Coop du Jour: tomorrow!!!
Filed Under A Green Life, News, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
(This post is taken from the beautiful and well written Coop du Jour website.)
The inaugural uptown tour of chicken coops in downtown Vancouver neighborhoods, organized by community members that believe in the positive impact local sustainable food sources have on our health, community, and environment, is an opportunity for participants to gain valuable insight and inspiration from experienced coop owners.
The first ever self-guided tour of urban poultry coops in the downtown Vancouver area is set to kick off Saturday afternoon on the 17th of July from 12 to 4 p.m. Read more
Maker of iconic Northwest-and-other themed t-shirts Chris Stevens is celebrating the grand opening of his new retail store and printshop at 807 Grand Blvd. in Vancouver on Dec. 5. Northwest Shirts will be open from 11-6 on Saturday for shopping and free coffee from local roasters Paper Tiger and in the evening from 7-10 for beers and music.
Help Chris end shirtlessness (and support other local artists and crafters, too!)-
J.
Celebrate Fall Harvest with Vancouver Food Co-op
Filed Under A Green Life, Devour, News, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
The Vancouver Food Co-op is celebrating the Fall Harvest on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Vancouver Marketplace on Columbia and Evergreen. The event will be catered by Woody’s Tacos, featuring appetizers and desserts made from ingredients grown by local farms (and you can bet when the VFC is doing it, that’s LOCAL farms, not the tri-state area).
The Co-op will be unveiling its new logo, designed by Vancouver’s Tribe2 Graphic Design and Creative Services, the same folks responsible for the Turtle Place mural, and talking about store opening plans. Bluegrass band The Grey Sky Boys will play.
The event is FREE, so don’t miss it. My only regret is posting this so late!
J.
WSUV Digital Technology and Culture Program prepares generation 2.0 for local service
Story + Photos By Jessica Swanson
The Washington State University Vancouver Digital Culture and Technology Program is heading into its teen years and growing up fast.
The department is also playing a big part in the success of Clark County nonprofit organizations, businesses and the arts community.
Students concentrate in one of three areas: multimedia authoring, informatics or culture and technology. Many intend to pursue careers or start companies in design, production, music, web analytics and other areas of technology communication. These are student entrepreneurs. Twenty-two-year-old Sarah Richards plans to head into music promotion after graduation. A DJ at KOUG radio, she transferred into the DTC program from Clark College, but said many of her peers are transferring in from other WSU programs.
“I know many people who are switching over to it because it sparked their interest,” she said. “It allows us to be more creative.”
Matthew Wright, 26, wants “to be able to get a good solid job in a technical field,” such as producing music for websites. A former music major at Eastern Washington University and an electronic music junky, DTC is a good fit for his interests. Matthew is heading up a project to create a promotional video for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
“It’s about how orchestral music and community symphony benefit the community,” he said, adding that a perk of the project is spending time with a professional composer and conductor, paths he can also see himself pursuing.
The Vancouver Symphony video is an example of a Senior Seminar project. DTC majors can choose to intern at a for-profit business or be part of a team project for a nonprofit in their senior year. Teams of DTC students have created videos for the Council for the Homeless, Bonneville Lock and Dam, Vida’s Ark and Boys and Girls Clubs of Southwest Washington; websites for the Columbia River Economic Development Council, At Home At School, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Living in Southwest Washington; and animations for the Clark County Fire and Rescue.
DTC on the web
The opportunities are many, but Program Director Dene Grigar and Professor John Barber don’t advise students to jump into opportunities before they are ready. They do stay close by in order to push when the time is right.
Matthew’s Vancouver Symphony team was put together in just this way.
“They’ll recommend things to you that are your strengths,” he said, “and help find people to compensate for your weaknesses.”
A force in the community
Dene believes the best way to grow the program – and to get her students the careers they want – is to be a force in the community. She approached Vancouver’s North Bank Artists Gallery because a gallery was an important venue the
program was lacking. It has proven to be a good match. The gallery has hosted events of all sizes there, and at least a dozen students have been accepted into North Bank’s shows, said Gallery Manager Kathy Rick. Kathy, a multimedia artist and photographer, also teaches a class in the DTC program, Digital Diversity and Culture, which deals with cultural issues such as racism, politics and gender and how technology plays into them. Dene invited her to teach the class, and she loves it.
A DTC multimedia forum is scheduled for October at the gallery, and the relationship seems destined to continue for some time.
“I think it’s been an incredible pairing,” said Kathy. “The DTC program is so incredibly vital and exciting, and we
celebrate that with them.”
Dene, who was hired in 2006, has a master plan for the program. She has spent her first three years building the program and making relationships in the community. Now, she is devoting time to formulating a Master’s degree program and would like to see a post doctoral think tank-type of organization housed at the university, an “institute of the future.”
But now, a big focus is on getting her students into the workforce, and started on creating future workforce opportunities – a special challenge in this economy.
“This is what the community needs,” she said. “We want to turn out people who are going to create jobs and create opportunities.”
Grow the YWCA Community Garden
Filed Under A Green Life, Home + Garden, News, Vancouver | Leave a Comment
A reminder from my e-pal Glenn Grossman — thanks Glenn!
There are only 15 days left in the Umpqua Bank Click 4A Cause contest and the YWCA Community Garden project has fallen from a commanding lead to trailing by over 1000 points. If they win this contest, they’ll get $15,000 to devote to their project and they need your help TODAY. You can vote once per week, so that means you still have time to get a couple of votes in. Please click on the link, cast your vote, and help the fantastic folks at the YWCA win some serious money to help them with their community garden project!
I voted today! Woot!
J.
