The Community Development Corporation is launching a new program to promote volunteerism in our community. Revelstoke has a strong history of volunteerism, contributing not only to the ‘hidden’ economy but also to the vitality and spirit that makes our community “the friendly, happening place we all know and love,” it said in a news release.

“The Spirit of Revelstoke award program recognizes citizens who have made outstanding volunteer contributions to our community,” the release said.

“Award recipients will be honoured with a personal letter from the Mayor of Revelstoke and a small token of appreciation. Names of recipients will be published in local media and entered into a draw to win a Spirit of Revelstoke print designed by local artist Rob Buchanan. The names of nominators will remain confidential.”

The volunteer nominated can be any age and his or her  contribution must be significant:

• Having occurred on a regular basis over time (i.e. shoveling a neighbour’s driveway all winter), or
• Related to a community organization, or
• Having made a major impact on a specific project that will benefit the community at large.

Please click here to access an interactive nomination form.

Nomination forms can also be picked up at Chamber of Commerce reception (204 Campbell Ave) or requested via email to: volunteer@revelstokecf.com

Send us your completed nomination form to Volunteer Revelstoke via email to:  volunteer@revelstokecf.com

OR drop off at 204 Campbell Ave. or mail to PO Box 2398 Revelstoke BC V0E 2S0

Patti Larson, coordinator of the Community Connections' Food Bank, was all smiles as she received a cheque for $1,000 from (left to right) David Evans, Pam Doyle, Ken Jones, Catherine Bell, Garry Pendergast and David Johnson. The members of the Bygone Era Entertainment Society raised the money through last Christmas' Victorian Magic Lantern Shows. David F. Rooney photo

Vittoria Mendonca and Carmella Batke were all smiles last Friday as they gratefully received a $500 cheque from George Hopkins of Revelstoke's Elks Lodge No. 453. The money was raised by the Penny Drive rganized last year by Elks Lodge member Clancy Boettger. The ladies said the Revelstoke Acrobats will use the money to purchase new trampolines and other equipment. David F. Rooney photo

You can just imagine what's rolling through five-year-old Jasper Label's mind: "Is that really Frosty the Snowman's baby picture?" The famous snowman's baby picture is on display at the Revelstoke branch of the Okanagan Regional Library. David F. Rooney photo

from Grades Four to Seven.  The winner of the Bee, Erin Behncke, is off to Kamloops on March 3 to compete in the Regional Bee.

Here are some photos from the Spelling Bee and this year’s Family Literacy Day:

Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Hicks show off their book on Family Literacy day at AHE. Mrs. Thompson’s costume was ‘udderly’ amazing! Photo courtesy of Arrow Heights Elementary School and caption by Simon Brittin

Avid readers Emily Richardson and Griffin Velichko finish one of their many books on Family Literacy Day at AHE. Photo courtesy of Arrow Heights Elementary School and caption by Simon Brittin

Sabine Tomm gives all her attention to Brogan Copp as he reads to her. Photo courtesy of Arrow Heights Elementary School and caption by Simon Brittin

Alana Brittin spells a word to the judges. Photo courtesy of Arrow Heights Elementary, caption by Simon Brittin

Amilia Brown spells in front of the hopeful adults and students. Photo courtesy of Arrow Heights Elementary, caption by Simon Brittin

Megan Cottingham battled it out with Erin Behncke in the final round. Photo courtesy of Arrow Heights Elementary School, caption by Simon Brittin

Erin Behncke, AHE spelling champ, spells a word. Photo courtesy of Arrow Heights Elementary, caption by Simon Brittin

All the AHE CANSPELL spellers: (Back) Alice Dunkerson, Samantha Legebokow, Megan Cottingham, Alana Brittin, Erin Behncke, Jaimie Reynolds, Electra Poole. (Front): Kate Granstrom, Amilia Brown, Caitlin Vopni, Charli Scherdevin, Cameron McTaggart. Photo courtesy of Arrow Heights Elementary School, caption by Simon Brittin

Paige MacKenzie and Zoe Larsen with the CPE Book Graph. Photo courtesy of Columbia Park Elementary

By Ariel McDowell
Columbia Park Elementary School Principal

All last week week, Columbia Park Elementary School students participated in a book drive to fill up our free school Book Swap. The school Book Swap lives in our main entrance and students, parents and visitors are encouraged to help themselves to books and to donate books on an ongoing basis.

However, our book selection had become a little mundane of late, so the staff of CPE decided we needed to liven things up. The Book Swap comes out of our school focus on literacy and our belief that easy access to good books for everyone is a right.

On Monday last week, classes were asked to set a goal for the number of books they could bring in. After we kicked off the book drive, we added a little element of competition.  Tracy Tompkins, our Grade 5 teacher, designed a huge graph to chart each day’s progress for each class.  I added in a pizza lunch prize to be awarded to the class that brought the most books.  By Wednesday, we had over 1,000 books, and most classes had exceeded the goal they set.  By Thursday, it was getting downright ridiculous: books were being delivered by breathless parents at all hours of the day.  Friday morning, our lovely and patient secretary, Sandi Young, was surrounded by hundreds of books waiting to be delivered to classrooms.  After lunch today— after having charted and re-charted the classroom totals — the final tally was a whopping 3,288 books!  Sarah Rota’s Grade 1/2 class came out in first place with 606 books piled outside their room!

Artfully arranged books collected by Mrs. MacFarlane's Grade 2/3 class. Photo courtesy of Columbia Park Elementary

The hugely successful Drive ended with each class artfully displaying the books they

Students from Ms. Rota's class collected 606 books; Hailey Vigue and Rhenna Secord organize the piles of books. Photo courtesy of Columbia Park Elementary

collected on tables outside their classroom.  All of the students were then invited to go “shopping” (for free) for five books of their choice to take home.  The last half hour of the day CPE looked like one enormous used book store, filled with excited bookworms.  I suspect many families are curled up on couches enjoying the new books as I write this.   Now I’m off to do the same with my kids! All of us here at CPE are so grateful to the wonderful and supportive families at our school, and I’d love them to see their efforts mentioned.

• This Winter Farmer’s Market has been rescheduled to Friday, February 3 from 2 until 5 pm
• Admission to the Anything Goes 2 art exhibition at the Visual Arts Centre at 7 pm on February 3 is by ticket only. Tickets are available from the 50 artists in this show 
•  There will be a FREE skate at The Forum on Tuesday February 7 from 10:30 am – 1:30 pm

Impelled by her recognition that the deaths of several young men from Revelstoke over the past 18 months have had terrible impact on many people in Revelstoke, long-time local counsellor Tuulikki Tennant began a series of weekly discussions about grief and recovery.

Current writer Laura Stovel attended the first session last week and will follow the rest of Tuulikki’s public session through the next month (you can find her first story here). As an addition we hope will benefit readers, The Current is pleased to offer Tuulikki’s original notes.

Revelstoke has had a particularly rough year. We are a small, deeply inter-connected community and hearts have been hurt and touched repeatedly simply through the sheer number of young people and middle-aged people who have died, many of them unexpectedly.

There has not been time to completely re-group emotionally. Some are psychologically bracing for another blow and aren’t completely feeling safe emotionally in the face of what has happened. People are trying to “make sense” of it all.

The Experience of Grief:

Loss and the accompanying grief is one of the most powerful and challenging human experiences one can undergo.

The intensity and duration are reflected in the significance of the loss, one’s attachment, circumstances, individual coping strategies, pre-existing levels of stress, frames of reference and beliefs and views about life. (We, in Canada,  particularly try to apply the concept of fair.)

Definition of Words usually referred to in Loss:

Grief:

• Deep sorrow, sadness, distress

Grieve:

• To feel grief

Bereaved:

• Suffering the death of a loved one

Bereavement:

• the state or fact of being bereaved

Mourning:

• an act of grieving

(these definitions from Webster’s Dictionary)

To experience grief and mourning are a necessary part of recovering from the death of a loved one and other losses in your life. I see it as love turned inside out. The depth of grief reflects how deeply you loved someone. The old notion that you grieve for a few months, then get back to yourself and your life as before is not true. Grief is an ebb and flow, an up and down. It can be a sudden wave in a calm time. It can surprise you. What triggers grief can surprise you. It can lead to a cascade of losses related to the primary loss. It can open old wounds not quite healed.

Grief will heal you and if you really give it room and care for yourself it will grow you.

What I know to be true both personally and professionally is that if you care for your heart, feel, speak your experience and take the actions that support your healing, grief does not need to become the centrepoint place from which you live for the rest of your life.

For me what I have discovered and seen over and over Love is.

You will always love the person who has passed if love is what existed between you.

Everyone is unique. Everyone is their own particular constellation of strengths and vulnerabilities. Our experience of grief will be unique and what works for one may not work for another. There are however common threads through this experience and this will be our focus this evening.

Experience of grief and how it is expressed varies according to age – child, youth, adult.

(for information about children and grief, check out the good summary at www.about.com)

• symptoms
• factors that intensify grief
• factors that complicate grief
• duration of the grief process

Symptoms:

• has been compared to the physiological equivalent of being burned
• there are physical, emotional, cognitive (thinking) expressions of grief
• acute grief reaction/normal grief behavior includes:
• (1) feelings
• (2) physical sensations
• (3) cognitions or thinking behavior
• (4) behaviours – what we do

Manifestations of Normal Grief:

Feelings:

• Sadness
• Anger (this can be one of the most confusing feelings and often at the root of challenges in grieving) – anger comes from 2 sources  (a) sense of frustration that there was nothing one could do to prevent the death (b) from feelings of helplessness, feeling unable to exist without the other, anxiety – anger can be displaced and directed towards another and blaming them for the death (of course in the case of murder there is clearly a responsible other) if someone can be blamed then he/she is responsible, and therefore the loss could have been prevented – blame can be directed to health care professionals, God, family members
• Guilt and self-reproach
• Anxiety – range from a slight sense of insecurity to a full blown panic attack – anxiety comes from primarily 2 sources – fear that one will not be able to survive without the person who died and heightened sense of personal death awareness or the death of another close to you
• Loneliness
• Helplessness
• Shock
• Yearning
• Emancipation – feelings of freedom if the relationship has been deeply challenging/hurtful/abusive
• Relief
• Numbness

Physical:

• Fatigue
• Hollowness in the stomach
• Tightness in the chest
• Tightness in the throat
• Oversensitivity to noise
• Sense of depersonalization – things do not seem quite real
• Breathlessness – short of breath
• Weakness
• Lack of energy
• Dry mouth

Cognitions:

• Disbelief
• Confusion
• Preoccupation
• Sense or presence
• Disruption or shattering of beliefs about the world, how it works and how life moves

Important to notice the statements we make to ourselves about our experience

• the death of a loved one can evoke a crisis of belief whether that be how one believes life and the world works and is structured to a spiritual crisis of faith and challenge to one’s belief in a higher power
• often people feel that they are going “crazy” and accurate knowledge about grief goes a long way to normalize and validate one’s experience and decreases the stress and anxiety about what it happening

Factors that can Intensify Grief:

• age of the individual who has died – the loss of a child is one of the most overwhelming losses
• suddenness of the loss – when there is no time to anticipate or brace for a death the impact can be greater
• the numbers of losses or stresses already being experienced – Revelstoke has had a particularly rough year
• depth of the love attachment

Factors that can Complicate Grief:

• unresolved or partially resolved previous losses
• a conflicted or ambivalent connection or attachment to the person who died
• a strained or rifted relationship that was not resolved prior to death
• pre-existing mental health/emotional issues
• sudden deaths (sense of unreality about the loss, guilt – “if only . . . “ thinking, blame, involvement of medical and legal authorities – especially heightened with homicide, helplessness, agitation, unfinished business, need to understand)
• cause of death is suicide (often compounded by feelings of anger, shame, fear (of own self-destructive impulses), rejection and guilt – themes of “Was I part of the reason?”, “Why did they do it?”, “Why didn’t I prevent it?”, “How could he/she do this to me?”)
• cause of death is homicide (trauma response – post-traumatic stress)
• when death is fairly certain to have occurred but the person is not found
• when you have either witnessed or been part of the experience in which someone died or attempted to save and could not (again a trauma)

Duration of Grief:

• old notion was 6 months to a year – simply not true
• grief is a fluid process that ebbs and flows – at times can be overwhelming and at others times one can have a long period of calm and ease before a wave of grief  rolls over you
• the first year is generally the hardest – when all the first experiences without the loved one occur
• the loss of a child can evoke sadness in your future when “milestone” events, such as graduations, weddings, etc. and other possible future possibilities do not manifest – seeing the vision or dream of your child in the life experiences that will not come to be

Purpose of Grief:

• an expression of the loss of our very real human love connection with one another
• a return to love

Information provided from:

Tuulikki Tennant MSW RSW

J. William Worden, author of Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner

Over the past year, Revelstoke has been rocked by the sudden deaths of several young and middle aged men and at least one woman with Revelstoke roots. Local counsellor Tuulikki Tennant, “Revelstoke has had a particularly rough year,” so much so that people have begun to “brace themselves psychologically” for the next loss. Around seven young men have died, ranging in age from nine to 28, including the tragic death of nine-year-old Jake Gericke in a bicycle accident and the murder of the talented young musician, Daniel Levesque.

Responding to the sheer numbers of people needing help in dealing with their grief, Tennant decided to run a four-part series of talks on Healing Grief. “You can always reach more people in a venue like this, she said. The first talk, The Experience of Grief, was held at the Community Centre Thursday evening and was attended by more than 30 people.

“Often how we see life, and what we believe life to be about, affects us in our grief,” Tennant explained. Many people are stuck on the word “fair.” It’s not fair that their loved one, who was a good person, was taken away. Shattering the worldview of life as fair leads some to question other aspects of their life.

According to Tennant, grief is “love turned inside out. The depth that you loved someone is the intensity that you feel grief.” This can be even harder if the death is sudden, if the deceased is a child or if he or she killed herself or was murdered. But even with these terrible tragedies, loved ones can move through their grief, supported by those around them.

“Grief doesn’t need to be the center-point of your life. For me, it’s love that is the center-point,” Tennant said. “You’ll always hold onto the love in your heart.” For Tennant, despite losing several loved ones, “I want to be a little old lady in my rocking chair, saying ‘I loved deeply.’”

Society often places a lot of pressure on people to move quickly through their grief, to “move on” or “at least not talk about it,” Tennant said. While the first year is known to be the toughest, grief can last a very long time and hit people in waves. Just when a bereaved person thinks he or she is fine, a song or a milestone in the deceased’s life can trigger a wave of sadness. This is especially the case with the loss of a child. The date the child would have graduated or the marriage of friends can be painful.

Revelstoke is blessed by being a very close and supportive community, Tennant said. In the 16 years that she has lived and worked in Revelstoke as a counsellor and social worker she has appreciated that support which can be so valuable to people in times of loss. Because of this, Tennant was inspired to organize these events, as a volunteer, as an “act of gratitude” to the community. She particularly encourages young people who have been affected by recent losses to attend.

The next three talks will be held on Thursdays, February 2, 9 and 16 from 7 pm to 8:30 pm in the MacPherson Room at the Community Center. The talks will be:

• February 2:             Movement and Stillness through Grief
• February 9:             Caring for Self and Others
• February 16:           Creation of Connections for Support

Jackie Goodman poses in front of semi bearing the logo of the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer. Darrell Goodman photo

As a member of the Lake Revelstoke Dragon Boat Society Jackie Goodman is an active campaigner against cancer. Now’s she’s expanding her participation in cancer research fund raising by cycling from Surrey to Seattle.

“t was nice talking to you the other afternoon,” her husband, Darrell said in an e-mail Wednesday. “To further our conversation, Jackie and I are doing something I think is pretty amazing at our age. We are doing a bike ride in June together from Surrey to Seattle in two days.

“Jackie did it last year and I was her cheering squad, photographer and roadie and I kind of got caught up in the whole moment when there were 2,874 people on bikes to raise money for cancer research that benefits the B.C. Cancer Foundation.”

Now these are a lot of bikes. In fact, they are some of the the bikes that were dropped off the night before for the early departure from Surrey. Darrell Goodman photo

Darrell and Jackie are now working out three times a week, and as soon as the snow is gone they’ll be on their bikes training for this year’s Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, which last year raised $11.3 million dollars that stays in British Columbia for cancer research.

Last summer's rain made for a wet ride but that didn't deter Jackie and other ardent campaigners for cancer research. Darrell Goodman photo

If you’d like to learn more, please watch the video below: