Grads grateful for Fashion Show support
On Wednesday, Feb. 20, another successful Whistler Secondary School (WSS) Grad Fashion Show and fundraiser came together thanks to many volunteers, donors and supporters.
The school's multi-purpose room was transformed into a fashion rave! The music was pumping and strobe lights flashing while grad models strutted the runway in stylish outfits generously provided by local shops Deja Vogue Boutique, Velvet Underground Shop, Re-Use-It Centre and Pearl's Values & Vintage as well as from parents and community members proving it is possible to dress stylishly, affordably and sustainably while shopping local.
There was a silent auction full of fantastic donations from local businesses and individuals, as well as a bake sale featuring delicious goodies donated from local businesses and baked by WSS students and their families.
All of the profits raised from the evening will go toward funding this year's dry prom to be held in late June.
The Whistler Secondary School graduating class of 2019 would like to offer a heartfelt thanks to all those who helped—and there are scores of them. Please know that each and every one of you contributed to the success of the event.
Special thanks go to parents Kee Cronin, Jeanette Unruh, Jenna Markovic, Jackie Rohde, Catherine Power-Chartrand and Sue Hamersley.
Many grads helped to make this a success, including all the models, but special thanks go to Emma Cronin, Rachel Unruh, Raine Haziza, Rhys Higgins, Sarah Geddes, Cayley Clark, Nick Knapton, Jasmin Skoupas, Hannah L'Estrange, Molly Long, Sam Leach, Matt Ogilvie-Turner, Liam Beresford, Xiola Aldrich, Simon Long, and Nicole Tobias.
Incredibly, 114 businesses supported our silent auction, making the night a huge success. We are so grateful to live in a community where local businesses and organizations support our youth. Thank you all.
Lisa Geddes
2019 WSS Grad Fashion Show co-organizer
Home is where the Loka is
Loka Yoga has been a mother's hand to our family. The kind that circles your back providing comfort and care to the rhythm of gentle words of wisdom and love. I will miss its touch. The studio closes its doors at Nita Lake Lodge this week.
I don't know where our family would have been without the care of Tina (owner) and Victoria (right-hand-woman) the first two years of our daughter's life. Health challenges left our family so sleep deprived I struggled to function as we searched for answers in a life filled only with questions.
I retreated, no filters, not trusting myself and exhausted. But there was always a safe space for me at Loka. Somewhere I could connect with love and community no matter what state I was in.
Shavasana with Victoria often ended in silent rolling tears, leaving me stronger with a little more energy and most importantly, enough clarity to help me make the decisions my daughter needed. I am a better mother because of the work done at Loka—and any mother knows there is no greater gift.
Whistler is losing a great, and much-needed, spiritual beacon. A space that focuses on the importance of community and the need for compassion—empathy moved into action—and with no religious affiliation. So much good has come out of Loka's concern and attention: the environment, our animals, Indigenous relations, humanity overall. Whistler is a stronger place because of the studio.
More than yoga postures happened there. I am sad for Whistler. I'm sad for the people who will miss out on this incredibly special, unique place. I am not sad for myself, however.
Last spring, my new schedule didn't correspond with the classes I needed at Loka, and so I turned to my mat at home and other studios to fill the gap. I felt like a teen travelling for the first time. There were new styles and instructors. New spins on the traditional practices I had learned at Loka.
But all the while, in all this exploration, I constantly heard Tina and Victoria's teachings and stories in my head throughout my practice. I still do, and I still finish every practice giving thanks to them. That's because, like anyone who has left the nest knows, home is where the heart is. It's not a physical space. You can take it with you. Thank goodness.
So, when people ask where I practice yoga, no matter where I'm taking classes, I say Loka is my home studio. What was created there lives inside of me. I live the practice. I live it as a mother, wife, friend, advocate and community member. And I am so very grateful.
I took my last class at Loka (this week). Tina was at the helm. The mountain at my front. The sound of the ocean at my back. I comforted myself with the fact that I knew I could take all of this with me, like I had over the past months, but wow was it nice to hear Tina's full-bellied laugh again.
I'll be listening for it around Whistler as I'm sure many others will be. (I discovered her new classes would be posted at tinapashumatijames.com.)
Nicole Fitzgerald
Whistler
Loving the #10 bus
I would like to express how awesome the new #10 Valley Express bus is. A big thank you to the Resort Municipality of Whistler and Whistler Transit for testing this out. I really hope it continues.
My partner and I are a one-car family with differing work schedules. This would typically mean one more vehicle on the road during Whistler "rush hour" for him to pick me up or drop me off. Time and convenience are important to me (like most), and the previous bus options, which deviated through several neighbourhoods before arriving at my destination (often a 30-minute trip), did not appeal.
The new #10 takes me approximately 10 minutes from door to door, and literally is equivalent to if I drove myself.
It is directly responsible for reducing the number of trips my vehicle goes up and down the highway, and I hope this note encourages others to do the same. Give the #10 a try and I'm sure you'll love it too.
Kirsten Homeniuk
Whistler
Try skiing
I read your story in the Pique, (Hassan) ("The Man at the Airport," Pique, Feb. 21).
I think you should be a skier. Skiing is super fun and makes you feel awesome!
Veya Stevens (eight years old)
Pemberton
Complex terrain, winter conditions make hut plan unviable
I have hiked, skied and climbed southwest B.C.'s mountains for more than 40 years.
Regardless of views on backcountry huts, I think (the proposal to build a series of staffed huts in the backcountry giving long-distance hikers a chic place to rest on a trek from Cypress Provincial Park to Squamish) is not viable for other reasons (www.piquenewsmagazine.com, Feb. 17). Chief among these are the short season and the steep, complex terrain involved.
There is an enormous difference between hiking along a well-marked trail with a plainly visible foot tread on a warm, sunny, summer day, and trying to navigate the same route in blinding, windy, winter snowstorms in limited visibility with deep, unconsolidated snow blanketing the "trail." We have a short summer season here, especially at treeline or in the alpine. That is the type of terrain the crest trail traverses and is the reason portions of the route are snow covered until late July or early August many years.
Those looking for snow-free summer hiking will have about three or four months (roughly August through October) each year. Trips any other time are going to encounter varying types of weather and snow-covered terrain. It's easy to envision the huts as lively places in summer. The remainder of the year there would likely be very low levels of use and not enough annual occupancy to support a successful business.
The Howe Sound Crest Trail travels through a lot of steep, bluffy country especially the Unnecessary Mountain to the Lions to Magnesia Meadows section. Safe travel there when the route is covered in snow requires more than putting one foot in front of the other. Winter travellers need to know how to read terrain, evaluate hazards (avalanche, cornice, steep snowslope slip/fall hazards) and make good decisions.
They also need to carry and know how to use equipment like crampons, snowshoes, poles, ice axe, or touring skis. Safe passage in snowy conditions requires skill, experience and good judgment.
Even in summer, sections of the route are no walk in the park. There are steep drop-offs and hand lines in several places.Many hikers have expanded their season by taking up snowshoeing and use the marked winter trails at Dog Mountain, Hollyburn Mountain and Red Heather Meadows. These are relatively safe and predictable routes for all to enjoy. Providing the same level of route marking and safety on the Howe Sound Crest Trail in winter conditions would be extremely challenging to impossible.
There is good reason that the route north of St. Mark's Summit remains essentially a summer-only trail.
Steve Oates
North Vancouver
(Editor's note: This letter originally appeared in the North Shore News on Feb.20)
