Welcome to Ripples 2 Waves!

There’s a wave of change flowing over and through Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. This community of eight thousand people is creating a wave of inspiring social and community action. A wave that demonstrates how citizens taking action, using asset-based approaches can really make a difference in the resiliency of a place.

This blog will begin to harvest those stories of action and change. It will hopefully act as a source  of inspiration to spark and ignite other local initiatives, and act as a resource for actions of renewal in other small communities.

Youth Arts Week Success

Many of us are still reveling and reeling from Youth Art’s Week’s events. On Thursday we had our closing celebration at the Library, complete with cake to hear some highlights and stories.

Bridgewater YAW team

cutting cake

Check out this video for a few highights, more video footage to come:

Some stories from  the week included cramming in over 100 people among the stacks of fiction and non-fiction in the Library for the Coffee House. Youth shared poetry, monologues, acoustic blues, folk and banjo, humorous pieces and even sign language to an Ani D’Franco song!  We had fair trade coffee and herbal tea, home made baked goods and sweets (including a gluten free chocolate cake!).

transforming the library

Liam on Banjo

creating the space with cushions

Nick and Shane

Ashton signing to Ani D’Franco

Shelah Allen and Alex Hickey were  there from the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival scouting some of the acts-and were quite inspired by the young talent they witnessed. I t was magical?

The most magical piece for me was the transformation of the space. How an everyday library can be shape-shifted with a few table cloths hanging, the aroma of coffee, soft lighting, and the positive intention of the organizers to create a warm inviting space. And of course the infusion of young people sharing their skills and talents. I’m always thrilled when we take an ordinary, everyday space and transform it.

The same thing happened the following day at the Free Range Art event. We were given a unit in the Mall–grey and un-inviting. We hung colourful blankets from the second hand store (donated) and beautiful tie dyed fabric brought in by a young artist–we added tables covered in art supplies and spring clean up junk that we’d collected earlier in the week. Some colourful posters and signs to invite people into the space, some youth energy and enthusiasm–we transformed the space. During the day we had over 60 visitors stop by through the course of the day. They took old boots, pieces of wood, bowls, lawn fencing and created sculptures and murals.  We turned a mall unit into an art studio where anything is possible.

side walk art outside the Mall

art out of junk

Rachel and Luke making art

This week has been transformational. It has put into perspective what is possible when young people are engaged and empowered. Even doing this work for 20 years I’m always thrilled to see what can happen when young people are given a voice and a role on our communities.

Youth Arts Week Action

Day 1 of youth arts week started with Jason and Jess creating sidewalk chalk murals outside the Bridgewater Elementary and Highschools;

Youth Arts Week

Jason and Jess Chalk it Up

and

Following this a few of us were hanging art at the Wildwood Cafe:

Kyrsten, Hannah, Ashton

Aston and Kyrsten

On Wed, Jason and Jess were at Bluenose Academy and yesterday at Bayview School chalkin’ it up.

Last night a few of us went around town during to pick through people’s spring clean up junk piles to find treasures for our Free Range Art event on Saturday. I’ve never seen such enthusiasm in a group of young people as they pick through trash! It’s all about their passion for art and being involved in something meaningfully. Our roving photographer Stephanie was along capturing some of the adventure:

Free Ranging It

One person’s junk…

Look at that haul!

Treasure hunters

Today is preparing for the Free Range Art event tomorrow, chalking up King Street, and the Coffee House at the Library!

Poetry Reading at Bridgewater Library

This weekend the Bridgewater Public Library hosted a poetry circle with 6 local South Shore poets. Listeners enjoyed poems on the topic of balance from: Veryan Haysom, E.Alex Pierce, Alison Smith, Carole Langille, Joanne Jefferson and Brian Braganza.

Following this the group of listeners responded with reflections of how each poet was able to invoke memories which related to the listeners own individual experiences. They also spoke an appreciation for how the poets could  capture these experiences in the moment and then bring them back to life in the room.

This event was funded by the League of Canadian Poets to celebrate National Poetry Month and was a great display of the creative talent living in and near Bridgewater.

Harmony Health Centre Cooperative

Harmony Health Centre Cooperative has opened its doors, April 10th, after renovating the Former Kinsmen Hall in Bridgewater. This innovative centre brings together holistic health practitioners in a collaborative setting. It has been guided by the vision of Barbara Shaw, and will be a unique centre of health for the South Shore.

Services include:

Jill Higgins: Physiotherapist and Acupuncture

Barbara Shaw: Massage and Craniosacral Therapy

Margaret Melanson: Naturopathic Medicine

Michael Ross: Counselling and Psychotherapy

Amanda Morgan: Occupational Therapy and Yoga Life Coaching

There is also a community space for classes such as yoga, meditation, and other health related events. Enjoy the access to walking trails and the Lahave River.

www.harmonyhealthcentre.org

South Shore Sustainability Expo

Check out this great event happening at the Nova Scotia Community College this Saturday, March 31. Lots of great ideas on products, services and ways to get involved towards Sustainability and Resilience. This event is one of many steps towards seeing our community as part of the global Transition Town Movement…and the more local Revolution Through Doing Good Things (check out the Revolution in Action pages on this blog).

Expo

HeartWood Leadership Youth Make a Difference in Bridgewater

Re-posting this as there was an error in the original posting and it did not show up on the blog. Also added some photographs. Text is written by youth from the HeartWood March Break Youth Leadership Program which had a special emphasis on Bridgewater.

building the compost bin

The experiences in Bridgewater at HeartWood’s leadership camp have really been a great and eventful opportunity. Some of the things we have done have been a really great and a fun experience.

On the first day of the camp, making friends was really easy and great. Seeing some of the people of Bridgewater and how they have affected the community and people in general has been very influential. We split up into groups and visited different leaders in the community; an example of one would be Leon who worked at the Town Hall. Leon’s idea was to make things more eco friendly in an effective way and made us feel like we could do the same.

The next day we went out into the community and partook in service projects. Some of us went to the Small World Day Care, where we looked after the children and played with them. Some of us went to the Ryan Hall Seniors Home where we played music and socialized with the seniors and some of us helped to build a structural compost bin for the community gardens.

When we weren’t out in the community we were back in the M.A.R.C. in Dayspring, where we participated in different activities that helped us develop our leadership skills and passions.

We are a diverse group of youth who come from different parts of the province and we hope to bring home all of the new skills and passions we have learned and developed back into our communities so we too can make a difference.

Written by: Tyler Brimfield, Hailie Harrison and Shamus Stapleton, participants in HeartWood’s March Break Leadership program. www.heartwood.ns.ca

This year the Bridgewater Community Christmas Dinner was able to provide scholarships for 4 local youth to attend the program.

Sheild tag in the blizzard

Tyler playing keyboards during the "Not Necessarily Talented, But All Talented" talent show

Blaize sharing his rabbit snaring skills during the participant led session

compost crew with Ernie and Rosmarie

Incredible Edible Bridgewater coming soon

“It doesn’t take big things to create big changes.            

It takes small things that capture the imagination.”

-Incredible Edible Todmorden

Imagine one small thing: a garden plot of vegetables in front of a local business with a sign: “Help yourself”.  And people do…  A child delights in the sweetness of a sugar pod pea… A client shares her tomato-growing skills… A passerby tends to the weeds in exchange for a head of lettuce.

Now imagine that others are inspired to do their own small thing. Pretty soon, there are small plots of vegetables growing at the daycare, the police station, and peppering the lawns of businesses, homes and apartments everywhere you look.  You now live in a town where everyday you see food growing around you. It is being tended and eaten by the people who live and work and play there.

Imagine the impact of this edible landscape on how we think about the food we eat. We plant it, harvest it, share it, and learn to love the food that is healthiest for our bodies, our community, and the planet. The Bridgewater Community Garden Network envisions this edible landscape in our town. Incredible Edible Bridgewater. Can you see it too?

Ripples of Positivity Create a Real Revolution

Here are two great links to watch the first is a ted talk that looks at a Happy Secret. How if we can change how we think to seeing the positive and what’s possible  it can improve how we learn, live, work.  He’s a great speaker and hits it right on the button. (12mins) 

“When we are positive dopamine floods the brain not only making us happier but it turns on all the learning centers in our brain making us more productive”

“Train your brain to be positive by: writing about 3 gratitudes a day, journal about 1 positive experience in the last 24 hours, send random (conscious) acts of kindness like 1 positive email praising someone in your social circle.”

 

Bridgewater population on the rise

This article on southshorenow.ca and in this week’s Progress Bulletin restates our Monday post with census statistics to back it up.

Either way  you read it, it’s great news for Bridgewater in a time when many rural community’s populations are declining.

Bridgewater, setting a new course!

http://southshorenow.ca/archives/2012/021512/news/index032.php

Look who’s moving in

Currently there is a great influx of young people to the local area. Though not all are moving directly to Bridgewater, they are coming to the surrounding area to buy homes and properties, and will definitely be users of Bridgewater’s services.

In the last few months, a number of young farmers have bought or are buying small farms in the area with intentions of growing and selling produce. We know a number of people moving here from Ontario, the West Coast and beyond. The South Shore is where it’s at. Some are  young entrepreneurs who have business ventures they’d like to try out, some are artists and musicians, people in health care, teachers and some work in the not-for-profit sector.

One young man I spoke to recently spoke of his struggle to find meaningful work and possibly needing to move to Halifax. However his heart wants to remain close to Bridgewater.

So what’s the draw? The beautiful landscape, the people, the pace. For some it’s a return to Nova Scotia where they were born and raised. For some it’s a sense of community, sense of belonging, and quality of life. For some it’s the opportunity to be who they want, to live life fully, and to raise their  family here.

I arrived on the South Shore by chance and stayed because of the people, community lifestyle, and opportunities to be involved. To me, local activities like community dinners, local music, sports events, community gardens, and farm markets mean that people here care about working together to create a great place to live. What's really amazing is that we can all be part of it. It's been one year now and I love it here! ~ Rachelle Rebman

"We had been dreaming about giving up urban life for years and in May 2011 we finally made it happen. Bridgewater is the perfect central location for our family. Here we can live in the woods but still have friends nearby and shopping within walking distance. Its an easy commute to Halifax and a short drive to an amazing school, organic farms, and beaches." Melissa, Matt, Oliver & Waverleigh Roberts