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New West teen meets former prime minister

What's happening Around Town
Shane Ward
A selfie moment: New Westminster teen Shane Ward bumped into former prime minister Stephen Harper at the airport when she was en route back to Vancouver after taking part in the 2016 Rotary Adventure in Citizenship Program in Ottawa.

Shane Ward recently returned from an adventure in the nation’s capital where she met former prime minister Stephen Harper and Green party leader Elizabeth May.

Ward was recently selected as a participant in the 2016 Rotary Adventure in Citizenship Program, which saw youth from across Canada meet in Ottawa. One of the goals of the program is to send youth home with a better understanding and appreciation of what it means to be a Canadian.

During their time in Ottawa, youth met with the speaker of the House of Commons, visited the Canadian War Museum and its Witness to History program, participated in interactive discussion panels on current Canadian issues like the Syrian refugee situation and women in politics. They also took part in a mock election and witnessed the pride of new Canadians at a citizenship ceremony.

Shane, who is the Hyack Festival Association’s 2016 Princess, considers hearing May speak and asking her a question, meeting the former prime minister and renewing her Canadian citizenship as highlights of the program.

Photos wanted

Fraser River Discovery Centre is on the hunt for photographers for its annual *click* photos of the fraser exhibit.
Opening Sept. 22, the theme of this year’s exhibition is time. Amateur and professional photographers are invited to submit images for consideration in the exhibition which will run at Fraser River Discovery Centre during RiverFest in September.
“Photographers are encouraged to be creative with their interpretation of the ‘time’ theme: think of seasons, times of day, historical time period, play time, family time,” exhibit coordinator Kathleen Bertrand said in a press release. “We want photographers to have fun with this.”
A jury will select photos for installation in this year’s exhibit in three categories – the river at work (industry), the river wild (environment), the river’s people (culture). In addition, a people’s choice award will be selected based on votes from the public online.
More information about the contest can be found at www.fraserriverdiscovery.org or on its Facebook page. Entries must be submitted by Aug. 15.

College promoting inclusion

Douglas College is implementing a peer leadership program that promotes health, well-being and community inclusion for people with mental illness.

The college received a $217,014 research grant from the Vancouver Foundation for the study, which aims to improve the community mental health system’s ability to meet the diverse and complex needs of individuals with mental illness by using a peer-leadership model.

“Currently, many individuals with mental illness face significant barriers that are not addressed by the community mental-health system, such as stigma, poverty and food security,” Colleen Reid, project co-lead and Douglas College instructor, said in a press release. “In this study we will use the voices of people with lived experience of mental illness to improve systems that are disempowering and marginalizing for them.”

Developing inclusive practice and upstream change in community mental health – the name of the three-year community-based project – is a partnership of the therapeutic recreation department at Douglas College, the Open Door Group and the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University. The project will officially kick off on Sept. 7.

Do you have an item for Around Town? Send ideas to Theresa, tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca.