P-A Community Conversations
The Perth-Andover Community Conversations Initiative has been around since winter of 2013. Being a community-building geek, I have been following the work of The Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement, based in Kitchen-Waterloo for the past few years. Institute President, Paul Born, and author of Community Conversations, sums up the...
A Day of Learning at the Wolastegewiyik Healing Lodge
On May 9 I attended an interesting and educational workshop at the Healing Lodge at Tobique First Nation. Focussed on self- care, the workshop began with an opening prayer and then moved on to cover a range of topics and experiences. Alison Sappier explained the uses and benefits...
Re-Purposing Perth-Andover:
The Demographic Factor Francine St. Amand In recent issues of Blackfly, I discussed the Educational, Environmental and Economic factors in the pitch to restore and redevelop the flood-prone areas – primarily on the Andover side – as a naturalized park. This park would allow space to integrate other community...
Greed is a Good Thing
By Linda Nicholas Editor’s Note: On April 25 a Social Enterprise Development Dialog was presented at the Pond-Deshpande Centre in Saint John. Several folks from Perth-Andover attended the presentation, the following essay is from Linda Nicholas, who attended the dialog. Social Enterprise is For Profit Businesses creating Shared Values…...
An Old Fashioned May Day Celebration
Back in the Olden Days before we had Social Media and texting to reach out and touch people, there was the charming old tradition of showing your interest or affection to others by gifting them with a hand -made May Basket. An interested party would make a basket,...
Scotiabank Bake Sale Goodies Deliver the Goods!
Andover Elementary students were thrilled to collect much needed funds to repair and improve their school playground from the big hearted efforts of the Perth-Andover branch of Scotiabank. The bank’s staff recently pulled out their best recipes and got cooking in their own kitchens in order to host...
Seven Strategies for Small Town Revitalization
We have to look at the Big Picture…. Brenda Goodine Sociologist Dr. Bill Reimer states that in 1951 only 45 percent of Canada’s population lived in cities. Today, over 70 percent of us live in large metropolitan centres. There are fewer and fewer towns and villages, most of which...
Repurposing Perth-Andover:
The Economic Factor Francine St. Amand I wouldn’t be writing this series of articles if I didn’t believe that there is a strong ECONOMIC case to be made in considering a Naturalized Park – as the foundational concept in the re-purposing of the flood-prone areas in the Village. In...
Upper Valley Autism Resource Centre Open House
The Upper Valley Autism Resource Centre held a lovely open house party to celebrate their new location on April 5th. The centre has moved into the building at 1143 West Riverside Drive (formerly home to Mark Johnson Law Office) Staff and families alike are thrilled with UVARC’s new...
Perth-Andover Needs Intensive and Inclusive Dialogue
Since the Perth-Andover flood of March 23, 2012 there have been three public meetings to discuss the future of vacant lots left in the wake of the flood. The Glenn Group, a Fredericton-based landscape architect firm was contracted to come up with a plan for ‘re-purposing’ the Village of...