Dear Reading Week...

Dear Reading Week,

I'm not ready to break up yet.

Love,

Shelley

A typical Cook sister phone call...

Baby Shelley & Baby Heather

*Ring, ring, ring*

Shelley: Hello?

Heather: What are you doing?

Shelley: I'm at Safeway. What are you doing?

Heather: Nothing. K, I'll let you go. Bye

Shelley: Bye

*Click*

(P.S This happens like 87 times a night.)

The best days of our lives...

Reading week has been utterly refreshing! I am about to head out of my apartment, and join the Y. I can't wait to get on that treadmill! (Seriously folks, I am listening to Eye of the Tiger as I write this...)

This morning I had to head down to the Canadian Dimension in the Exchange District and put in a few hours of "interning." As luck would have it, I ran into one of my favourite people in CreComm; Andrew Kress. We had a little coffee date at Mondragon, and it was awesome. (I know that its only been a couple of days, but I have grown accustomed to seeing my CCBFF ("CreComm Best Friends Forever" as Duncan puts it) every day, so not seeing my CCBFF's over the course of these couple of days has really put me into withdrawal!)

That being said, these much needed days off are still a godsend!

There is so much truth in the term "CreComm Mafia," we've all grown so close and developed wicked friendships during the short time that we've been in this program. These are the best days of our lives folks; one day we'll look back and long for the intense days of CreComm.

It's hard to imagine that under all of this stress, and all of this pressure, that we are actually experiencing the best days of our lives; but we are. In such a cut-throat industry, here we all are, working our asses off to achieve our dreams, and the the most remarkable part is that we are helping one another do that. It's hard to explain, but even though this program, and the "industry" that we are all trying to be a part of, is extremely competitive, we all do our damnedest to help each other, and not to let anyone fail. If any of us need help, there is someone who is willing to give it. It's astounding.

Ugh, I'm getting all mushy here. But, in my defence the last couple of days has enabled me to recharge my batteries, and realize that I am so lucky to be where I am with the people that are there with me.

I love you CreComm!

That being said, it's time for me to go to Y before I get to sentimental and start writing love letters to all of my classmates!

Tata for now.

Oh, and as an added bonus, here's an awesome video that Jeff Ward made of the CreComm Bachelor/Bachelorette Auction (I get serious around the five minute mark...)

A Night with Friends...

Here is the poster for the fundraiser at the Joseph Beeper Spence Youth Drop-in Centre on Saturday, March 27th. (It's a small image, so go here for details.) I am selling tickets for $10, and they will also be at the door.

There will be awesome entertainment: Musicians Billy Joe Green, Troy "Little Hawk" Westwood and Wab Kinew, and Aboriginal comedian Don Burnstick (It's okay non-Aboriginals, you can come and laugh at his jokes. He's hilarious!) There will also be many, many more entertainers and performances.

As well, there will be a silent auction. Some of the prizes are a digital camera, an Aboriginal star blanket, bedding, art, an ipod, an more...

If you can't come to the event, buy a ticket anyway; your ticket will go to someone in the community who can't afford to go! (How awesome is that!?)

Leave me a message, and I will get you your tickets! Also, if you have a prize that you would like to donate, let me know!!

Thanks!

Nothing.

It's reading week!

So far I haven't done a lot, and it's been great! I did however catch up on some much needed sleep, and I cleaned and organized my apartment. Oh, and I've watched a lot of Olympics.

I can't believe how refreshing it has been to have two days of nothing; it feels weird, but good.

Today I did something out of the norm; I signed up for kick-boxing classes. My friend Maya encouraged me to join with her, and since I have always wanted to try kickboxing, I figured I may as well give it a shot. I'm nervous. But, I need to become more active, because my busy routine has been unforgiving and the weight gain that I have experienced is unhealthy, unflattering and extremely uncomfortable. Plus, it will be neat to try something new.

Ahh well, I really have nothing to blog about right now (But, I didn't want this week to lag in posts...) Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to write in the upcoming days...

Do you know the muffin man?!

Beeper's Mom (Nancy Flett)

Nancy looks at a board with clippings of her son. (Larger image clippings on the previous post. With consent from Nancy.)

I met with Nancy Flett again today. We met to discuss the upcoming 'A night with Friends Variety Show' fundraiser that I am helping her put on for the Joseph Beeper Spence Youth Drop-in Centre.

The centre is in dire need of funding, and the threat of it shutting its doors is very real.

I am so frustrated; another inner city drop-in is on the cusp of demise, and unless it can find the appropriate level of funding, there is very little that anybody can do to save it. That being said, I am not letting this happen without a fight; I will go down kicking and screaming.

I didn't grow up in the north end, I didn't use the drop-in when I was a kid, or know anybody who did for that matter. Other than knowing Nancy, and feeling a connection to her's and Beeper's story, I have no real tie to the centre at all.

Nancy is a true warrior. Today she recanted the story about the night that her little boy died. As she sat in her office chair, she got that far off look in her eyes, and she told me about how she went to the hospital that night. She said that she all she remembers of first walking into the hospital was finding a trail of blood in the hallway. She said that her head was spinning, and she was pleading with the doctors to save Beeper's life, and when they couldn't, she said she remembers going into the room where he was, and seeing her baby lying on a stretcher, bloody and with tubes hanging out of him. She said she held him, crying and begging him to open his big brown eyes.

It was truly one of the saddest things I have ever seen in my life; a mother reliving the day that her son died.

Afterward, she showed me a board with old news clippings of Beeper on it.

"This is what I use when I do talks about gang violence," she told me, holding the board that contained graphic images, including one of her 13-year old son lying in the street and being worked on by paramedics.

"I couldn't believe it when I saw that," she said of the disturbing picture of her son.

It was truly horrible.

For Nancy, her goal in life -- the one that was automatically given to her by the people who killed her boy -- is to make sure that other kids don't meet the same tragic fate that her son did. She works hard, trying to keep the doors to the drop-in open for area kids, who might otherwise have no other place to go. Sure, there are other drop-in centre's in the area, but the dynamic of the north end is one that, unless you live there, it's something that many people don't understand. Many of the kids hang out in groups -- This is not to say that they are gangs, or 'bad kids' in any way -- but different groups of kids hang out at different drop-in centres; for some of the kids at the Joseph Beeper Spence Youth Drop-in, this is a place that they have that's their own. If one group of kids doesn't get along with another group, they don't use the same centre. plain and simple.

It might not be comprehensible for people who have never experienced life in the inner city, but having a safe place to go to hang out with your friends and to get a hot meal, is important.

Nancy and the rest of the staff at the centre are working hard to maintain that safe environment for the kids (and families) that use it. They are tireless in their efforts, and most of them work for minimum wage, trying to make a difference in the lives of kids who have come to rely on them.

I know that my appeal may seem desperate, but watching a mother cry and mourn for her son who was stolen from her is something that I will never forget. Helping her in her fight is the least I can do. I admire and respect her strength, and her passion, and I hope that others do too.

Beeper's Mom (Nancy Flett)- The pictures