Cam I Am

Hello everyone:

I am appealing to you all as parents and/or citizens of the district of Maple Ridge to do three things:

1) Forward this Email to every other citizen of this District who you know. They do not have to be parents of school age children. They are taxpayers! Enlist their help. Imagine how many people could be reached if everyone sent this to ten others, and they in turn sent it to ten more. The number could be staggering. There is strength in numbers.

2) Call the four School Trustees listed and tell them this process is proceeding too quickly. Voice your opinion! Alternatively you could email them at the addresses indicated. They need to hear from parents, citizens, voters. There are viable alternatives to closing these schools that need to be investigated before a decision can be made in good conscience.

3) Attend the Public Meeting on Wednesday October 24th at Thomas Haney Secondary. Cancel other commitments. Bring your kids. At this meeting your Board of Education will vote on School Closure. Again, there is strength in numbers. A strong turnout and negative public reaction could prevent the closures.

IT IS NOT TOO LATE. STAND UP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

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 It is now public knowledge that the Maple Ridge Board of Education has received the recommendations from District staff to name three schools for CLOSURE:

• Riverside Elementary
• Mount Crescent Elementary
• Webster’s Corners Elementary

YOU CAN STILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!!

Please phone school trustees: Rick Butler, Dave Rempel, Kathy Marshall, and Kathie Ward.

Tell them the closure process is too rushed.  Tell them that this important decision has not received due process.  Tell them you want them to follow Cornerstones’s plan for a one to two year feasability study.  Tell them they have not investigated all possible options to ensure that they are making the right decision for our community.  CALL THEM TODAY!  On Wednesday, October 24th at 6:00pm they will make their official announcement at Thomas Haney Secondary.

BE THERE!

It’s not very often that I actively oppose something, but today was different.

Today, Colleen, the kids and I went to a rally held today in opposition to the school closure process that School District 42 (SD42 – Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows) is undertaking.

The purpose of the rally was very simple – make it clear that we aren’t happy with the speed of the process.  In the Cornerstone report, that the district refers to, it states that SD42 should take 1-2 years to go through the process..  it’s been 3 months!  

People who spoke included the President and Vice-President of the Teacher’s Association, a couple of students from Davey Jones Elementary in Pitt Meadows, and even one of the school board trustees! (By her own admission, her colleagues are not impressed with her going against the grain!)

It was nice to see a unified approach to opposing this process..  Up until now, at public meetings and forums, there has been people saying things like “School X is better, so you should close School Y”.   That kind of mentality isn’t helping anyone…

The sad part is that only about 50 people showed up.  From my daughters school we saw only two other parents that we recognized.  You would think that since Riverside is one of the schools that is being considered for closure, more people would take action. Colleen and I ensured that we signed the petition to slow the process down and evaulate things better, such as the statistics error that Colleen pointed out:

For example, in the document titled “School Closure Process, Housing development statistics and projections” it states that the population of children, aged 0-14 in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows has declined by 3722 between 2001 and 2006. In reviewing Stats Canada figures for this same period, I found that the population of children in these areas, aged 0-14, has declined by only 145 (and of these, by only 20 youth in Maple Ridge).

The whole rally lasted for 30-40 minutes overall.  We’ll find out what the school board is planning on Monday at the ”findings” meeting.  The public can attend, but not participate.

Here’s Lizzy and her protest sign:

And Lizzy signing the poster:

A little earlier today, I had one of those moments a parent never wanted to have…

Around noon, I started to make lunch for my 6 year old and 2 year old.  I asked Lizzy (6 yrs), to watch our baby (11 months).  I just asked her to make sure that she didn’t go near the fireplace or put something in her mouth.  (I’m sure that SOMEONE is going to have an issue with me saying that, but oh well!)

So I started making lunch.  I hear some coughing from the living room, but didn’t think much of it since all three of our kids have a cold.  But the coughing continued..  I yelled out to Lizzy if Ainsley (baby) was alright.  The response wasn’t what I wanted to hear..

“Yes…No..  I don’t know!” in a panicked voice I hear..  I ran out to the living room to see Ainsley very red in the face and coughing..  I picked her up, and could see that she had something on the roof of her mouth and caught partially in her throat.. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t get the object out.  Ainsley was getting more upset and cried even more..  After what seemed to be 10 minutes (but in reality was 30-45 seconds at the most), I managed to get the object out of her throat..  Ainsley coughed a little more and cried.  After 15 minutes of comforting her, she snuggled into my arms and feel asleep for a little nap..

I have never felt so terrified, especially when I couldn’t get the object out of her mouth at first. But, she’s fine..

The object?  Well.. I had a chocolate bar last night.  I thought that I had picked up the entire wrapper and thrown it out last night, but it appears the the corner I ripped off of it didn’t follow…. 

So, not only did I not watch her while making lunch, but it was a piece of wrapper that I clearly didn’t ensure that it made it to the garbage.. 

Don’t I feel lousy…

I now have a plan in the works!  After visiting my doctor today, I now have a new timeframe of my back healing and my return to work.  After 12 weeks of being off, I needed to feel like that there was a plan!

In December, I should be getting a cortisone shot to the area of the herniated disc.  As long as that goes well, I should be able to return to work within 6-8 weeks of that.  We are aiming for February 1st for a return to my full duties.  In the meanwhile, I’m still off.. I’m hoping that after a couple days of being off that I can return to work under light duties.  If all goes according to plan, I should not have to see the neurosurgeon at all in April.

In the meanwhile, things are still very financially tight.  A couple days ago, I had to call the president of our union local to ask for an emergency loan.  Fortunately, they were able to help for now, but I certainly cannot rely on that for the next 3 months..  But, at least I have a little breathing room for the next 4-5 weeks…

Things are looking up, overall…  There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Prepare for a good long read!  While this will mean little to nothing for a lot of people, it means everything to anyone with kids in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows… 

Over the last few weeks, my wife has been going to meetings about the proposed school closures in SD42 (Maple Ridge (MR) & Pitt Meadows).  While I haven’t been able to go to these meetings (someone has to watch our kids!), she and I have been talking about the process and posibilities, and digging up information to present (and combat) the school board with.  (Click on Keep Reading for more!)

Continue Reading »

After a lot of consideration, I’ve decided to change the look of my blog..  But of the templates available, I had a hard time choosing the one I wanted..

First of all, I wanted one that still allowed me to use the picture of Megan and the duck in the header.  A lot of the ones that I found either didn’t have a banner picture option, or simply wouldn’t allow me to crop the picture the way I wanted..

Secondly, change is good!  While I was content with the layout of what I had, there were a few changes that I wanted to make.  Firstly, I wanted to better highlight another page on my blog “Canadian Recalls“.  Aside from a little thing down the side of the old layout, there was no way with the previous layout that I was using that I could highlight when changes were made to it..

Thirdly..  well..  I guess I just thought it would be nice to try something different..  it goes back to the “change is good” idea, I suppose..

Anyhow, I hope that everyone is having a great day..  I’m trying to have a more positive outlook on things..

The title of the post is by no means an understatement..

Things are not going well at all..  It seems that I have to wait for appointments to do anything with my back.  As I’ve previously mentioned, I don’t see a neurosurgeon until April 2008…  But there was still hope!  I was supposed to be getting a Cortisone shot sometime by the end of October!

Apparently not….  I got the call for the appointment today.  I was informed that it will be just for a consult about the shot.  Guess what!? The consult appointment isn’t until December 5th of this year..

So, what’s my problem??

Continue Reading »

I’ve decided to devote a page to recalls. This can be found at (http://blog.eagleinbc.com/canadian-recall-list/).  As I’ve stated in a previous post “Getting Tired of Recalls“, I think that the recall situation is getting out of hand.

So, this is for recalls that I come across.  By no means is anyone to assume that this is a complete list.  Also, this will be mainly a Canadian List (But very often, Canadian/USA ones are the same).

If you have one to add, please feel free!  My main source will be from Health Canada, but I may use others as well..

Overall, I think that awareness is key.  The more sources that list the info, the more likely that it is that more people are going to  get the message.

Thanks!

Cam…

(Please note that this list is effective as of today, October 9, 2007.  I may refer back to older ones though)

Well, we got back from our Thanksgiving weekend a few hours ago, and I have to say that it was relatively uneventful..

We left Maple Ridge early Friday afternoon to drive up to Penticton.  The kids had a great time with Papa and Grandma.  And aside from witnessing a high-speed police chase (click here for details!) of which we saw a very small portion, and certainly not the most dangerous part (we saw him driving EXTREMELY dangerously, narrowly missing two other vehicles), nothing interesting happened.

That’s about it..  I didn’t do much aside from reading Harry Potter (now reading the 4th book.  I only started reading them about 3 weeks ago).  Colleen and the girls visited a friend, Cathy, and her two boys.  I was feeling kinda blah, so I went to Cherry Lane for some retail therapy! (It worked better than Physio!)

Overall, it’s nice to be home.  I enjoyed getting away, especially after being stuck at home for weeks and weeks, it was nice for a change of view, but it’s always nice to come back home to your own bed.

Since I have had a lot of time to think, something has occured to me recently….

Why don’t people greet each other the way they did 20 years ago?

Seriously..  I remember as a kid when I was introduced to adults, I always was told, “This is Mr. So-and-so.”.   It was only polite to say hello to Mr. Wilson down the street.  I NEVER would have said, “Hi Bob!”.

Now that I’m an adult, I don’t find that level of courtesy.  Well, that isn’t entirely true..  I do hear “Here is your receipt, Mr. MacDonald” at Safeway, but that isn’t courtesy… that’s what they’ve been trained to do.  None of my daughters friends say Mr. MacDonald.  The funny thing is that they don’t say much.   At best, I get “Lizzy’s Dad”..  They always seem awkward at the front door..  

I do admit, that I have not taught my daughter to call people Mr./Mrs. either.  Somehow, we (society) have become lax on this..