They are stylish and fun, and they look as if they would slip onto feet like a soft glove. They are the shoes made by Ethiopia’s soleRebels, which has the distinction of being “the planet’s only WFTO Fair Trade certified…
Oh, repurposers, you make me determined to change my ways. You take creative recycling to new heights. When I think of all the stuff I have shoveled out the door during my years, I am deeply embarrassed. And I am…
“I have never met a hopeful kid that joined a gang.” Fr. Gregory Boyle Father Gregory Boyle traces the beginning of Homeboy Industries to an ex-con’s walking into his office in the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles. In his TED…
Aba Atlas was the prodigal son. As a lot of young, disaffected and searching people do, he disappeared from his family’s life. He was gone two and a half years. When he showed up on his mother’s Ottawa doorstep, luggage…
The National Rifle Association, which came out in favour of arming teachers in every school in America, must be vomiting bullets over this story. A school in one of the most violent neighbourhoods in the country shows arts, not guns,…
They started with an old computer. With no manual and no idea how to go about repairing it, they tinkered until they got it right. That encouraged them to try fixing some other laptops. Parts were a problem, but a…
When suicide, murder and loss marred her childhood, Nicky Gallas turned to a friend she could always count on. That friend was food. Food offered dependable comfort, year after year. With her 40th birthday nearing, she weighed a discouraging 212…
The year my mother was born, 1917, American women did not have the right to vote. Three years later her mother cast her ballot in tiny Inman, Nebraska. On March 14, 2013 I voted in British Columbia’s provincial election because…
They were smart and sassy, talented and confident. The Camden Sophisticated Sisters strutted their stuff with joy on Dancing With the Stars. Thanks to the dedication and determination of Tawanda Jones, the young members of this drill team had a…
You know times have changed when a conservative community goes to bat for a drag-queen contestant. Nathan Flavel, General Manager and Director of Kelowna, British Columbia’s Actors Studio entered Ru Paul’s Drag Race, a competition sponsored by OUT TV. Flavel…
