money they raised but when I find out I will be sure to post it.

Probably the most important event over the past three weeks was last week. It was the Provincial Disability Awareness Week. Locally, the Saint John Ability Advisory Committee had many events including an employer luncheon, a town hall meeting with politicians, a kick-off on the waterfront and much more. I attended a couple of these events. I am passionate about helping people with disabilities because I feel that every single one of us is equal and therefore when policies, infrastructure, events, etc. are developed they should attempt to have every single one of us in mind. Anything less is unfair!

Finally, I had my graduation from the Canadian Healthcare Association Modern Management Program on Friday. I was honored to receive 2 awards: the highest mark on the final exam and the highest mark in the program overall. I found it amusing though that because I got the highest mark overall I was asked to do a 15 minute speech at the graduation. That was like giving me an extra assignment! A bottle of wine would have sufficed. Anyway, it was a good day and I hope everyone enjoyed my speech.

Have a great few weeks!