Festival of Good Things

For the third year in a row, the Festival of Good Things will be a chance to celebrate the creative and positive energy that seems to be growing in our community these days.

The folks behind this festival work hard to make sure that it's fun and free. There is a charge for admission to evening concerts ($10 per night), but entrance to the rest of the day's events is by donation. There will be music, vendors selling handmade goods, and this year, the Run of Exploding Colour, a chance to fundraise for your favourite charity. There are lots of activities for kids and families, and all are welcome.

I really admire the idea behind this event. The organizers decided they'd like to see a festival in Sarnia, and they made it happen, and they made it free. If you're in support of creative events like this one, you might consider volunteering to help ensure the festival's success.

The Festival of Good Things takes place on the Friday and Saturday of Labour Day weekend (September 4 and 5) at the Sarnia Bay Marina. To learn more, visit the Festival of Good Things.

Another Awesome Win!

A hardworking team of people from Lambton College had the chance to pitch an idea to Sarnia's Awesome Foundation last week. Though they'd had only a few days' notice before presentation day, they'd been working on their idea for weeks. The team put together a creative and impressive proposal, and . . . . they won!

The pitch: help ensure the success of the second annual Global Citizenship Summit, to be held at the Lambton Event Centre on November 18, 2015. You may have read about last year's summit--the night, which featured interesting speakers, wonderful food, and the chance to learn about many different cultures, was a huge success, and this year will be great again. You can read more about the goals of this year's Global Citizenship Summit here. 

The winning team accepts the Awesome Foundation funds,
which will be used to support this year's Global Citizenship Summit.
Thanks to Alisia Esene for the photograph.

Thank you to the wonderful and dedicated team--Kari Roos, Katie Horvath, Suhail Babwani, Amy Weiler, Zackery Roos,  Bonnie Szeto, Tunji Ibidunni, Emily Fortney Blunt, Rebecca Marshall, Ruth Geurts, and more--who worked so hard to make this happen in such a short amount of time. 

Thanks also to the generous folks behind Sarnia's Awesome Foundation. You may have read about the Awesome Foundation on this blog before, since Lambton College's Aboriginal Student Council won Awesome Foundation funding to host the Round Dance last January. 

Stay tuned for more information on the Global Citizenship Summit! 

Humans of Lambton College

Yesterday, the Sarnia Journal ran a feature story profiling one of Lambton College's recent graduates, Oluwasegun Alawode. Most of us know him as Bisi. You can read the full story here.

The talented Erica Ostojic captured this shot of Bisi 

to cap off the Humans of Lambton College project. 

Over the past year and a half, Bisi has been working with Lois Nantais, a professor at Lambton College, on a project they've called Humans of Lambton College. Together, they've documented stories from dozens of perspectives around this place: Lois asks the questions, and Bisi takes the photographs. You can see the entire collection online here, and for the next month, you can see a selection of the portraits on display in the SAC lounge at Lambton College.

So many of us are grateful for the energy that Lois and Bisi have put into this project. Through these stories, many of us have gotten to know our colleagues and our community a bit better. By helping all of us to feel connected, Lois and Bisi have made this college a better place. Thank you to you both!

Rain cheque

We missed out on hearing from Gilad this week. The huge Monday-night storm shut down power at the college for Tuesday, and we unfortunately had to call Gilad to cancel.

I heard from a lot of disappointed folks, but I have good news: Gilad may be back to Sarnia in the fall! I'll keep you up to date on our plans and progress.

More soon...

Jayu: Using Art to Change the World

Please join us tomorrow to hear again from Gilad Cohen, founder and executive director of Jayu.

Jayu is a human-rights organization based in Toronto, founded with the belief that art can encourage conversation and spark change. Gilad's presentation tomorrow will focus on the communication across cultures that art can make possible.

We will meet in P111 from 1-2. We hope to see you there!

Jayu returns...

The word is out: Gilad Cohen will make a return visit to Lambton College on Tuesday, June 23 at 1pm. Stay tuned for details...

Students share their stories of Haiti

Nursing students at Lambton College share pictures and
stories of their experiences in Haiti.

On Monday morning, a crowd of interested faculty and staff gathered to hear two panels of Lambton College students share their experiences of their time in Haiti.

Both groups had travelled to Haiti as part of their college experience: nursing students volunteered to run medical clinics and educational sessions in Haiti, and another group of students travelled as a component of Ruth Geurts' International Community Development course, a general education class that Ruth teaches here.

Kari Roos, an SSW student here at Lambton College, helps with the Haiti art table.
The proceeds of these sales are returned to the Haitian artists.

It was clear that the trip was meaningful and memorable for each of the presenters, and even life-changing for some. The nursing students spoke about seeing the theory they'd learned in the classroom come to life, and the challenges of communicating through the language barrier. Several of these students mentioned that the "cultural compentency" they'd discussed in the classroom had entirely new meaning for them now, as they encountered in their conversations with Haitians entirely different methods of treatment and very different belief systems from their own.

The focus for the general education group is on listening and learning. They don't travel to Haiti to parachute in with solutions: instead, they go there to learn about Haitians and about themselves. Both groups of students emphasized how much the trip revealed to them about themselves and their own preconceptions.

These trips happen in conjunction with Hands up for Haiti, a group of medical professionals that partners with Haitians to build sustainable educational and medical programs in Haiti. Our students also work with Rayjon, a local NGO that's been helping people to learn about Haitians and contribute to Haiti for thirty years now.

Thanks to the students who volunteered to share their stories with all of us.

If you'd like to learn more about Lambton College's connections to Haiti, please contact me. I'll be happy to put you in touch with the right people.