The public is invited to learn how to be a good neighbour to Woodhaven Nature Conservancy, as UBCO students share a “welcome package” they created while learning about the many aspects of the regional park.
What: Woodhaven Newcomers Package event
Who: UBCO creative writing students, general public
When: Saturday, April 26, 10:30 am to noon
Where: Woodhaven Nature Conservancy Regional Park, 4711 Raymer Road, Kelowna
A group of UBC Okanagan creative writing students is wrapping up a project that will make a local park a welcoming haven for Okanagan residents.
Under the direction of Creative Writing Lecturer Umar Turaki, the students studied, learned about and visited Woodhaven Nature Conservancy Regional Park from January to March. From those experiences, they created a “welcome package”—including poems, stories, postcards, meditations, a film, maps and illustrations—which will be shared on Saturday.
“We are excited for local residents to join us for a community celebration about this special place and to introduce newcomers to it,” says Turaki. “This launch event will showcase some of these works and give neighbours the chance to view these creative pieces and learn more about this wonderful greenspace.”
Turaki coordinated this project with the non-profit Friends of Woodhaven Nature Conservancy Society, which regularly seeks ways to engage the local area in stewardship efforts.
True to its name, the UBCO course is called Writing and Community Learning and has a rich tradition of generating work that’s relevant to and rooted in Okanagan communities as a way of fulfilling learning objectives, explains Turaki.
“It made sense to continue in this tradition by guiding the students involved to create work that meets the needs of an existing community and makes a real difference in the world. Students get to hone their craft, sharpen their outlook and engage with a little corner of the world they know nothing about, while the community benefits. It’s a beautiful symbiosis and a living example of the principles of community creation and engagement we explore in the class,” he says.
The package will have postcards, a book called Wild Woodhaven: Poems and Activities, another book called Welcome to Woodhaven: A Guide to Connection, and a small handout with a map that shows how to live well near Woodhaven. Some items from the package will be given away on Saturday; the full package will be delivered to new residents of the Woodhaven neighbourhood.
Thanks to a City of Kelowna Strong Neighbourhoods Grant, the UBCO students will also offer refreshments and show a short 10-minute film they created.
This event builds on the UBCO’s Dig Your Neighbourhood project that Creative Writing Instructor Nancy Holmes worked on with her students from 2012 to 2014. Holmes is now an emeritus professor as well as a member of the Friends of Woodhaven.
“UBCO has such a long, rich history with the park, this is yet one more wonderful asset we helped create,” says Holmes. “There are some pretty interesting items in the package, including an impressive archival history of nearly every art event and workshop that has taken place in Woodhaven and at the Eco Culture Centre.”
Through an agreement with the Regional District, the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies manages the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre, which is right next door to the park. UBC faculty have hosted a number of events in the area and it can be used by artists or writers who are engaged in visual arts, digital arts, performance, social and community-based artistic practices.
The public is invited to attend this event at the Woodhaven Nature Conservancy Regional Park on Saturday, April 26, between 10 am and noon. Some of the materials will be available for purchase and will support student initiatives.
