Each year South Okanagan Immigrant & Community Services (SOICS) host an annual event to promote the values of tolerance and racial equality in the South Okanagan through Respect Network funding. This year, we are using the funding to host a 2.5 hour workshop which will raise awareness on how body language and choice of words can be impactful in building tolerance.
The facilitator is a PhD student from UBCO who aims to incorporate a simulation game to raise awareness on various elements that contribute to cultural conflict. She will also present scenarios of racial discrimination and how to apply our newly developed knowledge to diffuse those remarks.
March 15, 2017
3:30 – 6:00 pm
207 – 399 Main Street, Penticton
It is a free workshop, however we are requesting guests to RSVP to Tahira Saeed: tahiras @ soics.ca
by Heather Whittall, Oliver Community Garden Society
We’ve been hard at work preparing for our big Bloomin’ Plant Sale on Saturday May 26th from 10 am to 1 pm at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre, 5840 Airport Street. We’ve held a plant sale in combination with Communities in Bloom for the past 3 years but this year we’re flying solo as the Communities in Bloom competition is finished for Oliver, for now.
Gardeners will want to check out the plants and other gardening products for sale, as well as bring along some seeds for an informal seed swap on site.
This year we’re hoping to make the sale more of an event. We have The Gala Vanters lined up to play some live music, there will be a craft corner for the kids, food, local vendors, loonie auction, lots of gardening information and of course, lots of plants. The Oliver Ambassadors will also be on hand for the festivities.
We still need help with a few things:
First, we need plants to sell! If you’re digging in your garden and have plants to divide and pass on, send them our way! We’ll gladly take those extra perennials or bulbs. Rearranging and no room for that rosebush? Let us help you find it a new home. Please call or email us and we can arrange to pick the plants up from you. In-kind donations are welcome from local businesses and individuals who want to support this very “green” community garden project. It’s a great way to show your support of this eco-friendly group, and encourage more gardening. Donations of soil, fertilizer, seed, garden equipment, gardening clothes and accessories, or anything else related to gardening would be warmly welcomed.
The second thing is a food vendor. We’d love to have a BBQ set up selling hamburgers and hotdogs so consider this an invitation to a local service group to grab an extra fund raising opportunity. You can keep all the profits – we’d just like to have food available as part of the event.
by Heather Whittall, Oliver Community Garden Society
We’ve been hard at work preparing for our big Bloomin’ Plant Sale on Saturday May 26th from 10 am to 1 pm at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre, 5840 Airport Street. We’ve held a plant sale in combination with Communities in Bloom for the past 3 years but this year we’re flying solo as the Communities in Bloom competition is finished for Oliver, for now.
Gardeners will want to check out the plants and other gardening products for sale, as well as bring along some seeds for an informal seed swap on site.
This year we’re hoping to make the sale more of an event. We have The Gala Vanters lined up to play some live music, there will be a craft corner for the kids, food, local vendors, loonie auction, lots of gardening information and of course, lots of plants. The Oliver Ambassadors will also be on hand for the festivities.
We still need help with a few things:
First, we need plants to sell! If you’re digging in your garden and have plants to divide and pass on, send them our way! We’ll gladly take those extra perennials or bulbs. Rearranging and no room for that rosebush? Let us help you find it a new home. Please call or email us and we can arrange to pick the plants up from you. In-kind donations are welcome from local businesses and individuals who want to support this very “green” community garden project. It’s a great way to show your support of this eco-friendly group, and encourage more gardening. Donations of soil, fertilizer, seed, garden equipment, gardening clothes and accessories, or anything else related to gardening would be warmly welcomed.
The second thing is a food vendor. We’d love to have a BBQ set up selling hamburgers and hotdogs so consider this an invitation to a local service group to grab an extra fund raising opportunity. You can keep all the profits – we’d just like to have food available as part of the event.
Oliver Community Arts Council members are invited to a special edition of the monthly Arts Jam! gathering of the membership. This month Arts Jam! goes on tour to visit one of the arts council’s member groups on their own “turf”. The event is hosted by the Double O Quilters on Monday 12th at 9:30 a.m. at the Oliver Community Centre hall.
Members will be treated to a special presentation of Double O talent, listen to some news from the quilters, and have a chance to share news from the various local arts groups. Goodies and beverages are graciously provided by the quilters guild.
The arts council will announce many of its own spring activities, including the Spring Arts Faire, Arts and Culture Week events, and Showcase of Talent, in addition to a short summary of their recent AGM, and information on funding to arts groups.
A similar “tour” in the spring of 2011 (to the spinners and weavers) proved so popular that the council thought the venture worth repeating. Watch for more “Arts Jams on Tour” in the future, and find out about our members’s talents!
Arts Jam! usually occurs on the fourth Monday of every month at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre. This special tour replaces the usual fourth Monday gathering for March. The following Arts Jam will be Monday April 23 at 9:30 a.m. at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre.
Photo: A file photo from the 2011 “Quilts and Beyond” exhibit by the Double O Quilters Featuring the work of prize winner, Enid Baker.
Remember years ago the afternoon Christmas concerts with several Oliver groups participating? The singalong? The kids? The goodies? Well, it’s ho-ho-here again!
The Oliver Community Arts Council is reviving this tradition and presenting a programme full of local entertainment. Fun for the whole family! The concert is set for Sunday December 4 at 2:30 p.m. using the venue at the Oliver Alliance Church. Admission is FREE but donations to the arts council and Oliver Food Bank are welcome.
The programme has something for everyone: the Swingin’ Bronze Handbell Ringers, Lori Martine with a flute instrumental, Bill Phillips with a recitation, the Desert Bronze Handbell Ringers, Bob Park with a guitar instrumental, the Oliver Handbell Ringers, a “teaser” sampling from the Sage Valley Voices (who have a fabulous concert planned the next weekend!), a vocal/piano duet by Hal H. Hopson and Dorothy Moore, dancing by Delaney Wise, the Oliver Elementary School Chorus, South Okanagan Secondary School Band, the Advent Alliance ensemble, the South Okanagan Adventist Christian School Choir, and the Desert Air Men’s Chorus. What a lineup!
The concert will promote other seasonal events happening locally. Check out some of the publicity in the foyer. Fill your calendar with joyous celebrations!
The concert concludes with goodie bags for the kids. Thank you to the Oliver Ambassadors, Sheila Lange, Buy-Low Foods, and Super Valu for their support!
The arts council hopes to grow a green thumb in 2011.
Oliver Community Garden Society reps Heather Whittall and Marji Basso proposed a partnership with the arts council at the January meeting of the OCAC Board. The Community Garden has been seeking a new location, after their two-year tenancy at the Murray property on Main Street. The Murray property has been slated for other development.
The Community Garden proposal included a request for land use at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre (34274 95th Street) and installation of 20 – 30 container beds, a small storage shed, and other garden features. The proposed area is a narrow strip of land 100 x 25 feet running north-south along the west side of the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre property, adjacent to a back alleyway.
An exciting component to this partnership are proposed arts and culture projects. Whittall and Basso suggested events of mutual benefit to the two societies, including educational workshops, children’s gardening programmes, and joint artistic installations such as painted picket fencing, decorated paving stones, a gazebo, birdhouses, and statuary. Basso described the proposed garden as a “magical” space, that would be an attractive, inviting and self-contained area.
A joint committee of the two organizations is currently writing a memorandum of understanding that will delineate land use, leasing arrangements, security, liability coverage, and water usage and access.
The South Okanagan Amateur Players has been following rigorous tri-weekly rehearsal schedule in order to bring the crime drama Twelve Angry Jurors to the stage. Catch it this week in Oliver.
The play is set in 1971 Chicago – the last year in which capital punishment was the sentence for murder in the state of Illinois. A jury which has just heard a murder case must decide the guilt or innocence of a nineteen year old “slum kid” convicted of stabbing his father. The defendant’s life is at stake. But the evidence suggests the case is open-and-shut. One juror cites reasonable doubt and stands alone in favour of a not guilty verdict. Over the course of the play each juror must confront their prejudices to separate fact from assumption. Will the majority pressure the sole juror into changing her vote to guilty? Will the arguing result in a hung jury? Or will a potential murderer be turned loose on the streets?
The production opened at the OSS Minitheatre in Osoyoos on the November 5 – 6 weekend. The large Friday night crowd gave noisy appreciation throughout the show, gasping aloud at the dramatic and surprising turns of the plot, and chuckling at the play’s irony. The Saturday audience, although more subdued during the show, showed their approval with several murmurs and “ooohs” during the emotionally charged scenes and with loud lengthy applause at the curtain call.
The production moves to Oliver this week: Friday November 12 and Saturday November 13 at the Frank Venables (SOSS) Auditorium, 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 adults and $12 seniors and students. They are available at the door or from vendors Sundance Video (Oliver) and Your Dollar Store with More (Osoyoos).
Below the SOAP Players get into costume, makeup and hair backstage.
Diane Gludovatz (Juror #11) and Leslie Hatherly (Juror # 12) show the “before and after” of makeup and hairdressing. Diane awaits her turn to apply the greasepaint and get into her wig , while Leslie is “stage ready”. Diane is a SOAP veteran comedienne in a rare dramatic role, and Leslee is a SOAP newcomer.
“Keeping it in the family” are actors Darryl and daughter Chenoa Mackenzie (Foreman and Juror #5) . Both are veteran SOAPers. This will be Chenoa’s last opportunity to act with her dad before heading off to university, where she will continue her studies in the dramatic arts.
Who’s the guilty one? These four jurors each have their own opinion. Darryl MacKenzie (Jury Foreman), Paul Tait (Juror #6), Michael Ryan (Juror #3) and David Badger (Juror #10) ham it up backstage before turning serious on stage.
The cast and crew welcome you to join them for an exciting evening of live theatre. See (and hear) you in the audience!
Each year South Okanagan Immigrant & Community Services (SOICS) host an annual event to promote the values of tolerance and racial equality in the South Okanagan through Respect Network funding. This year, we are using the funding to host a 2.5 hour workshop which will raise awareness on how body language and choice of words can be impactful in building tolerance.
