Supporters and staff of Jeneece Place, the home-away-from-home for families of children receiving care at Victoria General Hospital, know even grown-ups need a little Christmas cheer.
So, since Jeneece Place opened in 2012, volunteers and Victoria-area businesses have pitched in to make sure the special temporary home is lit up and decorated for the holidays. This year, about 8,000 lights have been hung.
Victoria General Hospital is the referral centre for maternity and pediatrics on the Island, and accepts transfers from within the province. It hosts one of B.C.’s four high-level neonatal intensive care units for critically ill newborns, and one of two pediatric intensive care units for critically ill children up to age 17.
But parents and other family of the young patients from outside southern Vancouver Island want to stay close. So Jeneece Place offers a homelike setting for those families even at Christmas.
Nanaimo mother Robyn Hewer and her husband, Jackson, spent Christmas at Jeneece Place in 2015 when their premature baby boy, Weston, was fighting for his life.
Weston is now a happy, healthy three-year-old and big brother to baby sister Harper. But his parents have never forgotten Weston’s first Christmas in hospital.
“I remember coming down from our room first thing in the morning to get a cup of coffee and the tree was lit,” said Robyn. “After that moment, I never felt like we were missing out or that people should feel sorry because we were in hospital for Christmas.”
Event celebrates the written and spoken word
Anyone with a love for the written and spoken word is invited to Stories of Celebration, a free evening of poetry and short stories from young newcomers, immigrants and people of colour on Friday.
Hosted by Victoria’s 2019 Youth Poet Laureate Aziza Moqia Sealey-Qaylow, Stories of Celebration is a free event featuring poetry, readings and talk of personal journeys, joy, relief and successes.
Featured writers will include:
• Agartu Ali, Victoria’s 2018 Youth Poet Laureate, who earned the honour when she was still in Grade 11 at Victoria High School.
• Writer Asiyah Robinson, born on Grand Bahama Island, who travelled to Canada to pursue post-secondary education and is now in her final year of a B.Sc. at the University of Victoria.
Stories of Celebration will be held Friday, Dec. 6, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Club Kwench, 2031 Store St.
The youth poet laureate is an honorary one-year term position from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. The position receives a $1,750 honorarium and $1,000 of project funding in addition to the one-year mentorship with Victoria’s poet laureate.
Sealey-Qaylow finishes her one-year term as Victoria Youth Poet Laureate this month.
Nanaimo seeks its next poet laureate
Meanwhile, in other poetry news, the City of Nanaimo is looking for someone to enrich its community life with rhyming couplets or otherwise beautiful words and phrases.
The deadline for applications or nominations for people to be Nanaimo’s next poet laureate has been set at Jan. 17.
The successful person will serve as the people’s poet for a term of three years, raising awareness of poetry, literacy and the positive impact of literature and poems on community life.
The successful applicant/nominee will be provided a $1,300 honorarium and $200 of project funding each year.
To learn more, see the city's website.
Teacher honoured for aiding geographic literacy
The honour of teaching, learning, good fun, gratitude and generosity were all acknowledged last month when the Royal Canadian Geographical Society paid tribute to a Courtenay high school teacher.
When Andrew Young, geography teacher at George P. Vanier Secondary, was presented with the 2019 Alex Trebek Medal for Geographic Literacy, he turned the award back on its Jeopardy! host namesake.
The award comes with a $2,500 prize split between the winner and a Canadian charity.
But Young said in recognition of Trebek’s ongoing, public battle with pancreatic cancer, he will donate the entire award to the B.C. Cancer Foundation’s 2020 Ride to Conquer Cancer.
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society singled out Young for recognition for his outstanding work connecting his classroom geography lessons with real-world issues.
Whether it’s teaching environmental sciences of global climate change with the input of a biology teacher or the annual class trip to Mount St. Helens, he has always strived to increase students appreciation for geographical knowledge.
Ontario Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell presented Young with his award on Nov. 21 at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s College of Fellows Annual Dinner at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa.
New Year’s Eve run gives back to community
Registration is open for the 31st annual Run Through Time, an easy run/walk event to close out the year and give back a little to the Victoria community.
Hosted by Runners of Compassion, the five-kilometre run and three-kilometre walk is a pleasant, fun, early-evening scoot around the University of Victoria’s Ring Road on New Year’s Eve.
Besides registration fees that go to Runners of Compassion, a local non-profit society that helps a variety of organizations and groups, runner participants in Run Through Time are asked to donate gently used training shoes or athletic gear.
The donated athletic gear will be passed along to young people in the community as part of the Shoes for Youth program.
Since 1996, when the Run Through Time was first staged, the event has collected more than 2,000 pairs of shoes and $30,000.
Registration fees before Dec. 15 are $20 for adults, $10 for children under 13, and $40 for families. After Dec. 15, fees go up to $30, $15 and $60.
To learn more, including registration information, go to raceroster.com.
Rotarians donate loaded purses to women in need
Every woman relies on a good purse, and the Rotary Club of Victoria has worked up some purses to bring good value to women who find themselves in tough spots.
Last month, the Rotary Club filled more than 100 donated purses with toilet items such as soap, toothpaste, face cream, deodorant and brushes, and passed them along to Sandy Merriman House for Women. The purses were all donated by wives and friends of Rotarians.
With only 28 clients in the shelter, the purses left over were given to drop-in clients and women in other Victoria-area shelters.
School choirs ring in Carolling Week
The holiday season gets a warm and tuneful kickoff at Victoria City Hall with the 54th Annual Carolling Week this coming week.
On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, Victoria-area school choirs will sing carols in the City Hall Antechamber from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Performances will be:
• Monday, Dec. 2, Ecole George Jay Elementary followed by McKenzie Elementary.
• Tuesday, Dec. 3, Marigold and Torquay elementary schools.
• Wednesday, Dec. 4, Strawberry Vale and Ecole Margaret Jenkins elementary schools.
• Friday, Dec. 6, Glenlyon Norfolk and Gordon Head middle schools.
Get ready to join in. Each day guests will have an opportunity to participate in a festive sing-along.
CHEK, Sally Ann collecting goods for less fortunate
CHEK will be hosting its 26th annual Christmas Charity Drive Thru this coming Friday, helping the Salvation Army collect toys for kids, gifts for teens, warm clothing and non-perishable food.
“Hand-knitted toques and mitts to flats of canned goods and armfuls of toys, I'm astounded, each and every year by how much our viewers care,” said CHEK News anchor Stacy Ross. “I'm so proud to be part of this wonderful evening.”
Ross and other on-air personalities and CHEK staff will all be on hand to collect donations at the event.
CHEK will also broadcast live at three Island collection sites: the CHEK parking lot near Hill and Blanshard streets, Thrifty Foods parking lot on Belmont on the West Shore and Steve Marshall Ford in Nanaimo.
Also broadcast live will be scenes from the call centre, where Vancouver Island notables and volunteers will be manning telephones to take donations at 1-888-851-4290.
The CHEK Christmas Charity Drive Thru is on Friday, Dec. 6, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
