The final schedule is ready for this Saturdays event at Sunriver Community Gardens. It promises to be a full and interesting day.

 

We hope to see you all there!

Schedule Reskilling Fair and Picnic 2016

 

We’re delighted to announce our third annual potluck community picnic and second Reskilling Fair, set for Sat. Aug. 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sunriver Community Gardens. Admission is free or by pay-what-y0u-can donation to cover our costs.

Our volunteers will offer a selection of skill-building workshops for kids and adults in the morning and early afternoon. These will be followed by a potluck picnic to which everyone is invited to bring their own cutlery and plates along with a dish to share. After lunch we will continue the program with an intro to re-wilding skills, offered by Green Man Adventures’ Dante Chicano.  

As the afternoon winds down, the relaxed scene will shift to the orchard for some peaceful contemplation (led by Michael Tacon) and lively music-making (with maestro Andrew Moore).

This year’s workshops for adults will include “Reaping 21st Century Health Benefits from Traditional Fermented Foods” (led by nutritionist Jo Phillips), “Continuous Brew Kombucha” (Marion Pettinger) and “Bear Aware 101” (Debb Read). A session on cycling will be hosted by Olena Russell in tandem with her “bike petting zoo” display of multi-purpose bikes for all occasions.

Kids, meanwhile, can wander the gardens on a NatureQuest with Sofie Hagens, learn how to make musical instruments from recycled materials with Wendy O’Connor, and attend a bike workshop led by young cycling enthusiast Kasian Russell.

All ages are welcome to join Wendy for an introduction to geocaching, the popular sport that gets families outdoors on adventures in search of buried treasures.

Once the picnic’s complete, you can join Michael for an earth-focused meditation and Andrew for a musical jam session in the orchard.

Throughout the day you’ll meet the folks behind our working groups: Bike Sooke, Wild Wise Sooke, Permaculture Sooke and Zero Waste Sooke. Learn more about their activities and perhaps even sign up as a volunteer to further their respect causes!

Here’s our working schedule. Please check back for an updated final version prior to the 27th.

Hope you can join us! It shapes up as another fun and friendly communal get-together in a truly lovely Sooke setting.

Our thanks to Sooke Food CHI for making Sunriver available for the day, and to the District of Sooke for its financial support through its Community Grant program.

Click here for the Facebook event page.

Sooke Cohousing Information Session—Tuesday, June 28

• Would you like to know your neighbours and experience genuine community while maintaining your privacy?

• Do you want to be autonomous but not isolated?

• Have you ever felt burdened by home maintenance and upkeep?

• Do you sometimes wish you could simplify and down-size your life?

• Does your independence come at the cost of a home that demands more time and energy than you want to spend?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, a home in a cohousing community may be the answer for you.

 

What is cohousing?

A cohousing community is an intentional neighbourhood designed and developed by its members to offer both the autonomy of private homes and the benefits of community—all the community you need with all the privacy you want.

Based on the principles of the hugely successful Harbourside Cohousing, a new cohousing initiative is in the planning stages for the Sooke Harbour waterfront—within walking distance of the commercial core.

We are not commercial developers; we are a group of individual households developing a beautiful neighbourhood of environmentally sound, strata-titled homes with extensive common facilities, including: stunning water and mountain views; landscaped green space; and a common house with dining and gathering areas, kitchen, and guest rooms.

 

If you are curious, please join us at our next information session.

 

Where:            The Reading Room Bookstore and Cafe ( Evergreen Shopping Centre)

When:             Tuesday, June 28^{th at} 7 p.m.

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sookecohousing/

For more information, please contact: sookecohousing2@shaw.ca

Our May/June newsletter has just been distributed to our email subscribers. Learn about how things went at the Zero Waste Sooke Open Space meeting last month, Guy Dauncey’s visit to town, a tour of our Stephen Hindrichs’ permaculture garden by EMCS Environmental Studies students and the usual generous helping of upcoming events of interest to the Transition-minded + highlights from our social media feeds. If you’d like a copy sent to your own in-box, please send us a request via email <sooketransition@gmail.com>. Happy trails as spring turns to summer and let’s all do a rain dance 🙂

 

 

Click on the link to get all info you need! Hands-on Workshop Water Wise Landscaping for Food Growing

 

Hope to see you there!!

Will the Sooke of the not-so-distant future have grown even more beautiful, green, sustainable and community oriented? Or will it be characterized by unaffordable housing, loneliness, clogged roads and escalating ecological collapse?

Renowned BC author, environmental organizer and futurist Guy Dauncey will offer his inspiring view of the years ahead on Monday, May 2 at 7p.m. at the Sooke Harbour House. Admission is by donation. Dauncey will also be addressing Youth for Change and Environmental Studies students that afternoon at Edward Milne Community School.

In his newly published novel Journey to the Future: A Better World is Possible, the founder of the BC Sustainable Energy Association envisions a future brimming with innovation and hope. The climate crisis is being tackled. The solar revolution is underway. And a new green cooperative economy is taking shape.

“I have poured my heart, soul, and twenty cargo-bike loads of research into imagining what our future could be like in 2032,” says Dauncey. The book is set in Vancouver, which by then is meeting its intention of becoming one of the greenest cities in the world. Yet his vision — based on current science, trends and breakthrough technologies — can easily be downsized to fit communities of all sizes in the developed world, Sooke included.

Dauncey’s protagonist, 24-year-old Patrick Wu, makes a four-day visit to the future. He finds that many of today’s possibilities have become a reality, from public banking and citizens’ income to strong resilient neighbourhoods and 100% renewable energy. The future still has dangers, crises and challenges, yet humankind is addressing them sanely, responsibly and for both the common good and the sake of future generations.

Attendees can expect an exciting, fast-paced audio-visual presentation delivered with humour, passion, enthusiasm and generous helpings of Dauncey’s deep knowledge about science, climate, energy, finance, physics, the natural world, sociology and human consciousness.

“It is at one and the same time a great yarn and a call to action,” says Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May. Adds ForestEthics co-founder Tzeporah Berman: “Guy has produced a progressive tour­de­force unlike any book that I have ever read. Part creative fiction, part manifesto for the world we want and need.”

Guy Dauncey (aka The Practial Utopian) is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, founder of the BC Sustainable Energy Association, an Honorary Member of the Planning Institute of BC, a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation, and the author or co-author of ten books.

The event is sponsored by Transition Sooke with special thanks to the Sooke Harbour House’s Frederique Philip. For more details please visit: www.journeytothefuture.com.