Gold River Buzz

Please note that this service is available for Gold River residents as well!

We are pleased to announce that the Advocacy Services Centre will be opening Tuesday, May 8^th at 9 am.

The new centre will provide free confidential legal advocacy for men and women on issues relating to:

• Income assistance, disability income rights, housing & tenancy, CPP, EI, Employment, consumer debt
• Representation at tribunals & arbitrations as needed
• Service to low income persons in Campbell River and the North Island

The phone number is 250-914-0272     Fax number: 250-914-1272

1261 Ironwood Street, Campbell River.

We are pleased to have Brenda Kobzey as our Legal Advocate and Heather Brownhill as our Advocacy Assistant Coordinator

Hours of operation will be Tuesday – Friday from 9 – 4:30 (closed for lunch from 12-12:30 daily).

You may also reach the Homelessness Outreach Worker Paul Mason at this address and phone number.

Thank you to the Law Foundation of BC for funding the Legal Advocacy program.

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via Kathleen O’Reilly:

Hi all,

It has been a while but still doing great.  Since I last wrote, we spent about five weeks in the country of Paraguay.  It was a country filled with kind people and not once did we feel unsafe in what is a very poor country (the second poorest in South America).  You travel slowly around the country as when it rains the majority of the roads turn to red mud and are un-usuable.

We spent most of our time traveling to nature reserves where the last remains of Atlantic forest has been preserved.  Less than 10% of the Atlantic forest remains in this country most cut down for farmland which is unfortunately owned by Brazilian farmers. Still the diversity is incredible in both plants and animals and we were lucky enough to see some of the rare animals in the wild including Capuchin monkey and toucan birds.  Most of the nature reserves are guarded by armed men who wear bullet-proof vests.  If the forests are not guarded, the animals are  subjected to illegal hunting and  the trees are cut  for fuel.

For one week we went to a research centre in one of the parks and volunteered with various environmental research projects.  One project was building pit traps and the other was setting and checking traps for a type of possum that is endangered.  There were people from all over the world doing research as many animals/birds can only be found in Paraguay.

I mentioned that Paraguay is quite a poor country and it is hard to find fruits and vegetables.  So we are now in Argentina on our way to Bolivia and we are eating every vegetable we can find.  The Paraguayans seem to survive on meat, bread, eggs and one root vegetable called madioca.

We are currently in Salta, Agrentina soaking up the culture.  This area was part of the Inca territory pre-colonization by the Spaniards.  So the local museum has on display three bodies of children that were offered to the Inca Gods over 500 years ago.  The three children were found in 1999 by an archeological team.  As the were buried at 22,000 feet, they were perfectly preserved and give much information about the Inca culture as over a thousand objects were buried with the children. It was quite something to observe and many feel the bodies should have been left where they were instead of put on public display.

Hope spring is in the air for all of you!

Bye for now,
Kathleen O’Reilly

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Charla Johnson , Granddaughter of Walter and Rita Hall and former Gold Riverite, will be performing in concert in Vancouver singing some of her signature cover songs such as “You Are LOVED”, “Music of the Night”, “The Rose”, “Time to Say  Goodbye” and a presentation of two of her own compositions.  She will accompany herself on several of her song presentations with either classical guitar or piano.  An orchestra will assist in her classical presentations.  She will share the stage with several other B.C. artists who sing folk or classical or combinations of both.

Charla’s sister Kaylene, also sings folk, jazz and R & B, and sings in local coffee shops as time permits.

Charla sang from the day she was born and  generally spends much of her time writing songs and singing, studying at North Island College, as well as taking piano and recently guitar lessons as well.  She has participated in several concerts as well as Vancouver Island Valley Idol last year where she enjoys the top number of Youtube “hits” of all competitors over the five year run of this idol contest.  Charla occasionally can be found singing one or two of her signature songs at Serious Coffee.  She will be entertaining in Campbell River on June 21, 2012.

Charla is a lyrical Soprano with a hint of lilting which bodes well for classic and Folk songs.  She was a member of the Campbell River Children’s Choir for 9 years, participated in musical theatre productions at CARIHI and is a member of the River City Players where she has taken singing rolls  in various productions over the years.

Charla has been favorably critiqued by artists such as Sue Meddly, Angela Kelman, Doug Deep and by several opera singers in Victoria.  She intends to enroll in The Victoria School of Performing Arts after securing her college credits.

Some of her songs can be viewed by “Googling” her on the computer or under Charla Johnson on YouTube.

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