Welcome to the
Village Vancouver Newsletter
June 2015

WHAT'S NEW? VOLUNTEERS TRANSITION NEWS EVENTS

Usher in the Summer with Village!

Our Demo Sustainable Village at Main Street Car Free Day, 100 in 1 Day interventions, the Mt. Pleasant Seed Library Launch, Volunteer Sunday, the Aberthau Garden Project, Seed sharing and gardening advice in Burnaby, Neighourhood Village potlucks and workshops, the Kits Village Recycling Depot, and a booth at the 25th Annual Strawberry Festival highlight our 40+ activities this month.

From beautiful and sunny days to needed rainy breaks, this has been a great start to an outdoor season filled with activities. Village is taking advantage of the great weather and we hope to see you at some of our great upcoming events!

What's New? Lots!!!

We have eleven – count ‘em eleven - exciting activities planned for 100 on 1 Day on June 6th and 7th – including another Permaculture Blitz, a Seed Library at Mt. Pleasant Branch VPL a Marpole-Oakridge Neighbourhood Food Network booth at Marpole Community Day, a seed giveaway and gardening advice at North Burnaby Neighbourhood House, gardening parties, potlucks, and a seed packet party.

We‘re really excited about our bigger than ever 6th Annual Demonstration Sustainable Village at the Main Street Car Free Day Festival on June 21st! Always one of the highlights of Car Free Day, we'll be centred around the intersection at 13th and Main, and this year we're taking over a whole block. We’re looking for dozens of volunteers (and tents, tables, and chairs to borrow), and encourage you to join us for this engaging community event. As we go to press, there's still room for more groups and projects to display in the Village, so please get in touch if you're interested.

On Wednesday, June 24th, we're launching our latest Seed Sharing Library. The Mt. Pleasant Seed Library is a collaboration between Village and Mt. Pleasant Branch VPL. The launch also features a Plant Swap.

Both Garden parties and Neighbourhood Village Potlucks abound during the month, including a couple of work parties at our Aberthau Garden Project Permaculture Demonstration Garden on the 13th and 27th. You can share some good food and conversation with your neighbours at partner organization West End Neighbourhood Food Network’s June Community Potluck on the 14th, and participate in a book and clothing swap at Commercial Drive Village's monthly potluck on the 18th, while June 12th features another Drop-in Spaghetti Night in Village Burnaby.

In addition to our own workshops, VanDusen Botanical Gardens and others are offering lots of workshops this month. Among the many other worthwhile activities being offered -- a Pollinator Walk and music dance celebration (June 6th), Guy McPherson addresses Responding to Abrupt Climate Change (June 12th), and there's a new Permaculture Design course starting on June 27th.

In Off Beat News, you can learn how to create a 3D digital tree and hear about the latest Gravity Light Project. We'd also like to remind you that you can support Village by purchasing books through our partner program with New Society Publishers. More details can be found in What's New.

And in Transition News, Transition Network is looking for inspiring stories for the climate talks in Paris this winter.

Grab your friends and let’s make the most of this beautiful season with Village Vancouver!
See you there!

Your June Newsletter Team,

Aska Djikia, Liz Gosselin, Ross Moster, Bonita Jo Magee, and Simone Hoedel

Become a Society Member Today

Join the Village Vancouver Transition Society! The membership fee is based on a sliding scale (suggested dues are $25) and it helps us develop this Village and its community. Your annual membership will make our movement even stronger! It's easy to join here.

100 in 1 Day Vancouver

100 in 1 Day Vancouver, an annual and global civic engagement festival, returns on June 6 with a promise: small actions equal big change. Village Vancouver is pleased to be a Community Partner for 100 in 1 Day Vancouver and will also be hosting eleven events in Vancouver and Burnaby. Currently in its second year in Vancouver, this growing movement aims to change how people interact with their cities by connecting citizens in leading and joining small but powerful community interventions. In the past, 100 in 1 projects have ranged from beautifying the streets with urban gardens to meeting your neighbours in social events. The list of events this year - which numbers over 100 - includes a nature scavenger hunt, trash tunes, 100 love letters in 1 day, permaculture parties, sidewalk doodling, a Stanley Park clean-up, community potlucks, and much more!

Join thousands in Vancouver and surrounding areas and help spark change on June 6 – spread the word, participate in one or more of community projects, or pitch your own one-day intervention!

Click here to learn more about 100 in 1 Day Vancouver, follow their movement on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or their Blog, and use the hashtag #100in1DayVan.

Presented by Evergreen.

Click here to learn more about 100 in 1 Day Vancouver, follow their movement on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or their Blog, and use the hashtag #100in1DayVan.

VV 100 in 1 Day Activities

Join us anytime between 10am and 9pm on Saturday or Sunday at one or more of our 100 in 1 Day Interventions in Burnaby (North Burnaby Neighbourhood House) Kits (Green Streets Garden), Kits Point (Billy Bishop Legion Hall and elsewhere) Mt. Pleasant (Vancouver Public Library - Mt. Pleasant Branch), Strathcona/DTES (Cottonwood Community Garden), and the West End (West End Community Centre) for a wide range of activities, including gardening, permaculture, seed giveaways and seed saving, potlucks, a Food Scrap Drop Spot, Marpole Community Day, and more.
Saturday, June 6th VV- WE Neighbourhood Food Network- Recycling Alternative Food Scraps Drop Spot 10 am - noon West End Community Centre Every Saturday WENFN volunteers receive food scraps from hundreds of the 45,000 residents in the West End. The take since June 2012 now totals over 50 tonnes of food scraps scraps for composting to be recycled back into growing, also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

VV Permaculture Plot Work Party 10 am - noon Cottonwood Community Garden
Join us for our weekly work party at our permaculture, DTES Neighbourhood House, Inner City Village, and herb spiral garden plots at Cottonwood Community Garden. It's fun, it's educational - no experience necessary, we teach you. VV Village Burnaby- North Burnaby Neighbourhood House Free seeds along with gardening and seed saving advice 10 am - 3:30 pm North Burnaby Neighbourhood House Free seeds and gardening advice as well as informing people about collaborative gardening opportunities in Burnaby. The aim is ultimately to promote self-reliant resilient communities that can work together and provide food for themselves.
VV Marpole-Oakridge Neighbourhood Food Network Booth at Marpole Community Day 11 am – 3 pm Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre Please join us at this family friendly neighbourhood festival.We'll have the Marpole-Oakridge Neighbourhood Food Network seed library there - you can get some free seeds for your garden or swap or donate some seeds - as well as information about Village Vancouver and the Food Network (which is sponsored by Village Vancouver).

VV Seed Savers Work Party 3:30 - 6:30 pm Kits Point, RSVP to ross@villagevancouver.ca for address We've folded over 2,000 seed packets for our Seed Libraries at our previous work parties, and have been busy filling them with seeds. New volunteers welcome and you don't need to know anything about seed saving to help! A potluck follows at 6:30.
Are you interested in helping maintain and stock our seed libraries? Assisting in producing a seed saving brochure? Helping promote or learning more about the benefits of seed saving? If so, we invite you to get involved with VV Seed Savers.

VV Community Potluck
6:30 - 9 pm Kits Point, RSVP to ross@villagevancouver.ca for address Share some good food, drink and conversation, including food freshly picked from the garden. Bring something yummy to share.

Sunday, June 7th

VV Kits Permaculture Blitz
10 am - 4 pm Kits Point, RSVP to ross@villagevancouver.ca for address
Join us for a Permaculture Blitz Day - a fun and educational KitsBlitz "barnraising" work party where we'll transform a space using Permaculture design principles. Up to 25 people at a time have participated in past VV garden blitzes in various neighbourhoods around Vancouver over the last four years.. Last year we restored and expanded a medicinal, herbal, and pollinator attractant garden on 100 in 1 day, and more recently, we created a demonstration permaculture site at the Aberthau Garden Project.

Part 1 of a 2 part blitz, this garden party will be held in a yard near Cornwall and Arbutus, where we'll be re-designing an existing garden. (Part 2 date take part on July 4) Everyone's welcome and no experience is necessary. Potluck Lunch - please bring something to share.

VV Kits Village Green Streets Garden Work Party
4 - 5 pm Kits, RSVP to ross@villagevancouver.ca for address
Weekly garden party at our Green Streets Garden. New volunteers welcome.

VV Kits Village Collaborative Garden Work Party
5 pm - 7:30 pm Billy Bishop Legion Hall
Weekly garden party. Our 5th year growing food together at The Billy Bishop Legion Hall. New volunteers welcome, no experience necessary. A potluck follows at 7:30.

VV Community Potluck 7:30 - 9 pm Kits Point, RSVP to ross@villagevancouver.ca for address Share some good,food, drink and conversation, including food freshly picked from the garden. Bring something yummy to share.

Car Free Day 2015 - June 20 and 21st

Photo credit: thirteencentpinball via Flickr

From our friends at Car Free Day Vancouver via the Car Free Day Vancouver website --

This year marks the 11th anniversary of Car Free Day in Vancouver and we’ve got tonnes of family friendly, community fun in store!

Car Free Day celebrates the vibrancy of Vancouver’s diverse neighbourhoods by organizing a multi-site annual arts and culture festival that reclaims traffic thoroughfares as community-focused public spaces allowing residents, artists, performers, artisans, non-profits and businesses to interact, engage and re-imagine spaces normally reserved for vehicle traffic.

The festival began 11 years ago on Commercial Drive as a response to the provincial government’s Port Mann/Highway 1 Improvement Project. The idea was to reclaim the streets and oppose highway expansion and more traffic. Today, we still believe that fewer cars equals more community. This year Car Free Day will occur in four Vancouver neighbourhoods and the concept has expanded to three cities in B.C. and three local high schools.

On Saturday June 20 and Sunday, June 21, there's no better place to be than Car Free Vancouver Day. On Commercial Dr (Venables to N Grandview) on the 21st, Denman St (Robson to Davie) in the West End on the 20th, all over Kits (block parties) on the 20th and 21st, and Main St (Broadway to 30th - 20+ blocks!) on the 21st, the streets come alive with literally hundreds of thousands of engaged, happy people.

VV 6th Annual Demo Sustainable Transition Village at Main St. Car Free Day

IMAGINING YOUR IDEAL NEIGHBOURHOOD: CULTIVATING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

One of the highlights of Car Free Day is our Demo Sustainable Neighbourhood Transition Village. (Now there's a mouthful!) This year we're taking over a whole block, including most of 12th-13th Ave. and the intersection at 13th and Main.

Our 30+ tent and open space Village highlights our work cultivating community resilience, as well as the work of other community groups and social enterprises, and typically includes things like neighbourhood villages, bees, chickens, solar panels, seed libraries + seedling giveaways, Transition Towns, permaculture, local/sharing economy resources, member projects, placemaking, native edibles, homesteading, GMO info, community DIY, neighbourhood food networks, drop-in spaghetti nights, potlucks, dinner groups, asset mapping, gardening/urban ag, growing advice, community/collaborative gardens, green spaces, composting display, emergency prep, recycling, bike maintenance, imagining possibilities for a better future, a library, refreshments, a hospitality suite, lots of FUN AND CELEBRATION and more.

We invite other community groups to join us. Forming an important part of the village will be loads of other groups (many of whom we partner with). As we go to press, 2015 groups are still being confirmed - past groups have included Just Say Hello, Kits Space Project, SPEC, False Creek Watershed Society, The HUB, MODO, SPUD, Vancouver. Neighbourhood Food Networks, Cottonwood Community Garden, Vancouver Urban Farmers Society, 2 Block Diet, Vancouver Renewable Energy Co-op, Mt. Pleasant Neighbourhood House, LocoMotoArt, Blessed Bees, Madame Beespeaker, Daily Eggs, Homesteaders Emporium, PosAbilities, Can You Dig It, O.U.R. Ecovillage, E.A.R.T.H. Native Edibles, Langara College, GE Free BC, Grant's Gourmet Gardens,Museaum of Vancouver, Community Arts Council, Zero Waste Vancouver, Bat House info, Sun Dog clotheslines, Bike Trailers, etc.

Come by and say hello, pickup some free seeds or seedlings, connect with your neigbhours, find out what's going on in the community, and imagine the possibilities.

Lots of volunteers needed. If you'd like to help, check out our Volunteers section. We're also looking to borrow more tents.

See you there!

Mt. Pleasant Seed Library Launches June 24th

Village Vancouver and the Mt. Pleasant Branch of the Vancouver Public Library are teaming up to bring you the Mt. Pleasant Seed Sharing Library. Join us on Wednesday, June 24th for the official launch of the Library. Pick up some free seeds for your garden or swap or donate seeds or plants, learn how the Seed Library works, and meet fellow gardeners and seed savers. All ages welcome.

Click here for more information.

WE Neighbourhood Food Network June Potluck, Strawberry and Car Free Day Festival booths, and other Summer Activities

Yum! Come on over to the West End Community Centre on Sunday, June 14th from 1–2:30 pm and share some great food and conversation with your neighbours. Bring some food or drink to share and a cup, bowl, spoon, etc. if you're able to, and find out the latest with the West End Neighbourhood Food Network and also Village Vancouver. Everyone's welcome to join us!

We'll have the WENFN seed library present, and you can get some free seeds for your garden or swap or donate some seeds.

On Saturday, June 13th, WENFN and Village will be sharing a booth at the Strawberry Festival, and the following Saturday (June 20th), we'll be sharing a booth at the West End Car Free Day Festival - more chances to secure some seeds and find out what we're up to.

WENFN is sponsored by Gordon Neighbourhood House. Other WENFN Summer activities and more details can be found below and on our website at www.foodwestend.wordpress.com.

New Society Publishers

Summer is here! Time to garden, and also time to sit back, relax and catch up on your reading. Check out the latest gardening titles offered by our partner, New Society Publishers. Whether you like to flip through a hardcopy or swipe across you favourite e-reader (e-books available!), there are books for all levels of gardeners, and other green pursuits. Your purchase also helps Village Vancouver, with 15% of sales donated back to VV.

Off Beat News

1 Heart, 1 Tree (Kickstarter)

Create a unique digital 3-D tree using your own pulse, captured by your cell phone, as the life force. For every digital tree created, a real one gets planted as part of one of the many reforestation programs around the world. Follow your real tree's progress through reports and a Google Earth file. [Details]

GravityLight2 Project (Indiegogo)

Safe, clean efficient lighting, powered by gravity. Originally designed for communities without reliable electricity, if any, and to reduce the use of kerosene lamps, the GravityLight is a portable and cost-effective solution. Now in its second phase of development, GLO2 also aims to setup an assembly plant in Kenya, providing locals with jobs and affordable lighting. [Details]

VV Volunteer Sunday

This month's VV Volunteer Sunday falls on June 21st - Car Free Day. we invite you to join us at our Demo Sustainable Village -- see Call Out for volunteers and tents... for more details.

Call out for volunteers and tents for VV Demo Village at Main St. Car Free Day Sunday, June 21st

This year we're taking over a whole block. For our biggest volunteer activity of the year, we need 40-50 volunteers on the day of, and a few more before and after. If you'd like to help us with setup (9 am - noon), at a Village info table during the day (between noon and 7 pm), with breakdown, or with transportation. Please contact volunteer@villagevancouver.ca, if you can help.

If you have have tables, chairs or tents we can borrow, send us an email at carfreedaystuffweneed@villagevancouver.ca.

If you're a group or individual who would like to promote/display a community project, group, or activity you're involved with, or for general inquiries, contact ross@villagevancouver.ca.

Seed Packet Parties!

Village Volunteers have folded over 2,000 seed packets for our seed libraries in the last month and a half. Join us on June 6th from 3:30-6:30, June 14th from 5:30-7:30, and/or June 28th from 5:30-7:30 for another round of seed packing (all followed by potlucks), and let’s grow our libraries together. As always, everyone is welcome and no experience is necessary.

Want to get more involved with VV Seed Savers??
Are you interested in helping maintain and stock our seed libraries? Assisting in producing a seed saving brochure? Helping promote or learning more about the benefits of seed saving? If so, we invite you to get involved with VV Seed Savers. seedsavers@villagevancouver.ca.

21 Stories for COP21

In the run-up to COP21, the Paris climate talks this December, Transition Network is searching for the 21 most inspiring stories from throughout the Transition movement to share with the world. Transition Network is going to celebrate the remarkable thing Transition has become: a quiet revolution.

Learn more and submit your story by June 21!

This announcement originally appears in the current Transition US Newsletter.

Jun 2 - Main Street Village Vancouver Monthly Potluck and Workshop

Village Vancouver June 2015 Newsletter

Usher in the Summer with Village!

What's New? Lots!!!

Become a Society Member Today

Join the Village Vancouver Transition Society! The membership fee is based on a sliding scale (suggested dues are $25) and it helps us develop this Village and its community. Your annual membership will make our movement even stronger! It's easy to join here.

100 in 1 Day Vancouver

Join thousands in Vancouver and surrounding areas and help spark change on June 6 – spread the word, participate in one or more of community projects, or pitch your own one-day intervention!

Click here to learn more about 100 in 1 Day Vancouver, follow their movement on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or their Blog, and use the hashtag #100in1DayVan.

Presented by Evergreen.

Click here to learn more about 100 in 1 Day Vancouver, follow their movement on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or their Blog, and use the hashtag #100in1DayVan.

VV 100 in 1 Day Activities

Car Free Day 2015 - June 20 and 21st

VV 6th Annual Demo Sustainable Transition Village at Main St. Car Free Day

Mt. Pleasant Seed Library Launches June 24th

WE Neighbourhood Food Network June Potluck, Strawberry and Car Free Day Festival booths, and other Summer Activities

New Society Publishers

Off Beat News

1 Heart, 1 Tree (Kickstarter)

GravityLight2 Project (Indiegogo)

VV Volunteer Sunday

Call out for volunteers and tents for VV Demo Village at Main St. Car Free Day Sunday, June 21st

Seed Packet Parties!

21 Stories for COP21