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Seniors' Stories event - keepsake booklet
- 1. Who we are TheVancouver Community Network (VCN) is a non-profit free Internet service provider that assists individuals, community groups, and other non-profit organizations in accessing and utilizing the Internet to its fullest ability. We believe the information, resources and opportunities on the Internet should be accessible to all! Contact Us 280 – 111 West Hastings St. (Woodward’s Building) Vancouver, BC, V6B 1H4 Phone: 778-724-0232 ext. 601 Fax: 1-855-299-0647 Email: nhstory@vcn.bc.ca Organization website: www2.vcn.bc.ca VCN would like to thank Britannia Community Services Centre Adult 55+ Centre for their support in the completion of the present initiative. A project funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. A Sentimental Journey SENIORSSTORIES.VCN.BC.CA
- 2. Event Schedule Thursday, January29, 2015 1:30 pm SLIDESHOW PRESENTATION 2:00 pm A WORD FROM THE PROJECT TEAM (Ana-Maria Gheorghiu, Bruce Macdonald, Marilyn, Norry) 2:30 pm REFRESHMENTS AND LIGHT SNACKS After 2:30pm, staff from the Vancouver Community Network Tech Team will be assisting you in learning how to navigate the Seniors’ Stories website and upload your own story. All in good humour Anybody with any brains will not be able to stand school. (…)Including the teachers, yeah. That’s why all the good teachers drop out. A friend of mine and I formed a Dropout Teachers Society. (…) Our motto was: ‘We help people out.’– Tom Durrie My girlfriends and I were totally entranced by the lovely Italian boys who hung around on the steps of their houses, and we would always stroll by and talk to them. (…) But I guess that’s just me: I’ve always been more interested in the more exotic kind of boys rather than in the ones who like to watch hockey all the time, and that goes even today! – Ruth Kozak I went home and did one IQ test (there were five in the book). I got a score of 130, which wasn’t that great. I checked the answers at the back and, at the second IQ test, I got 140. By the time I got to the fifth test, I was at the genius level, over 150, in just a couple of hours! (…) They hired me, thinking I was a super-genius. So that’s how I got my City job.– Bruce Macdonald I could have been a hoodlum like my friends on the Vancouver Stock Exchange; that was a great way to make money. It was practically uncontrolled then, and the VSE was famous in North America, so if you wanted to run a scam, you did it on Howe Street. Instead, I brought pizza to Canada. – Tevie Smith 5
- 3. How things havechanged... The Georgia Viaduct False Creek British Properties (West Vancouver) What you can find on our website Stories and Photos Over 50 stories from our contributors about life in East Vancouver. The stories are enhanced by photos from the authors’ personal collections and stunning, high-resolution archive images. Videos Video interviews with local seniors. Each video is subtitled and accompanied by a transcript (with images) for readers who might prefer a written version. Share a story You can register on the Seniors’ Stories website and share your own unique stories and photos with the world. Contributors retain full copyright of their texts and images. 4 1
- 4. About our project Seniors’Stories is an initiative meant to inspire people to record their family history and preserve the unique bits of experience, knowledge, advice, tragedy and humour of their elderly relatives for the generations to come. Our project chose East Vancouver as its initial focus point for the net of stories belonging to over 50 local seniors. We interviewed seniors who were born here or who were brought here by war, love, adventure or simply desire for a better life; who stayed home to raise families or who went on to create big businesses; who remember a charmed childhood or who suffered the indignity of internment or residential schools. The linear history of textbooks and monographs took on a multitude of shapes and became alive and relatable. From Strathcona through Grandview to Collingwood, the spirit of East Van Past was brought to light, and there are still so many more stories to be discovered. It can be very hard to make seniors open up and share their past, because only they know the emotion behind it, and it takes effort to get it out of them. They challenge you to answer some very tough questions: Are you just extracting it from them so you can complete a project, or are you really going to cherish what was unique for them? So my answer as a storyteller is: “I’ll make it into a story so it will be saved for all time.” – Storyteller Mary Gavan We hope that more seniors will come forward and add their piece of the puzzle to the project. Please take the time to explore our website (designed by our talented VCN | webteam), and consider sharing your story with the world. A Content Preview Extraordinary lives Which one of our contributors survived a shipwreck? Whose grandmother owned a restaurant patronized by some of Hollywood’s biggest names? Who came alone from China on a boat at the age of 10? A few names you might recognize Athlete Barbara Howard (pictured), food maven Susan Mendelson, fashion historian Ivan Sayers, writers Ruth Kozak and Raymond Culos, and former East Van MLA Bob Williams have agreed to share some fascinating bits of their past with us. Inspiration beyond numbers Publishing your first book and winning an award at age 80? Weekly Tai Chi and aerobics at age 99? Running a business well into your 70s? Our contributors are proof that age is really just a number! 2 3