After the All Candidates Forum Nov 2008
Farley is the MC at the City Council All Candidates Forum
Friendship House a finalist four times in Chamber of Commerace Business Awards
Business excellence honoured
The Daily News Published: Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The finalists for the Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards were announced Friday in the Atlin Terminal building among a whose-who of Rupertites. Chamber president Deb Stava, along with several helping hands announced the finalists for 12 separate categories including ‘Newsmaker of the Year’, the ‘City Ambassador award’ and ‘Rookie Business of the Year’. “The response to opening the voting was extraordinary,” said Stava. “The chamber is delighted to be honoring business excellence in the community and the people whose enthusiasm, commitment and dedication make Prince Rupert the remarkable it is.”
Former mayor and now BC Liberal candidate Herb Pond is joined by Fred Feddema and Friendship House Association (represented by Farley Stewart) as the finalists for the City Ambassador award.
The Chamber of Commerce is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year and the annual business awards gala is a chance for the best and brightest of the community to celebrate the year that was in the business community.
Rookie Business of the Year: Chances Prince Rupert, Costal Nail Salon, Good Times Gaming and Electronic
Community Involvement Award: Chances Prince Rupert, Friendship House Association, Northern Savings Credit Union
Aboriginal Business of the Year: Grassy Bay Services Ltd., H2O Adventures, Rainforest Books
City Ambassador Award: Friendship House Association, Fred Feddema, Herb Pond
Small Business of the Year: Trades, Industry, Manufacturing, and Transportation: Entire Automotive, The Electrician, WestCoast Launch
Small Business of the Year: Hospitality and Tourism: Cow Bay Café, Cowpuccino’s, Prince Rupert Adventure Tours
Small Business of the year – Retail: Anna’s Couture, Baker Boy, City Furniture, Homework.
Non-Profit of the Year: Friendship House Association, Prince Rupert Marine Rescue Society, Prince Rupert Wildlife Shelter, Rotary Clubs of Prince Rupert, Salvation Army
Excellence in Customer Service: Coast Hotel, Crest Hotel, Entire Automotive, Homework
Green Award: Civic Pride, Eco Management, World Wildlife Fund
Newsmaker of the Year: Friendship House 50th Anniversary, Prince Rupert Port Authority, Rupert Rampage
Business of the Year: Coast Hotel, Hawkair, Northern Credit Savings Union
“Can we do it, yes we can”
I Need a Hero: January 23, 2009
Hello my friends, this has been quite the week hasn’t it with our American neighbours celebrating and welcoming in a new President. I was quite moved about the Presidential ceremonies this past Tuesday. Our staff at “Da House” huddled up in one of the meeting rooms and shared the moment and watched the inauguration. It was a very inspirational occasion. It was also nice to see so many people rallying around the new President looking for hope, inspiration, racial equality and certainly one giant step for mankind. I heard in one report that he had the highest approval rating than any other President which was at 80%.
As I was just sitting there watching and knowing that millions of people were doing the same thing and feeling the positive energy made me realize that there is hope for all of us. By just looking at what President Elect Obama has gone thru to get where he is today, it took a lot of hard work and battling so many challenges and road blocks. I really appreciated his one speech during the election where he would include the catchy phrase, “Can we do it” and people in the audience would reply “Yes we can”. Now hopefully one day we can see someone from our community step forward and maybe not mirror what this man is doing and maybe not follow in his footsteps but blaze a trail for others in this community to follow. The legendary Johnny Cash did a song with Bono and U2 called the “Wanderer” there is a line from it that I will always remember. “I went out searching looking for one good man, with a spirit who would not bend or break but would sit at his father’s right hand” I would like to think that this is something each of us as individuals tries to do. I know I try and I may not get it right all the time but I look at each day and take it one day at a time. And like you I think I’ll try and remember that catch phrase, “Can we do it “yes we can”. And if this community is not ready to do that and help make the change, to help be the change, then we certainly have a great generation of young people coming up who can carry the torch and make our community a little safer.
My baby Hannah turns 8 years old this weekend, my goodness where does the time go Grace is 10 years old. Hannah has once again decided that at her birthday party she does not want birthday presents from her friends. In her words, “she has everything she needs”. So in her invitation to her friends she is asking that they not bring presents for her but they bring presents for the animals at the “Wildlife Shelter”. Now as a friend of mine would say, “How cool is that”. If you would like to do the same give the crew at the Wildlife Shelter a call at 250-627-9270 and find out what they need and tell them I need a hero J and check out their website at wildlife@citytel.net
If you want to reach me I’m at ineedahero.pr@gmail.com or check out my blog at farleystewart.wordpress.com
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Peace, I’ll see you when I see you, have a great week.
I NEED a HERO: January 16, 2009
Just to give you all the heads up, my holidays are now over, I have technically been off for five weeks my goodness how time flies and yes “I am bringing sexy back”!
I have had a lot to think about on my downtime but unfortunately I have experienced a bit of racism while on my downtime. I guess unfortunately ignorance is still bliss it seems this will never change in our community. Also my nephew, young Tim, in late December was roughed up by three punks outside a coffee shop (with the same name as his). Sadly no one seemed to care enough to intervene but sat and watched, until one of the brothers got out of his car to help young Tim, who really wouldn’t hurt a fly. Thanks Chris. So it begins Prince Rupert, every time you think things change, it just stays the same. Dam you all and your apathy…So it begins and as I said to one disgruntled manager who disrespected me and my family; “Are you sure that this is the way you want to play this?”
So what do we do about this, well I guess for me it’s about education and awareness and there are a lot of good people out there doing this but just like any box of apples, there’s going to be a couple of rotten apples who ruin it for everyone. There are many websites out there that can help you, check out this website from the KIDSHEALTH for Kids http://kidshealth.org/kid/grow/school_stuff/bullies.html here are some info from that site for your review.
Why Do Bullies Act That Way? When they pick on someone else, it can make them feel big and powerful. Some bullies come from families where everyone is angry and shouting all the time. They may think that being angry, calling names, and pushing people around is a normal way to act. Bullies often pick on someone they think they can have power over. Getting a big reaction out of someone can make bullies feel like they have the power they want. Bullying: How to Handle It – Stand tall and be brave. When you’re scared of another person, you’re probably not feeling your bravest. But sometimes just acting brave is enough to stop a bully. How does a brave person look and act? Stand tall and you’ll send the message: “Don’t mess with me.” It’s easier to feel brave when you feel good about yourself. If the bully says or does something to you ignore the bully. If you can, try your best to ignore the bully’s threats. Pretend you don’t hear them and walk away quickly to a place of safety. Bullies want a big reaction to their teasing and meanness. Acting as if you don’t notice and don’t care is like giving no reaction at all, and this just might stop a bully’s behaviour.
Stand up for yourself. Pretend to feel really brave and confident. Tell the bully “No! Stop it!” in a loud voice. Then walk away, or run if you have to. Kids also can stand up for each other by telling a bully to stop teasing or scaring someone else, and then walk away together. If a bully wants you to do something that you don’t want to do — say “no!” and walk away. If you do what a bully says to do, they will likely keep bullying you. Bullies tend to bully kids who don’t stick up for themselves. Don’t bully back. Don’t hit, kick, or push back to deal with someone bullying you or your friends. Fighting back just satisfies a bully and it’s dangerous, too, because someone could get hurt. You’re also likely to get in trouble. It’s best to stay with others, stay safe, and get help from an adult.
Don’t show your feelings. Plan ahead. How can you stop yourself from getting angry or showing that you’re upset? Try distracting yourself (counting backwards from 100, spelling the word ‘turtle’ backwards, etc.) to keep your mind occupied until you are out of the situation and somewhere safe where you can show your feelings. Bullying is wrong and it helps if everyone who gets bullied or sees someone being bullied speaks up. But no one needs to put up with a bully’s behaviour. If you or someone you know is bothered by a bully, talk to someone you trust. Everyone has the right to feel safe, and being bullied makes people feel unsafe. Tell someone about it and keep telling until something is done.
I wonder what the new City Council is doing about this. What other programs are there out there for you to help you deal with this. Let me know what you think. I now have a weblog check it out it’s a place where I put some of these articles and other stuff I’m at farleystewart.wordpress.com or send me an email: ineedahero.pr@gmail.com
Peace and have an awesome week. I’ll see you when I see you.
I NEED A HERO: JANUARY 9, 2009
Happy New Year everyone, I hope that this year holds for you the promise of goodwill you desire and that you are able to achieve your dreams as you embark on your journey remembering it’s the journey not the destination Yes I am still on holidays and it has been kind a nice. I have had some great down time and I’m looking forward to this upcoming year. Some interesting things I have read in the Daily News that have captured my interests and want to bring some attention to.
First in late December as you recall local lawyer Donald Silversides has been appointed to the newly formed “Health Revisions Review Board by the Minister of Health. Looking at the website: http://www.lcs.gov.bc.ca/BRDO/boardView it states the mandate of this Review Board as: The main purpose of the HPRB is to provide a fair, impartial, accountable and transparent mechanism for the review of decisions of colleges of designated health professions regarding registration, management of complaints, and discipline.
Now looking further into Part 4.2 of the Health Professions Act I’m reading further into the role of this independent committee, here’s the website if you want to check it out. http://www.bclaws.ca/Recon/document/freeside/–%20H%20–/Health
I think this is something that is long overdue and will allow the voice of those who are having problems within the health system to have their voices heard by an independent body. I’m sure some of you know someone who has experienced some difficulty within this health system. Now you have an avenue to present your case and have it heard by an independent review committee. Now on the other hand we all know that our health system is very much underfunded and it could be argued that if we had the resources then most of the negative experiences could be avoided. Just going to the hospital is stressful enough but this Independent Committee could also make strong recommendations to the government. That if you want voters to have a good as possible experience in the health system then you need to adequately provide the resources our health professionals need to do their jobs. We’ll see how this plays out.
Our MP Nathan Cullen will be conducting an eight community tour to hear from his constituents suggestions he can bring back to Ottawa as the Federal Government looks at a new budget. Our friends at the North West Community College will be hosting this event here in Prince Rupert January 15, 2009 at 7pm. (Rumour has it that after the tour Nathan will appear on North of 60 as a Band Manager).
There are a number of concerns that I have, one in particular is the Homelessness Fund that Service Canada administers. My frustration is that it is so difficult to get money from them to deliver these programs. I know there are rules to follow but it just seems that it’s just endless, you do one thing then that’s wrong then you do another then that’s wrong. Now speaking of the wrong, don’t get me started about Health Canada, my goodness they should change their name, if they were a hockey team….. Anyway I appreciate Nathan taking this on I know there will be a good turn out and he will get the info he needs to bring back to Ottawa.
Speaking of Ottawa our Team Canada did an awesome job in winning the World Jr. Hockey Championships, again. Our boys whooped a few teams like Germany, USA and Sweden it’s quite refreshing isn’t it. I always look forward to Jr. Hockey at this time of year.
But I do need to check out the Prince Rupert Rampage our local Senior Men’s hockey club as some of you know this Saturday January 10 will be there final home game of the season as they host the Terrace River Kings. Tickets are quite reasonable and makes for a nice outing. I hope you can check it out.
The Friendship House has been nominated in the local Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce 2008 Business Excellence Awards. For the first time in its history we at the Friendship House have been nominated in five of the twelve categories, the deadline is today January 9th so hopefully you can get online and cast a few votes for your friends @ “Da House”. I know what you’re thinking…..it’s just nice to be nominated
Peace and have an awesome week. I’ll see you when I see you.
I Need a Hero: December 19, 2008
Well hello there all, did you miss me? I have been a little busy, saving the world. But seriously I have been enjoying some down time, working on me. Over the years I have been very busy sitting on committees, going to meetings and working hard to try and make this place a little better and from where I sit I got to say not much has changed. What I continuously find is that it’s a thankless job, no matter how hard you work to try and do some good there is always someone out there thinking you have an ulterior motive. I guess that’s just human nature isn’t it. So anyway I’m back!
I am looking forward to the Christmas break and spending some time with my girls and doing some fun stuff with them. I will get a chance to take a breath and just be me, how does the song go? “I’ve got to be me” anyway enough about me. Grace and Hannah are quite active in figure skating, it is very nice to see them out there socializing, learning and doing something they enjoy.
Friendship House has been very busy over the past few weeks as you know we had an open house last week and it went very well. Plenty of people showed up and paid their respects and had a tour of the place. It was very successful as our staff shared information about the programs offered and freely gave of their time to show people around. Thank you for everyone who dropped by “Da House” and thanks to the staff and board members who helped out.
As this is the season of giving may I suggest a few places that often get over looked when it comes receiving donations. You all know about the usual suspects and they do good work but if I were to donate somewhere I would bring it to the good ladies at the Mission of the Good Shepherd. They run a soup kitchen among other things out of there hall, down on third avenue just across from General Paint. The other group is the Kaien Island Poverty Society otherwise known as K.A.P.S. they work with children and families who live in McKay Street neighbourhood. They are both very good groups and very solid. As you know I like to compare things to the NHL, so if they were NHL teams they would be like the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators both gritty teams who show up with the lunch box ready to work. Check them out and make a donation go ahead I dare you to think outside the box.
And speaking about thinking outside the box, I think this is more into left field, the good ole boys from School District 52 just can’t seem to get it right. They were in the news again not getting much support about setting up their Alternate School in Cowbay.
Just to remind you Friendship House was in partnership for over ten years with the School District 52 offering the Kaien Island Alternate School out of our building which is located “downtown” then they cut us. We weren’t perfect in delivering the program but we always had graduates and we always had people coming back to school because it was in our “downtown” location.
With their new initiative they have a $100,000.00 to play with, I wish they would have consulted with us first we could have done so much more and reached so many more youth with that influx of funds. What also is getting lost in all this is that we contributed roughly $100,000.00 annually to this partnership, no one seems bothered by that or seems to care. But I do miss seeing all those smiling faces of the students walking thru our halls and taking ownership of the program feeling like they belonged. Yeah it’s too bad that the Old Boys Club at School District decided to end our relationship without really having a plan in place and being okay with that, while our most disadvantaged youth fell thru the cracks. More surprisingly was the fact that the School Board approved ending this relationship without a plan in place.
So this new Alternate School will be delayed again and one has to wonder how much this is all costing. We appreciated the letter from Brenda L. Leighton in the Daily News letter to the Editor on December 11, 2008 asking for answers. It’s too bad they did not do any consultation beforehand not after the fact unfortunately this administrative move hurts the kids and how can you measure the loss of another youth.
But in the meantime we at “Da House” have been working in partnership with the NWCC in offering an Adult Grad Program in our “downtown” location we are just finishing up our first term together and looking forward to the January 5, 2009 when the next term starts up. So if you know anyone who wants to get their grade twelve, they can do it with us and NWCC. And as my new hero Obama would say, “Can we do it…Yes we can”. Registration forms are available at the NWCC or “downtown” @ the Friendship House come and check us out we’re the best “Alternative”
Hey if you have any comments about this article you can email me at ineedahero.pr@gmail.com or phone me you know where I am. Have a safe Christmas, pay it forward, keep it real and watch out for karma. Merry Christmas!
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Gandhi
I NEED A HERO: November 14, 2008
Well just one more day and we will find out who will be working on City Council for the next three years. I’m finding this year’s slate of candidates for Council very interesting. But the question looming out there for me is what it’s going to take to get more of our urban Aboriginal people to run for public office, let alone vote.
Now you all know this part; the last I heard our community population was around 12,000 people now for arguments sake I’ll say our aboriginal population is forty percent. Quick math then says that forty percent is 4800. Now that’s a conservative number now how many of that 4800 is of voting age? It is our hope that we can get at least fifty percent of the aboriginal population out to vote we can make a difference. When you go to vote tomorrow make sure to bring your identification and bring a friend, it’ll take you at the most ten minutes out of your day.
One rationale explained to me was that our peoples lack of trust in the system. I have heard that one too but the other side of that is how long do you as an urban aboriginal person want to be on the outside looking in. Others would say racism and others would say apathy limit our participation to get involved with the elections that happen. For many of us it’s time to stop with the excuses and lets stand up and be counted. I guess this is where some of us come in and we start to educate our people and show them that the only walls that we put up that prevent us from running for public office and voting is the walls we as individuals put up. And if you want to be taken seriously and getting tired of being ignored then do something about it. The first step in that journey could be with you going out on Saturday and exercising your right to vote. Let the community know that you want to be a part of this society our home our native land. (I couldn’t resist)
During the last Federal Election I do appreciate the City having a silent auction in the hallways of the Jim Ciccone Civic Center it gave many of us a chance to look for a bargain but also encourages some interaction and socialize. I brought my daughters and they had a bunch of questions about the election, they certainly felt comfortable being a part of the process. Just to remind you that the Prince Rupert Community Arts Council Annual Craft Fair—Nov 15 in the Russell Gamble Gymnasium
On another note, you need to check out this; Joseph Boyden of Metis heritage was recently named winner of the Giller Prize Canada’s fiction for his latest novel, Through Black Spruce, about a Cree woman’s search for her missing sister, as well as an account of how drugs and violence plague life on a Northern Ontario reserve.”
As reported the City still has not put up sign to encourage young women not to hitchhike similar to what they have in Terrace. Isn’t that amazing, we’ll see how much longer it takes, I’m not sure what the problem is but I think we should all be putting a call into City Hall and asking them what the delay is? If it’s a matter of money let’s find out how much it costs to put it up ourselves and let’s do it. Can we do it… yes we can.
Peace and don’t forget to vote.
I Need a Hero – October 31, 2008
As some of you know we, the Friendship House of Prince Rupert are celebrating fifty years of offering our services to our community. I have been there for twenty years, that’s a long time. It is our hope to have a celebration very soon along with that an open house involving all three of our locations.
We are now offering our Aama Goot Aboriginal Women’s Wellness Program; we have brought in a talented young lady with a great attitude and a solid work ethic, Alison Smith. She will be offering a number of programs and services with the medicine wheel in mind as well setting up a resource center. One of our long standing activities within this program is the “Power Puff Girls” this will be starting this Monday. This is a girls group for those between the ages of 8-13 years. This program will run every Monday from 3:15 to 5pm, this is a drop in program but it would be nice if you could phone and RSVP it’ll give us a nice idea as to how many children to expect. Alison will also be offering a “Women’s Activities Group” where they will do a variety of programs and activities, if there is enough interest I would like to bring back the native art and carving program. If you have any program ideas that Alison can work on give her a call.
We recently brought in a fine young Canadian kid to implement our “Men’s Aboriginal Family Support Worker Program”. This program will be offering support to men with a focus on education, prevention and healthy socialization activities. Lyle Angus will be working full time out the “Da House” and will be offering some programs in the near future. If you have any questions or have any ideas you would like to see in this program give Lyle a call.
With both of these programs the staff will generally be working a Monday to Friday 9-5 shift but once we get an idea of what times are best for the participants I anticipate those hours changing to include some evening and weekend work. Our phone number at Da House is 250-627-1717 Lyle can be reached at ext. 63 and Alison can be reached at ext. 24
Another bright light at “Da House” is the success we are experiencing in offering our “Family Advocate/Community Resource Worker”. As some of you know we have Ulf Kristansen working with us in this position. Ulf basically will help you with application forms, do a little bit advocacy and point you in the right direction. He will not be holding your hand or doing your resume for you, we have services in town that can do that. One night a week Ulf will also be at our Youth Center where he will chat it up with the youth and see how he can help the 30 to 40 youth who go there each night.
Our Aboriginal Family Literacy Program is off to a flying start, our Coordinator is Andrea Weinmeyer and is the final stages of setting up our Literacy Room. The Literacy room will be open to everyone as we encourage families to come on down and see some of our wonderful resources. We will be offering tradtional story telling one night a week and beleive this is going to be awesome.
It’s not rocket science on how we set up and offer our programs basically for each program we offer at the Friendship House, it involves three components. An activity; this brings in the participants gets there interest; the activity could vary from making fry bread or making a dream catcher. Then there are the healthy snacks, food mmmm. We leave the food out and the participants can help themselves. Then lastly somewhere in our time together we have a lesson or a guest speaker, this can focus on anything, after a few sessions we are able to find out what the people want to learn or talk about. Then we go about and bring in relevent guest speakers. The other focus of course is the medicine wheel. I’ll let you think about that.
Friendship House has an open door policy many of these programs are available to you. If you have any questions or any ideas you want to add give me a call at Da House (I’m here all week ladies and gentleman) or email me at ineedahero.pr@gmail.com Peace and have an awesome week.
Farley Stewart: “I Need a Hero”
This is my first entry, one small step for mankind eh? What you will find mostly in this Blog are my ariticles I write for our local newspaper. They print something every Friday. About a year ago the Editor asked if I would like to do an article I asked about what and he said on anything I want. WOW! Just so you know there are not alot of aboriginal writers in Northern British Columbia writing for local papers. I think its cultural 
Anyway bear with me, I’m just a guy on a journey as I have been reading some of my past articles (which I will eventually put on this Blog) I realize my life has been quite the soap opera; and I didn’t even do anything:o . So it begins………..
