As Victoria residents dust off their bicycles for Bike to Work Week — the annual event starts Monday — others are gearing up for a considerably longer ride.
On Tuesday, Caroline and Elizabeth Merner will embark on a bicycle trip that will take them to Quebec.
The 17-year-old twins are taking part in La Grande Traversée, a cross-country relay to promote active lifestyles. What makes this trip different is that all the participants are students of francophone schools across Canada. The girls are students at École Victor-Brodeur in Victoria.
“We are excited about the trip,” said Caroline. “We have spent seven weeks training for this. It’s an incredible adventure to be part of the group. It’s not something we would have attempted to do by ourselves.”
She says she is looking forward to meeting students from other schools.
The twins will cycle on two legs of the trip — from Kelowna to Calgary and from La Baie in the Saguenay-Lac St. Jean region to Montreal — about 1,000 kilometres in the saddle in total. The ride starts Tuesday and they hope to arrive in Montreal by June 13.
For more information, go to lagrandetraversee.ca/english-information.
The twins leave as another bicycle event draws to a close.
The Cycling for Diversity team of 11 riders left Victoria on Tuesday and arrived in Abbotsford Saturday after stopping to chat with school and university students along the way.
They brought along a message promoting cultural diversity through understanding, mutual respect, and inclusion. The event celebrates the United Nations World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, which falls on May 21.
The organization says their team “works to bridge cultural communities and create dialogue, breaking down perceived barriers.”
They achieve their goal through the sharing of personal experiences, which creates an environment of mutual trust and understanding.
People can find Cycling for Diversity on Facebook, Twitter or at cycling4diversity.ca.
Dentists recycle gold for charity
The tooth fairy has been upstaged by two local dentists.
Husband and wife Matt Evans and Dawn Webster came up with a novel way to raise funds for Jeneece Place — which provides a home away from home for families who travel to Victoria for their child’s medical care — by recycling gold from patient’s old dental prostheses.
Every time they extract a gold tooth or crown, they give their patients a choice: Keep the gold teeth for themselves, or donate the proceeds to charity. Gold from an average crown is worth approximately $40 if melted down.
More than 200 patients at Fort Street Dental chose to donate, netting $8,700. The two dentists then topped up the donation to $10,000.
“The gold teeth fundraiser is one of the most unique fundraisers we’ve ever had for Jeneece Place,” said Jessica Woollard, communications officer at Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island, which operates Jeneece Place.
“It’s a perfect example of how people in the community turn their skill sets and interests into fundraisers for the house.”
The two dentists have been fundraising this way since 2005, and have contributed more than $20,000 to local charities.
Vic High students start veggie garden
On Thursday, Songhees elder Mary Ann Thomas blessed the land for the new Victoria High School vegetable garden, a project five years in the making.
“We wanted to provide students with the opportunity to solve problems and work co-operatively in a meaningful and tangible way,” said principal Randi Falls in a statement.
“Starting a vegetable garden not only provides this opportunity but it brings us back full circle to a time when Vic High used to teach rural sciences and had huge gardens that fed the students and the neighbourhood.”
Teacher Jim Pine got the ball rolling by asking students how everyday life connects back to the Earth: When you turn on the tap, where does your water come? When you plug in your cell phone, where does the electricity come from? Where does your food come from?
He says that students generally are unaware and sees the garden as an opportunity to bridge the gap between production and consumption.
Local businesses and the community have been generous and supportive in the garden’s creation: Tower Fence Company built the fence, Rona supplied the wood to build the garden beds, Ellice Recycling donated soil, and Dig This and Garden Works supplied tools and seeds.
Other support came from YesBC, the Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre, Friends United with Nature, Salt Spring Seed Company, Greater Victoria School District CUPE 382, Castle Building Centre for garden tools and Integrity Soils for a soil analysis.
For more information, go to vichigh.sd61.bc.ca.
Three educators nominated for national award
Three early childhood educators in Courtenay have been nominated for the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education in the team category.
The award honours outstanding and innovative early childhood educators who work as a team at fostering the early development and socialization of the children in their program, helping build the foundation children need to make the best possible start in life.
Educators Holly Edwards, Laurel Hodgins and Carlene Steeves, who teach at Courtenay Elementary School, are up against teams from across Canada.
If they win the Certificate of Excellence at the national level, they receive a $5,000 award. If they garner the Certificate of Achievement at the regional level, they receive $1,000.
Typically, winners will be announced on World Teacher Day in October.
