Cambridge Bay bake sale for flood relief
People have been really good and even creative about providing their support. It amazed me to see how people in Cambridge Bay, who often face poverty (not to mention extreme weather), organized a bake sale to raise funds for the Alberta flood victims. If these modest folks can spare a little change, so can we, right? Especially if even very poor Cambodian orphans are donating to the cause. Orphans!
So here are some ways to help:
- Donate to the Red Cross, or even volunteer for the Red Cross. They are especially looking for volunteer truck drivers or fork lift operators (403-461-6206)
- Donate to the Calgary YWCA
- Donate to the Calgary Humane Society. You may have heard the story about the Calgary zoo hippos that made an attempt to escape into the river while flood volunteers transported other animals, but other animals have been displaced too and need support.
- Some of the communities that were the most affected and devastated by the floods were the Aboriginal ones, including the Siksika and Stony Nations. You can offer a donation here to support the rebuilding of their communites.
- Donate a graduation dress to girls who are about to graduate but had their dresses ruined.
- You can also donate a number of other things according to this Canadian Home Builders Association list including dumpsters, garbage cans, flashlights, food, generators and shovels
- If you're in Edmonton, participate in the local bottle drive, "Cans for Calgary"
So what has been happening in Cambridge Bay since I've been away and not blogging? We missed out on a lot of things happening in Cambridge Bay:
- Most notably, kids caused an oil spill in Cambridge Bay. Apparently some children got curious about the tanks that hold used oil, and opened up a valve, apparently causing 15000 litres of oil to spill out into the Arctic Ocean. Luckily, much of the ocean is still frozen so separating oil from the ocean was not as complicated as it usually is, but clean up is still going on around here.
- Somebody spotted a grizzly bear wandering around on the street behind me. My friends went out on an imaginary bear hunt, but with no luck. I heard someone from town tell a story about how people kept spotting a grizzly bear in town but whenever hunters went to go find it, they could never find it. Finally, they discovered that the bear had been sleeping under one of the houses. Excuse me while I go check the space beneath my house...
- As a side note, grizzly bears weren't all that common up here on the island for a long time, but lately they've been making the trek all the way up here and hanging out. And breeding with polar bears. This is a terrifying thought. Two of the scariest bears making scary bear babies....
- Folks have been complaining about kids swimming in the puddle in front of the elementary school. As I mentioned before, during spring time when all that ice is melting, there are huge puddles that form in the road. Well, I guess it's all just too tempting for some of the local kids, because they have been putting on their swimming trunks and actually swimming in the puddles. This is kind of a gross thought, not just because we're talking mud puddles (that are possibly also containing oil spill run off), but also because other kids have been spotted peeing in the same puddle. Oh, kids these days. Sometimes they are raising hundreds of dollars with their lemonade stand of peace situated across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church; sometimes they're causing oil spills into the ocean.
