Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I am wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving a week early, but only because I will not be posting again before the actual Thanksgiving weekend. And because I am sure looking forward to a long relaxing weekend and a trip home. It has been extremely busy lately and a little R&R is definitely needed.

I just got in from a fundraising paint can collection for Positive Recreation Opportunities for Kids. It is a group I have been involved with for quite some time now and basically raises money to allow children to participate in recreational opportunities when they cannot afford it on their own. This is the second time we have done this fundraiser and it was quite successful again. Basically people drop their old household paint off to us for $2/can instead of having to take it all the way out to the landfill.

On my way home from that fundraiser, I stopped by the advanced polls here for the plebiscite that is being held on October 9th. The city is looking at changing it electoral system from an at-large system to a ward system. I voted "yes" because I think this is a superior system and because change from time to time never hurts. Don't forget to get out and vote on this issue on October 9th (or before at the advanced polls).

All last weekend was taken up with Fusion's annual Harvesting the Arts Festival and ArtConnect. This was the first time for ArtConnect. It was a project that the committee I co-chair, Community Engagement, organized to try and promote artists and volunteerism in the city. We got 8 paintings in the end which sponsors purchased from the artists. The paintings were then paired with a local non-profit organization and people bid volunteer hours towards the painting/non-profit. The silent auction was open for Friday night and all day Saturday. It was a tremendous success and in the end 1000 volunteer hours were raised for the 8 non-profit organizations. Don't forget to also look for the Fusion "12 Wonders of Greater Saint John" calendar which will be out in a couple of weeks.

I recently bought a new computer from Dell and have been getting a little annoyed with it. Although it is 7 years newer than my last computer and has much more memory and RAM, I am finding it quite slow and I think it is because of Windows Vista and all the virus/spyware software that they load on it. Everything is scanning and trying to update itself over the Internet at the same time and it bogs it down.

A couple other little things I did over the past few weeks include attending the Dr. David Stephen Memorial Foundation Dinner and attending my first Board meeting with the Saint John Volunteer Centre. The Lebanese dinner was fantastic, as was the Board meeting.

Besides working each day the rest of the time has been taken up getting all the gardens/lawn ready for winter. Lots of bulbs to lift and store, equipment to winterize and service, fertilizer to add, earth to till, plants to cut down, etc...... The other thing taking up a lot of my time is my first distance course for my Masters of Public Administration. There is a lot of reading and posting on the Internet for this course.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I am looking forward to a quiet and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend with family in Charlottetown. I hope you enjoy yours as well!

Welcome to the New School Year

Well this time it has been four weeks since I have blogged but I have a lot of excuses which you can read about below. Lets just say it has been extra busy in August and more importantly, during my vacation. However, I have been enjoying most of the projects.

A lot of the time has been spent with several Fusion projects and events. One major event that I have been working on is the Harvesting the Arts Festival featuring ArtConnect which will take place on September 21st-22nd. This will be a great event which will highlight the Arts community in Saint John. A large project that has been taking a lot of time is the Fusion "12 Wonders of Greater Saint John" calendar which will be our first fundraiser. I am hopeful that it will be launched in the next few weeks. A little over a week ago Fusion was also asked to replace a Dragon Boat team in the races in Renforth. That was a lot of fun although with little practise we did not do great! Finally, Fusion has its Annual General Meeting a week ago and we have several new board members and a new employee for the Fall school term. A lot of work, but it is all very positive for Fusion.

Pride Week in Saint John also occurred since my last post. It was an eventful and positive week. There were several events including the flag raising, movie night, boat cruise, parade, auction, etc. I had the opportunity to attend a few of these events. From all accounts, it was a successful week and hopefully some more awareness was raised around issues of sexuality in our society.

A political event that occurred over the past four weeks was the decision by the Council of Saint John to hold a plebiscite on a Ward System of Governance for the City of Saint John. This is a great step forward for the City and hopefully as many of you as possible will get out and vote on the issue. It is important, whether you are for or against wards, to get out and have your voice heard. This is the beauty of democracy and this issue of wards is one that was kept from being a democratic decision for some time now.

I have had some more vacation since my last post. However, during this bout of vacation it seems I worked harder than when I am at work. I made some visits to family and friends in P.E.I. and Fredericton. I did a lot of work in the gardens: weeding, adding new beds, harvesting vegetables (squash, beans, broccoli, lettuce and cucumbers). I also spent some time re-arranging the computer room in the house to get ready for our Fall courses. However, the largest project, which is still ongoing was the construction of a flagstone patio. Next Spring I will also be adding a pond in front of it. I have included a picture so that everyone can see the results thus far. My body is sore, but I am sure I must have lost a few pounds.

As the title of this post suggests, we are now coming into September and the summer is beginning to wind up. For me, this is evident through several events. One is the fact that my tenants started moving in this weekend. We have four for the year and they are all students at the Community College. Another is the fact that my first Master of Public Administration course starts next week. Finally, there is the fact that all the meetings for community boards I sit on are beginning to get underway again. It will be a busy Fall.

An exciting conference that is happening in Saint John this week (at my work) is the Social Enterprise Development Conference. Basically, we are having experts from across Canada coming to Saint John to talk about their successes in having mental health consumers start their own businesses. We are planning on doing the same here in Saint John so it will be a great learning experience.

Finally, and most importantly, on August 29th I became an uncle for the third time. My brother had a healthy baby girl and I cannot wait to get back to P.E.I. to see her.

Take care and have a great week everyone!