EAST SIDE JUNIOR SCHOOL RUNNERS LEAD THE WAY
RUNNING UNWILD: East Side Junior Alternative School students know about running. From other schools, family or problematic pasts, that is, or to catch up with those to whom life dealt a better hand. Saskatoonborn teacher Trevor Stokes, 47, had a better idea. If students began running full marathons, he figured, they might lead their contemporaries in more ways than one. It worked. His program has reportedly developed the world’s largest cohort of student marathon runners. Thirty completed the full Vancouver marathon this year, and 18 the half-marathon. Many participated in Patagonia’s gruelling Street to Peak event or climbed Tanzania’s 5,895-metre Mount Kilimanjaro … or both. Colombia-born Grade 9 student Ibin Ardila has completed five marathons. More tellingly, threequarters of Stokes’ students graduate from high school. Recently, he welcomed them to a barbecue on the school’s Britannia Secondary campus, saying: “You’ve worked hard, and made me and the community proud.” Trimpac Meats’ Jonathan Burke and Flying Pig-Wildtale restaurateur Erik Heck handled the chow. Asked if Stokes is a tough guy, one student replied: “No. He just wants the best from all of us.” For him, that best entails the camaraderie, goal-setting, self-worth and confidence of students succeeding after intense training. Asked what he needed most, Stokes simply said: “Acceptance that these kids are worth investing in.”
GEORGIA OFF HIS MIND: Britannia grad Bruce Langereis, the Delta Land Development president, will check out of the Rosewood Hotel Georgia after a dozen-or-so-year stay. Effective July 15, it’s been bought by PR Acquisitions (Canada) Limited Partnership, an affiliate of Azim Jamal and Joe Moosa’s Pacific Reach Properties here. A former freestyle ski champ who often scaled the Squamish Chief’s vertical rock face, Langereis could exit the hotel by scrambling down its Georgia Street wall.
PARK PARTY: The Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise Conservation Association recently filed for a judicial review of the park board’s cetacean-banning bylaw. One day later, presidentCEO John Nightingale and board chair Randy Pratt fronted the Night in the Aquarium gala. Nightingale reported 1.2 million human and 60 million digital visits annually. Of the Ocean Wise nomenclature: “We figure the only thing that can save the oceans’ problems is the people. We’re in the people business, not the fish business.” With certain fishy incursions, he might have added.
JUICED IN TIME: Undergrad degrees in hand, 10-year friends Zach Berman and Ryan Slater might have gone to business school. Instead, their higher education was a year in the Himalayas, India and Sri Lanka. After sampling juiced versions of everything from high-altitude sea-buckthorn berries to sea-level bananas, they returned stricken with entrepreneuritis. By 2011, that resulted in the Juice Truck and its myriad cold-pressed fruits and vegetables. Smoothies and a fixed-location café followed, also a 232-page book of recipes, photos, cleansing and homejuicing info. Following their regimens, as one headline informs: “You’ll be like an invigorating spring day with a sky full of puffy clouds, some of them shaped like cabbages.”
PILGRIM PROGRESSING: Diplomat Joseph Caron’s 17 years in Japan included the final five as our ambassador. In Tokyo recently, he received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Stars from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and was congratulated by Emperor Akihito. Feting the down-to-earth Caron in Vancouver, consul general Asako Okai said he’d trekked to 76 of 88 temples on the 1,200-kilometre Shikoku pilgrimage, and should add the remainder next year.
NEEKOO NIGHT: Sean and Saeedeh Salem do sell wines that their Oliver-based Le Vieux Pin and La Stella operation wineries produce. They also appear to give away plenty at charitable functions they support. The Salems did it again recently at Telus Garden’s rooftop patio where a Neekoo Philanthropic Society soirée reportedly raised $100,000. Saeedeh sparkplugged Neekoo (ancient Persian for providing goodness and guidance) in 2012 to fund educational grants for needy students. Increasingly popular for events (Forum for Women Entrepreneurs partiers were there this week), the al fresco locale lets some puff ciggies without a 25-floor elevator ride down to West Georgia Street.
PICTURES PAST: Cameras have portrayed people since 1839. Such works carry faces and names into perpetuity while the photographers are seldom known. Such a one, Dave Roels, has portrayed many eminent folk here, including some 120 of B.C.’s Order of Canada recipients. The son of tennis-andsoccer champ Oscar Roels, Dave had coach Harry Jerome help him secure a U.S. track scholarship. That kept him running until he died recently at age 68, leaving a portfolio of photographs that should still inform viewers in 2195 and beyond.
PARRYDIDDLES: Whalley’s 53-year-old Stardust Roller Rink will entertain its last-ever skaters July 8 … Neuroscientist-politician-athlete Pat McGeer will be 90 on June 29 … Moviemaker-boxer Uwe Boll’s Bauhaus restaurant has completed round — uh, year two.
DOWN PARRYSCOPE: The vow to end union-certification secret balloting suggests that politicians’ cliché about “moving forward” can mean just the reverse.