Fossil Fair for Kids!

Our next group event is:
Fossil Fair for Kids!!The Victoria Paleontology Society is hosting its 15th Annual Fossil Fairon March 26-27th at the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary (3873 Swan Lake Rd)
The Fair has a display of diverse ancient fossil animals and plants, including:dinosaur bones, corals, mollusks, insects, giant palm leaves, and more!

This Fair is educational and open to the public! Children can do these activities: sandbox fossil dig, fossil scavenger hunt,fossil coloring, rubbings, and more!
Date for our group: Saturday, March 26th. Meet at VIRCS at 10:30am (or, if you prefer to drive, meet us at the Fair at 11am) to take the bus.Fair is Free of Cost for us!
Please, let me know if you are coming, and how many persons you will be! Also, ask your family match if they are interested and plan to join!
Thank you,
-- Francina Potes

Program Coordinator

Cultural Bridging Friends Program

Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society

637 Bay St, 3rd Floor. Victoria BC

(250) 361-9433 x.242

francina@vircs.bc.ca

Lend a hand at our Bicycles for Beginners workshop next Thursday, August 13th

This Thursday Megan Thom will be taking people on another of her great workshops, this time teaching first-time cyclists how to get comfortable on their bicycles. If you love bicycles, and love to teach, come help people get started.

Megan Thom can be reached at megan.thom@vircs.bc.ca, or 250-361-9433 x216.

MEEPle are on the move; what to expect from this year's Environmental Program

After over two years at VIRCS, the original MEEP staff (the MEEPle) are moving on :(

We will all be sad to see Gagan Leekha and Rosalyn Cua leave VIRCS in the next few weeks, but we know that they will do amazing things wherever they go.

Since beginning the Multicultural Environmental Education Program, Gagan and Rosalyn have linked newcomers to great environmental services and natural spaces in Victoria, and created some great awareness materials in many languages and many mediums. With multi-language radio tips, videos on waste reduction, a great newsletter, and simple multu-language eco-tips, these two have made a huge green impact on the multicultural communities of Victoria. Thank you so much Gagan and Rosalyn; we'll miss you!

Coming in to carry on this great tradition is Megan Thom. Megan has worked all over the world, and has already begun making friends and helping clients get in touch with nature here at VIRCS. Megan will focus MEEP on outings and group events this year, with some great nature hikes, visits to eco-friendly organizations, do-it-yourself workshops, and more. When you are next at VIRCS, be sure to come and give Megan a big welcome to the VIRCS family.

Great Work to all our MEEP Volunteers at Trailer Trash!

Thanks to everyone for your help with our environmentally aware (and funny!) video clips!

Some great videos were produced, and showcased by our whole Multicultural Environmental Education Program (MEEP) team at Hermann's las week. Way to go MEEPle :)

Thanks for all those volunteers who helped make films, and thank you to the event helpers who made the launch such fun!

If you missed the party, you can still see the videos here.

New Documentary-making workshops at VIRCS with the MEEP team

Love making films and documentaries? Help newcomers make some environmentally-themed trailers to be shown in local theatres during our Trailer Trash project!

Over the next four weeks, MediaNet and VIRCS will be helping teams of newcomers from around the world script, shoot, and edit their own short documentaries on environmental awareness and sustainable living from a multicultural perspective.

If you'd like to help out, contact Rosalyn to learn more.

How to get free fruit from the fall harvest (with the MEEPle)

As many of you know, the MEEPle are people who work on our Multicultural Environmental Education Program (MEEP), which helps connect newcomers with ways to be kind to the envronment. Here's a new project from Gagan, one of the MEEPle team leaders:

VIRCS Team Leader for Lifecycle's Fruit Tree Project
Do you like FREE fresh, local fruit? We are looking for a volunteer to participate in Lifecycle's volunteer training to be a Fruit Tree Project Leader. After the training you will help with organizing teams of VIRCS clients and volunteers to pick fruit (fresh cherries, plums, apples, pears and other fruit or sometimes vegetables) from private trees that would otherwise go to waste. The delicious fruit is then distributed among homeowners, volunteers, food banks and community organizations within Victoria.

For more information on how you can get involved as a Team Leader or even a Fruit Picker, please contact Gagan at gagan@vircs.bc.ca or 250.361.9433 ext. 217.

MEEP Radio Broadcasts

We're also looking for voice actors for our Multi-language Radio Eco-Tips. We are specifically looking for English, Punjabi, Spanish, and Mandarin speakers to help record short, 30-second messages for radio broadcast.

To help out, please contact myself or Rosalyn, the Project Coordinator. Rosalyn can be reached at rosalyn@vircs.bc.ca, or 250-361-9433 x216.

Earth Walk

I'd like to say thank you to everyone who participated in Earth Walk last Saturday. We had double last year's number of people from VIRCS in the Earth Walk, including two of VIRCS' founders: Hereity and Carlos.