Here is my update on activity of the last week.

We didn’t have an evening Council Meeting last Monday, but we did meet. There was a closed meeting and an open Committee of the Whole meeting. I’ll report on the CotW items when they come to a regular meeting and are on our regular agenda.

On Wednesday evening, I was honoured to visit the Van Dop Gallery where the New Westminster Youth Ambassadors were holding an event to thank their sponsors for a great season before they go and do things like graduate and get summer jobs and such.

I say honoured, because it has been really great getting to know there kids young adults adults over the last year or so. They have been at so many community events, helping out and being great ambassadors for their City, their School, and their generation. Recognizing that I am now an old person, I can even say I have seen some real development of the confidence and presentation of individual members. This is a great program that Lynn Radbourne has put together, with a small group of volunteers, a great group of local sponsors, and a fine selection of youth representatives.

Thursday evening the New Westminster chapter of Rotary International had their annual Installation of Officers meeting. I am not a Rotarian, but I have been to a few of their meetings for different reasons, and am always impressed by the impact this group has locally and internationally. The stories of their ongoing effort to eradicate polio (Africa is almost polio-free, and the entire world should be in this generation!) is just one example. I was happy to represent Council at their dinner, and thank them for the good work they do.

On Saturday, the Children’s Festival in Ryall Park in was a happening place. Being held at the Queensborough Community Centre, it was not only a great festival with music (including a funk-and-horn laden set by Dysfunktional, as pictured), booths, games, face painting, etc. etc., but the Spray Park was running, so hyperthermia was not on the menu. Even after burning up the funk.

Also Saturday, there was some sort of political thing, which you might be able to figure out by looking at this map on the wall:

As I said a few days ago, never too early to start planning.

Saturday was also Derby Day at the Royal City Curling Club. This was my first full-on Derby experience at the Club (I had seen practices over the years), and although the Main Event of the evening was a bit of a one-sided affair, it was a pretty entertaining night. The sport has it’s strangeness, and an abundance of tongue-in-cheek attitude, but you can recognize some incredible athletes and can really get engaged in the competition. Good times were had by all. The season is coming to an end, with the Championships on July 4th. You should check this stuff out.

On Sunday there was a Pop-up gallery at the New West Arts Council in Queens Park, where the paintings created in a rush by 100+ participants in Quest New West 2015 were on display. There were a wide variety of interpretations of the Pattullo Bridge on display, none more embarrassing than that presented by your team of elected officials:

Aside from these, there were some pretty amazing pieces as well, done by people who understand shape, form, colour, and which end of the paintbrush goes into the paint, so I suspect here will be another showing of this pop-up coming to New Westminster soon.

But with a huge package to review this week (seriously,  there were 1,189 pages of documents delivered to my inbox on Friday afternoon for discussion on Monday), that was all I got to on Sunday. There are fewer council meetings over the summer, so hopefully this is an anomaly, because I really wanted to sit around Queens Park in the sun and listen to bands playing tunes…

See you next week.