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!