Sue and Earl Fry recently took a weekend journey to a galaxy far, far away.
The New Westminster couple joined thousands of other runners in the inaugural Star Wars Rebel Challenge in Disneyland. Ten thousand people took part in the Star Wars10K on Saturday, Jan. 17 and an equal number ran the Star Wars Half Marathon the following day.
“It’s the first year they did it,” said Sue, a fan of both Disneyland and Star Wars. “It was the coolest of cool.”
Runners who finish both races earned the Star Wars Rebel Challenge finisher medal. “You’ll need all the power of the Force for this two-day, 19.3 mile run,” states the event’s website.
Folks lining the route and cheering on runners included Chewbacca, Darth Vader and Storm Troopers. Some of the runners donned costumes – such as Princess Leia, R2-D2 and Darth Vader – for the races.
While at Disneyland, Sue was excited to meet actor Sean Astin (whose roles include Sam in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Rudy in Rudyand Mikey in Goonies), who ran the race.
“He is very, very nice,” she said. “I met him at the end of the race.”
Happy City author to inspire New West
Award-winning author and urban experimentalist Charles Montgomery will be speaking at the upcoming Love Our City neighbourhood visioning workshop.
Montgomery has worked internationally with planners and city builders to find new ways to see and change the world around them. In his latest book, Happy City,Montgomery uses happiness science to drive high-profile experiments that help citizens transform their relationships with each other and their cities.
“We are extremely fortunate to have Charles Montgomery speak at our visioning workshop,” Mayor Jonathan Cote said in a press release. “Charles’ insights will set the tone for a creative and dynamic day of exploring the future of our city.”
The Love Our City neighbourhood visioning workshop is taking place at Anvil Centre.
During the all-day workshop, participants will discuss the city’s future and explore what the heart of each neighbourhood is, how the city should grow and what big moves would make the city great.
The workshop is the first in a series of events for residents to learn and provide input on updating the city’s official community plan (OCP). The plan is the policy document that sets out the vision, goals and policies for the future of New Westminster.
“The new OCP should be ambitious about what the city will look like in 25 years. We know our residents are passionate about their city and neighbourhoods, and we want to know what big dreams and ideas they have for our community,” said Bev Grieve, the city’s director of development services. “We hope participants will be inspired by Charles’ work and will explore new ways to make our city more welcoming, inclusive, and an even better place to live.”
The free visioning workshop takes place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14 at Anvil Centre and is open to all residents. RSVP at www.newwestcity.ca/ourcity.
Speakers abound at Quayside AGM
A variety of speakers are set to share information about community endeavours at the Quayside Community Board’s annual general meeting.
The board’s 2015 annual general meeting will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 4 in the food court at River Market. Registration gets underway at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting begins at 7 p.m.
A press release notes that the “Quay” speaker for this year’s AGM is Mayor Jonathan Cote, who will discuss issues such as the Quay kids park, the future Bosa and Larco developments, the Q2Q (Quay to Queensborough) pedestrian bridge and communications.
The lineup of presenters also includes: Fire Chief Tim Armstrong (evacuation planning for the Quay neighbourhood); Gerda Suess (Group of Five founding member about the non-profit group’s next purchase for Royal Columbian Hospital and fundraising efforts); Don Swindells (newly elected president of the Hyack Festival Association about the group’s 2015 plans, including the Show ‘n’ Shine, New Westminster Hyack Ambassador program). Completing the lineup is Marnie Kurylo of Savvy Space Solutions, who will share tips on how residents can maximize the space they have.
The meeting also includes the Quayside Community Board president’s address by Penny McIvor, introduction of the 2015 board, reports by executive members and announcement of the winner of the Best Building from the ninth annual Light Up the Quay Christmas promotion.
Attendees will have a chance to win door prizes.
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