Something Good Magazine - South Delta November 2016

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VOL 01 ISSUE 11

inside

NOVEMBER 2016

South Delta

PIANO PRODIGY p6

Joshua Tromans to play piano concerto with VSO

MOTHERHOOD: UNFILTERED p12

Photo project fights postpartum depression

GOLDEN MEMORIES p14 Delta MP Carla Qualtrough represents Canada in Brazil

A happy mind Ladner woman talks journey to better mental health p8 SOMETHINGGOODMAGAZINE.CA

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What is Something Good? In a competitive world where there's such an emphasis on gaining every possible edge and advantage, people may be reluctant to show any outward weakness.

Sarah Kelloway Publisher/Designer

We worry that if we confess we get depressed, or don't put a positive message out on Facebook, that we'll be judged as being negative.

Mental health and wellness is as important as physical wellness, and we can and should talk openly about strengthening our minds in the same way we would our bodies. There is no shame in having a mental illness. The only problem is not asking others for help because of fear or embarrassment.

For those people suffering from mental illness it can be even more difficult, as nobody wants to admit they've let the darkness in. Nobody wants others to think they are mentally weak or damaged.

Adrian MacNair Editor/Photographer

Increasingly, people are being urged to talk about depression and other forms of mental illness before they become worse.

Speak up, speak out. We believe in you.

But thankfully attitudes have changed to the point where we no longer need to internalize our fears and keep them quiet.

Michaela from Flowers Beautiful during the TTC Mall's 45th anniversary event.

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Red Nose volunteers needed

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Do your part this season to keep Delta's streets safe from drinking and driving

A visit from Bateman

Renowned painter drops by Tsawwassen

Saving Timmy

Community comes together to help rescue a horse in distress.

Something Else

See our monthly roundup of community photos.

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Some good things to do WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24

7 PM (DOORS AT 6:30) MAGICAL VARIETY NIGHT WITH CARE, JORDAN & FRIENDS This event features the talents of award-winning variety and magical entertainers Care and Jordan, comedy from The Angry Albino, magician and children’s entertainer Ray Roch and the recent young graduates of the TAC’s Magic and Storytelling Class for kids! Tickets are $10 for 6+, $5 for ages 3-5, and kids under 3 are free. Tsawwassen Arts Centre – 1172 56 St., Delta.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19 6-11 PM ALLUVIUM PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW Local photographers Rick Pelletier, Tyler Garnham Photography, and Ronan Considine Photography will be hosting a one night gallery showing at the Harris Barn with photographs from around Delta. Live band and beer from Four Winds Brewing Co. with all proceeds going to the Delta Hospital Foundation. Event is free.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19 10AM-12PM WINTER HOLIDAY CENTREPIECE WORKSHOP The winter holidays bring plenty of good food and good company around the dinner table. This year, spruce up your table with a natural, homemade centrepiece! Sue Earles will guide workshop attendees in creating their own personalized, sustainable holiday centrepiece, with beeswax candles, festive ribbons and evergreen boughs that have been gathered locally. Take home a centrepiece that will brighten up every event! SOMETHINGGOODMAGAZINE.CA

6:00 PM TO 7:30 PM CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL 2016 This family-oriented event is the perfect kick-off to the holiday season in Ladner Village. There will be live musical performances of holiday favourites, as well as many fun activities, including: The annual LBA gingerbread cookie decorating contest for children, a colouring contest with fabulous prizes for children up to age 12, a specialty mailbox to drop off your letters to Santa or create one at the event, and much more. There will be complimentary hot chocolate for everyone to drink while strolling down Candy Cane Lane to watch Santa Claus lighting the Ladner Village Christmas tree. The Christmas Tree Festival will take place at the corner of 48th Avenue and Delta Street from 6-7:30 p.m. with the Christmas Tree Lighting at approximately 7:15 p.m.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27 10:00AM - 5:00PM KRAFTED MARKET This market aims to support our local artists by curating a market that offers a diverse selection of high quality, handmade products in a variety of categories. Krafted Market believes in community, and in building a tribe; the goal is to build the artistic community of South Delta. By limiting the number of vendors in each category, shoppers will find a diverse array of arts and crafts. The Krafted Market will be hosted by the South Delta Recreation Centre at 1720 56th Street. For more information you can visit them online at www.kraftedmarket.com.

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Photo courtesy KAROLINE CULLEN

Put on a red nose this winter

Christmas is a wonderful time of year where friends and family get together and indulge in good company, good food and sometimes a little bit too much drink. Sadly, there are still people who make poor decisions during the holidays to get behind the wheel and drive home while under the influence of alcohol. That's why Carlene Lewall of the Delta Gymnastics Society is putting out the call for volunteers to help with their Delta/Richmond Operation Red Nose (ORN) this year, so that every partygoer arrives home alive. Carlene says they need roughly 400 volunteers to work weekends beginning the last weekend of November (25, 26) and continuing until New Year's Eve. "The more driving teams we have the more people we can get home safely," says Carlene.

Volunteers are split up into teams of three, each person having an important role in getting a client home safely. When somebody calls ORN, all three will drive to meet the client in the "escort" vehicle. At that point, a designated driver will get behind the wheel of the client's car, the navigator will join the driver and coordinate with dispatch, while the escort driver will follow the client home.

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Dispatch can get quite busy at peak times with a wait time of up to an hour, so Carlene says more volunteers would help reduce those times and eliminate the temptation to drive home. She estimates they will need between 11 and 15 teams on any given night. Delta Gymnastics has been running the Delta/Richmond chapter of ORN for 14 years, but the origins of the safe drive program began in 1984 at Laval University. Jean-Marie De Koninck, a math professor and coach of the swim team, wanted to find a way to provide bursaries for student athletes, while also helping reduce the frightening statistics of drunk driving.

That initial contribution to amateur sport began a global trend, and today ORN is present in more than 100 communities across seven provinces in Canada, providing safe designated driving for over 56,000 Canadians. Each year, more than $1.5 million in ORN proceeds is redistributed to non-profit youth and amateur sports organizations, including right here in South Delta. ORN is also spread across the Lower Mainland, so you could technically get a ride from North Vancouver to Chilliwack, with transfers across districts, of course. Carlene provides

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an example for a person who lives in Walnut Grove but goes to a work party in Ladner: "We have a system that we call transfers and we would phone the Langley team and they would arrange for our car to meet with a team from Langley and drive you the rest of the way."

Volunteers will be required to work late into the night and wee hours of the morning. But fear not, all volunteers are well fed thanks to donations from Thrifty Foods, Save on Foods and Fresh Slice Pizza.

As well, the free Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at the Coast Tsawwassen Inn is held every year at the end of January or early February, with prizes and gifts for all the hard-working drivers, navigators and dispatchers. If you're interested in volunteering go to operationrednosedelta.com and complete the volunteer form, complete the Delta Police criminal record check and take it along with the attached letter to the Delta Police (the letter will allow you to have the check done free of charge). When completed return to Delta Gymnastics at the Delta Sport Development Center at 4680 Clarence Taylor Crescent.

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Christmas wonderland Delta Hospital Auxiliary Christmas gift store If you're still recovering from the chocolate hangover of Halloween and the turkey stuffing of Thanksgiving, you may not be ready for the arduous task of shopping for Christmas gifts.

Did you know there's no need to even leave Ladner to do a lot of your shopping? The Delta Hospital Auxiliary (DHA) Christmas Store is open now until Dec. 19, featuring hundreds of beautiful Christmas ornaments, gifts and just adorable crafts that can't fail to put you in the spirit. The store is run entirely by volunteers who live in the community – just like you. Their sole ambition is to give back to the Delta Hospital, which has given so much to the residents of Delta throughout these many years. Last year, 500 DHA volunteers donated over 100,000 hours of labour to help support the hospital's programs,

equipment and bursaries, a value of $750,000! This money included support for the new Pre-Admission Clinic, a state-of-the-art bus for Mountain View Manor, and a commitment to raise $2.4 million of the $12.5 million price tag for the new diagnostic wing at Delta Hospital. The Christmas Store is located in the heart of the Village on Delta Street. Come and browse any time from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The festive decorations and friendly volunteers are sure to put a Christmas smile on your lips.

Make this and support your local hospital!

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Your local place to shop for unique Christmas items. All proceeds go directly to support your local Delta Hospital!

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Photographs and story by ADRIAN MACNAIR

Piano prodigy to play with VSO

Every parent wants to encourage their child by telling them they can be anything they want when they grow up. More than anything else, we want their dreams to come true.

Tsawwassen musical prodigy Joshua Tromans, who recently turned 12, took his mother's encouragement to heart. At the age of five, his parents brought him to watch the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) perform a piano concerto.

"After everybody left he wanted to stay and sit down at the piano. He looked at the stage and he said, 'mommy, when I'm 12 years old I'm going to perform with the VSO.' And I said, 'OK, let's see,'" recalls his mom, Jullie Izawa, laughing. "And he's actually going to do that!" Joshua is set to perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, First Movement, with the VSO on Feb. 16, 2017, at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver.

The significance of this achievement cannot be overstated. Most pianists can work their entire lives and not once sniff the opportunity to play with a symphony orchestra, let alone one as prestigious as the VSO.

But then, Joshua is not "most piansts". A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music with First Class Honours at the age of 10, the youngster has already taken part in "master classes" with such renowned musicians as Tomislav Baynov, Inon Barnatan, and more recently, Angela

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Cheng, who is a Gold Medalist in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition. "After [ Joshua] performed, she said, 'music is alive and well in Canada,'" says Jullie.

Every day, Joshua takes the bus from South Delta to downtown's VSO School of Music, where he works with Sergei Saratovsky, a brilliant pianist in his own right. He is helping Joshua, who practices four to six hours a day, prepare for the upcoming piano concerto.

According to Jullie, he is also studying a diverse number of composers, styles and is "working on his craft", developing his technique, his expressiveness and his interpretion of music. His grasp of complex music at such a young age is so profound that he's turned the heads of some of the most renowned musical talents in the world. "I know it sounds biased from a mother but it's not just me talking. It's the professionals, the pianists and musicians and everybody's quite impressed in how much he's developed, not just technically speaking with the level of the pieces but also in the intrepretive skills." The piece Joshua will perform is roughly 20 minutes long, spanning 60 pages of music, and is among the "top five" most difficult pieces he's ever played, he says. For tickets to his performance, visit vancouversymphony.ca.

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A visit from

Bateman

Perhaps the most famous living Canadian artist visited Tsawwassen in October to share his thoughts on art, nature and talk about his most recent book, Life Sketches: A memoir. Robert Bateman, 86, stopped by the South Delta Rec Centre to meet fans of his artwork, best known for their stunning realism portraits of animals.

"At times I guess I'm a controversial figure among some artists, who maybe don't consider wildlife art part of the great lexicon of art. But, of course, they're wrong," says Robert, laughing.

Originally from Toronto, the artist has called Saltspring Island his home since the early 1980s. Much like Delta and other communities that lie in the path of the great Pacific Flyway, Saltspring

Island offers bird lovers like Robert nearly year-long viewing opportunities.

"I'm not a scholar in the area of ornothology or migration but I've spent a lifetime with birds, painting birds and taking an interest in them," he says. "So there's a connection there and that whole area [Delta] is fabulous during migration time." If you think that somebody in his

eighty-seventh year might be slowing down, nothing could be further from the truth. He is currently working on the largest painting he's ever done, a private commission that is a 15 foot wide triptych.

"I've never heard of an artist who retired. If someone went blind or totally crippled and couldn't continue to paint then fine. But I think artists are born that way and they die that way."

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A happy mind I

f one were to meet twenty-five-yearold Denise Askin, she is by all accounts a dynamic young entrepreneur. A health and fitness coach who also runs a hair styling business, she sits on the Ladner Business Association's board of directors.

With her friendly smile, confident speaking voice and vibrant purple hair, you'd probably think Denise is a naturally ebullient person. The fact that a poster in her bedroom reads, "Today I choose happiness" is a personal reminder that yesterday tells a different story.

Photographs and story by ADRIAN MACNAIR

Denise needs to surround herself with objects, people and animals (like her loving dog, Dixie) to remind herself that hers is a life worth living, despite being diagnosed with a mental illness. "I remember when I was told that this wasn't going to go away, that I was going to have to learn to manage it my whole life," recalls Denise. "And I remember feeling like that's a life sentence and I was so terrified."

It was as an adolescent that she began to exhibit signs of mental illness, but in hindsight she says it's likely there were clues even earlier. Chronic depression, anxiety, panic disorder and other symptoms of mental illness hit her hard when she was in Grade 10. "For me it was pretty severe. I stopped going to school. I went from having decent grades and no issues to almost being suspended for being late to too many classes."

This wasn't just the normal growing pains of a young person. There were clear signs that something was terribly wrong, indicates Denise. "It's one thing to be a typical miserable teenager and it's another for it to significantly impact your quality of life."

At the age of 15, Denise saw a psychiatrist, who told her parents to immediately take her to BC Children's Hospital Emergency Psychitric Unit where she stayed for a few

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days before they released her. She quickly learned that the treatment had been inadequate. "Two weeks later I went to my mom and I said I'm not OK, I'm not safe in my own body and in my own mind. You need to take me back right now." Denise stayed for a few more nights in Vancouver before checking into Surrey Memorial Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, where she lived for three months.

I FEEL THAT I'VE RECOVERED SIGNIFICANTLY FROM MY MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS," SHE SAYS. "THE POINT IS YOU HAVE TO WANT TO AND YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO DO THE WORK BECAUSE IT'S NOT EASY."

All of the horrible thoughts about her future floated through her brain. Did this mean she could never hold down a job? Would nobody ever come to love her? Would society reject and shun her? A decade later, Denise is adamant that a diagnosis of mental illness is not a "death sentence."

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"I feel that I've recovered significantly from my mental health issues in the last couple of years," she says. "The point is you have to want to and you have to be willing to do the work because it's not easy." Denise says part of treating mental illness is admitting there's a problem and facing your fears.

"Recovering to the extent that I have, and to the extent many people do, requires visiting some really ugly, nasty places in your mind that you don't want to go to."

One way she began treating herself was by changing her diet and exercising, two things that can have a dramatic effect on one's mood. As well, Denise says mental illness can be exacerbated by health issues, such imbalances in iron levels or checking your thyroid, something medical doctors don't always link together.

at Tsawwassen's South Delta Secondary for a community forum on youth depression and suicide.

Despite public awareness gains in recent years surrounding mental health issues through campaigns like #BellLetsTalk and others, there's still work to do on public education. Today, Denise draws strength from helping others, by sharing her own stories and demonstrating that a fulfilling and beautiful life is still possible. "When people approach me and ask for help and share their own stories with me and tell me how my story has inspired them or helped them, that's been the best reward for everything I've been through."

To contact the Delta Mental Health local action team or for more information email lwalker@divisionsbc.ca.

Another way she was able to recover from severe depression was reading personal development books, such as The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy and You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero. The books helped her discover her own mental strength to change her happiness. "I had to realize that I am the only one who can make me happy. I am the only one who has control over my mental health. So I can take the steps to do that if I want to." Denise adds that the hardest thing to do was learn to be grateful for the good things in her life. She accomplished that by starting a "gratitude journal", which she freely admits seemed like "lying" at first. But slowly, she began to appreciate her own battle with mental illness.

"Going through everything I have been through has made me a more open and dynamic person and I have been able to help so many people. And I don't think I would be grateful for all of the things I have now if I hadn't been where I was." Earlier this year, Denise became involved in the South Delta Mental Health local action team, recently speaking

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Saving Timmy It's always nice to get outside, get some exercise and partake in some harmless horseplay. But tragedy nearly struck two weeks ago (Oct. 17), when Timmy, a beautiful chestnut coloured horse in East Ladner, fell into a waterlogged ditch and had to be rescued. Timmy was playing in a field at 104th Street and 59th Avenue, just north of the East Delta Community Hall, when he got trapped in a ditch and struggled to keep his head above the water.

The owner, seeing her beloved horse struggling for his life, tried in vain to pull him from the ditch. When she couldn't, she desperately made the call to emergency services, and Delta Police constables Kelly Seib and Kathy Bauman were first on the scene. The good news was that the horse's head was sticking out above the water, but unfortunately he had fallen onto his side and wasn't in a position to right himself.

"I knew straight away that there was no way to get that horse out of its position without having it strapped and pulled out," says Kelly, who put out the call for more people to come and help. "At the end of the day, Kathy and I both agreed there was no way we were going to stand by and allow this horse to die on our watch."

The response was swift. Members from the Delta Fire Department, municipal engineering department, the Delta Community Animal Shelter and Roadway Towing in Surrey all attended the call to try and get Timmy freed. "I saw an owner who was fearful and upset for all the right and understandable reasons. And for me looking at her, I knew this was her 'fur baby' and her best friend. So the end goal was to do everything we could." The only way to get Timmy out was to get into the water with the horse, wrap him in straps, and then have the tow truck and first responders pull him out. Kelly says when the time came to get into the frigid water, she looked at Kathy quickly and said, "are you good?" She nodded, and they plunged in. The officers are adamant that anybody would have done the same thing in their shoes and that saving the horse wouldn't have been possible without the help of everybody involved.

"Everybody there was working, even the horse owner who I had comforting Timmy," says Kelly. "Because I knew as a pet owner myself you want to be right at the head to comfort the horse as much as you can. And the firemen

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were assisting us with ladders and digging out the weeds. So it took a huge team effort." The first responders used the same techniques to keep the horse calm as they would any human, by speaking calmly and preventing him from panicking and potentially making his situation more precarious. Even though they couldn't communicate with the horse, Kelly is certain Timmy knew they were there to help him.

"Animals understand body language and it's my belief they do understand if there's fear. So everybody surrounding the horse, including Kathy and I and the owner, were talking to the horse." When Timmy was finally pulled free and managed to stand on his own four feet (hooves) again, cheers and hugs were shared all around. Fortunately, Timmy had no broken bones or lasting injuries and Kelly says everybody was glad for the happy ending. "We do work in a unique community where there is farming and that is part of what one should expect as a police officer," says Kelly. "Timmy's a life and we did what we had to do to help him. And luckily everything worked out."

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Remembrance Day LADNER

The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 61 and the Corporation of Delta invite you and your family to attend a parade and wreath laying ceremony in Ladner.

LEST WE FORGET Message from the Mayor and Delta Council LEST WE FORGET LEST WE FORGET Message from the Mayor and Delta Council Message from the Mayor and Delta Council

The parade begins at the Legion branch (4896 Delta Street), at 10:15 am. Ceremony to commence at the Cenotaph at Memorial Park in Ladner (47 Ave & Garry St), at 10:40 am. Friday, November 11, 2016 Parade begins 10:15 am, ceremony at 10:40 am TSAWWASSEN The Vancouver Welsh Men's Choir Remembrance Day concert will be held at the South Delta Baptist Church on Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 2:30 pm. Joining the choir on this special day will be the Band of the 15th Field Regiment. Tickets are now available for purchase Adult $29, Senior $27, and Student with ID is $12.

On November 11, please take time to remember those men and women in active service and veterans of past wars for their dedication and strength in fighting to protect our rights and On November 11, please take time to remember those men freedoms. and women in active service veterans of pastthose wars men for their On November 11, please takeand time to remember dedication and strength in served, fighting to protect ourwars rights and and womenthose in active and veterans of past for their To honour whoservice have Remembrance Day ceremonies freedoms. dedication strength in fighting to protect ourPark rights will be heldand at the Cenotaph in Ladner Memorial andand at the freedoms. Social Heart Plaza in North Delta. To honour those who have served, Remembrance Day ceremonies will be heldthose at thewho Cenotaph in Ladner Memorial Park at the To honour have served, Remembrance Day and ceremonies Social Plaza in North Delta. will beHeart held at the Cenotaph in Ladner Memorial Park and at the

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Social Heart Plaza in North Delta.

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Motherhood: Unfiltered

Photography exhibit benefits postpartum depression Scanning your Facebook feed you may find photos of mothers laughing, playing with their children, and having what appears to be a wonderful time. But that image of maternal perfection may be misleading. When Tsawwassen photographer Eran Sudds gave birth to a baby boy three years ago she had no idea it would be so difficult to be a mother, nor that she would lose all sense of her identity.

Postpartum Support Society. Eran soon learned she was far from alone. "Once I started talking about it I realized there were other people that felt that way," she says. When suffering from depression, Eran says that well-

2015, Eran wanted to do something special with her photography that would tie her skills to her experiences with postpartum depression.

her story written in the Huffington Post.

"At that point I realized this was something, people are relating to it," says Eran.

And so she decided to offer a photoshoot of mothers with their children, offering proceeds to the Pacific Pastpartum

From that experience, she began Motherhood: Unfiltered, a photographic journey into the lives of a dozen local moms, captured in their homes and engaging in day-to-day life. Eran says she wanted to photograph what real mothers go through, the good and the bad, postpartum depression, caring for a child with a disability, or the struggle of living with extended family.

"I thought, I don't know who I am anymore. I have this kid that needs me all the time, I can't do any of the things I want to do anymore," recalls Eran. "I feel like I'm just a mom, I'm not a person. It was really, really difficult."

Postpartum depression is a common and clinically recognized phenomenon that can occur to both sexes, but mainly mothers, after childbirth. Symptoms may include sadness, low energy, anxiety and a host of other issues. Eran says that far from the blissful image of motherhood presented on social media, she "hated" being a mother at first. She felt isolated. Scared. And internalizing those feelings just made her feel worse.

Fortunately, she was able to find help and counselling through the Pacific

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She asked them not to tidy the house or put on makeup or comb their hair or do anything they wouldn't do without the camera being there.

meaning people had all sorts of advice for her, but all she really needed was acknowledgement of her struggles.

"To hear somebody just say, I know this is hard but you're doing great, made so much more of a difference than somebody telling me I should be bottlefeeding or breastfeeding." Prior to Mother's Day in

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Support Society, to help others the way she had been helped. She took photos of moms with their kids holding up encouraging signs for other moms such as, "You're doing a great job, You are enough, I believe in you." The fundraiser started in Ladner and sold out so quickly that they tried it in other cities such as New Westminster and Victoria. Suddenly, Eran found

"I just wanted to show that this is what we look like every day," she says. "This is what we do every day." Eran says it can be a scary, vulnerable thing to allow somebody to photograph the mess, the tears, the arguments, the disciplining. But she says through all the chaos that is motherhood there is beauty as well. Perhaps just not the kind portrayed on social media. Motherhood: Unfiltered is displayed at Ladner Birch Tree on Delta Street.

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Something Social

People start running for all kinds of different reasons. Some get into it to lose weight, some want to improve their cardiovascular fitness to improve another sport, and others simply enjoy the rhythm and movement.

Kevin Ridley, owner of the Run Inn in Tsawwassen and Vancouver, has been running for 40 years and helping people train for almost as long. When he opened his Kerrisdale location about 25 years ago he began running clinics to help educate the public on proper technique and training.

"We found that's the way you engage with the community and/or customers," says Kevin. "So we started a clinic where you can learn everything from walking right up to competitive runners." There are thousands of sports out there but the one constant seems to be running. That's because Kevin says there are so many sports where running is a perfect cross-training activity, whether it be running, pilates, yoga or lifting weights in the gym, they all contribute to health and well-being. Even though the Run Inn is primarily a running and walking specialty store, Kevin finds that increasingly their customers are asking about crossover sports. And for good reason.

"People find that they can maintain their fitness into their sixties and seventies working out pretty competitively still," he says. That's where a good training clinic can make a world of difference. People of all ages, abilities and walks of life are

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welcome to sign up for the Run Inn Club.

These clinics give beginners the right information when they start out so that they pick the proper running or walking shoe, but perhaps more importantly, pick the right pace to prevent injury. "Probably eighty percent of people who get injured when they're starting a new program is because they're trying to do too much, too fast." The other, and arguably more popular, reason to join the Run Inn Club is for the social aspect of being part of a team. Most runners in the clinics will set goals to participate in races, so the team will help that runner prepare for a 5 km or 10 km or half marathon over a period of 12 to 14 weeks. But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

"Then we'll do a club night where we'll do a social and we'll have some wine and beer and appetizers that bring people together and get to know people in the group they may not be training with," says Kevin. "When you do a lot of training you want to have some reward at the end of it." Many of the runners in the club right now are preparing for the Ronald McDonald House Boundary Bay Marathon on Nov. 6, which Run Inn also sponsors. The race offers a number of distances, including 5 km, 10 km, half marathon, full marathon, and relay marathon races.

You can learn more about the Run Inn Club and upcoming marathon at runinn.com, or by dropping by their Delta location at 1212B 56th Street.

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Golden memories for Delta MP For many Canadian athletes at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games it was a journey to a foreign land and experience unlike anything they'd seen before. But for Delta MP Carla Qualtrough, it was like "coming home."

The former Canadian Paralympic swimmer competed in the 1988 and 1992 Paralympic Games, winning three bronze medals in the 4x100m relay. During the Rio Olympics, the federal Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities was still representing Canada, just in a different way. "I got to present medals, I got see excellent sports, it was very moving and touching to have the opportunity to go back in this capacity," recalls Qualtrough, who presented a gold medal to Aurelie Rivard, who won the 100 metre freestyle in the Paralympic Games. "The athletes are such great ambassadors for our country that they just make you so proud to be Canadian."

Having been an elite Paralympic athlete, the minister brought a rare perspective for a member of government, in that she knows firsthand the pressure competitors feel. She also knows how years of training can be lost with one little mistake, recalling the time she dove off the starting blocks and lost her swimming goggles.

"At my peak I was swimming 11 times a week," says Qualtrough. "When you've invested that much time and it's going to come down to 30 seconds it's really nervewracking to watch."

The Paralympics don't get quite the media attention as the Olympics, however the quality isn't diminished. If anything, as Qualtrough points out, the disabled athletes are exceeding the results of Olympic athletes. Four of the runners in the 1,500m Paralympic final finished with a faster time than gold medalist Matthew Centrowitz. As a long-time supporter of sport, Qualtrough was at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver as president of the Paralympic Committee for Canada. She has been involved in sport and Paralympic sport for 30 years, but says going to Brazil as minister for sport had her "bursting with pride". "It just reminded me of how lucky I am to have this opportunity and I'm serious about making good on it," she says.

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As far as her Olympic perspective, Qualtrough says that like any large city hosting an international event as massive as the Olympics, there were some long lines where people had to wait. But everything else, from the food to the athlete village to their hosts, was "fantastic". "The Brazilian people love sports so both the Olympic and Paralympic Games delivered that in spades for Brazilians. But they particularly embraced the Paralympics. They came out to celebrate, cheer and support." Qualtrough says she can also take away some lessons from the Olympics that will help in her capacity as minister. Two days before the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, she met with sport ministers and ambassadors from dozens of countries about using sport to connect with communities and encourage more women and girls to get into athletics.

"That is exciting for me because that is what we're in the process of developing here at home, is an international sport strategy that looks at not only how we get an advantage on the high performance side of things but also how we show leadership in areas where sport is a tool for social development."

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Something else

Clockwise from top left: A visitor browses the Delta Hospital Auxiliary Christmas Store on opening day; Angelika Hedley spruces up the flowerbed at the PetroCanada in Tsawwassen; B.C. Premier Christy Clark visits Petra's by L'Aromas to endorse Delta South candidate Ian Paton; Vic Mazzei celebrates 45 years at the Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall. Photos by Adrian MacNair.

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