Round Dance Tonight!

Tonight's the night! The Round Dance, hosted by the Aboriginal Students' Council, begins at 6 p.m. in the Lambton College Event Centre. It's free, and all are welcome. Please join us!

Jack Project Viral Video

The Lambton College branch of the Jack Project has created an amazing video to support Bell's Let's Talk day. Please watch it and share it, and then talk with those around you about mental health. Let's break the silence! 

Here's the link to the video: http://youtu.be/esx34n3mFCo 

Here's the link to the folks
 who produced the video: www.lcpcanada.com

The Jack Project is an active and vocal student group on campus: they're dedicated to "changing lives by breaking the silence and stigma around mental health." As I've learned from speaking with some of the student ambassadors involved, they're working to remind us that everyone is affected by mental health. 

If you'd like to learn more about the Jack Project at Lambton College, please visit their facebook page here: www.facebook.com/jackdotorglambton 

The Round Dance Tradition and Event

This past Thursday, White-Lightning Clark and Jake Rogers co-facilitated our first Centre for Social Justice lunch-and-learn of the new year. The two Lambton College students and members of the Aboriginal Students' Council led us through a very informative overview of the history and significance of the Round Dance.

Thank you to Jake Rogers and White-Lightning Clark, who spoke with us
 about what the Round Dance means to them.

White-Lightning explained that the tradition began in the Cree nation, but it's since spread to other aboriginal cultures, too. Today, it's become a very social event. Both White-Lightning and Jake shared stories of round dances they've attended.

If you'd like to know more about the Round Dance tradition, keep in mind that the first Lambton College Round Dance is coming up on Friday, January 30. The Round Dance will be held at the Lambton College Event Centre from 6-10 pm, and it's free. All are welcome!

Empty Bowls 2015

Some community members doing their best to follow
Beth's instructions on bowl creation. 

This morning, about twenty of us got a crash course in pottery. Beth Turnbull-Morrish, pottery instructor at Lambton College and Empty Bowls Sarnia organizer, invited a couple of dozen or so folks from the community in to the pottery studio at Lambton to try throwing a bowl of our own. 

All of this was in preparation for this year's Empty Bowls event. On Tuesday, February 3, 2015, for $25, you can choose your own hand-thrown pottery bowl to bring home. 

The bowl will be filled with delicious soup donated from one of fourteen local restaurants, and you'll also be served delicious homemade bread. 

You can see the experts from the local pottery guild standing by
to help us. (Thank goodness!) 

Best of all, almost all of the $25 ticket price goes directly to support local food banks.


(And don't worry--the bowls for sale were all made by folks who know what they're doing: volunteers from the local pottery guild donate their beautiful work. The bowls that the guests made this morning go in their own special 'extra donation' category, so if you see a bowl here that you like, you can bid on it!) 


While we watched her demonstration and learned the basics of bowl construction, Beth told us a bit about the history of the Empty Bowls event. This is the eighth year that Empty Bowls will run in Sarnia, but the idea has a longer history. It began as a high school project: high school students were challenged to think about how they could use their skills to support a worthwhile cause, and the Empty Bowls idea was their creation. (For more on the origins of the fundraiser, see emptybowls.net.)

Here are some of the bowls that other folks created. (You can
see Beth's model bowl at the top left.)

My bowl didn't look quite like the model. (It was all going well until a side caved in, but Beth very kindly said that I could use the flop as an opportunity for a creative effect of some sort.) 

I had a great time making it, no matter what the final product looks like, and I hope someone might bid on it. (Maybe my family members will take pity and make a donation when my bowl is the last one left on the table.)

And here's my bowl--those crinkles are meant to look decorative...

Please join us at the Lambton Event Centre at 5 or 7 pm on Tuesday, February 3. 

And if you'd like to volunteer, please email (erica.kelly@lambtoncollege.ca). We could always use more help! 

Thursday's Event

Good news--we have a room!

White-Lightning Clark's presentation on the Round Dance Tradition and Event will take place in the Boardroom at Lambton College, B108. We'll meet from 11:30-12:30. This is an informal meeting--it's a chance to learn more about the Round Dance and to ask questions.

Please join us if you can! All are welcome.

Happy January!

Welcome to the new year and the new term! We have a lot planned for this winter, so please keep checking back for news about upcoming events.

First in our calendars is the next lunch-and-learn in our series. On Thursday, January 15, from 11:30-12:30, White-Lightning Clark, Lambton College student and 2014 President of the Aboriginal Students' Council, will lead us through a presentation about the Round Dance tradition and event. (We're still working on booking a room--things are busy as class schedules get sorted out, but we should know which room we'll be in very soon and I'll post an update.)

Some of the folks from the Aboriginal Students' Council accepting an Awesome Foundation Award, which will help to support the upcoming Round Dance. You can read more about the event here.

This lunchtime meeting will be a great chance to learn more about the Round Dance in preparation for the Round Dance event itself, which is coming up on Friday, January 30 at the Lambton College Event Centre. The Round Dance is being organized by the Aboriginal Students’ Council (ASC) here at Lambton, and it’s being funded in part by an Awesome Foundation Award.

The Round Dance Event is open to everyone. It's meant to be a social activity, and all are welcome. Here's a description of the Round Dance, as shared by the ASC on the Awesome Foundation website:

"The Round Dance ceremony comes from our Cree relatives of the western plains. 

The recent popularity of this type of gathering has caught on here in the Great Lakes area.

 More communities are hosting their own Round Dances. The event consists of an emcee 

and a stickman who keeps the event in motion and acknowledges the lead singers and any 

other singers who arrive. He also is in charge of choosing the next lead singer to sing 4 songs

with the help of any other singers. Spectators can choose to take part in the dance called "the 

side step". This dance is slow and to the beat of the hand drums. The dancers dance in a circle

around the table of singers; hence the event's name, "Round Dance". The night is a great 

opportunity to socialize with friends and family but to also meet new people. In addition, the 

evening will include a silent auction and a traditional food booth to raise money and awareness

 for the Annual Pow Wow being held at the college on April 2, 2015. We would like to bring this 

very special event from the First Nation culture to the students, staff and faculty of Lambton 

College. We always look to educate the Lambton College and local community on the culture 

and traditionsof the First Nations people in the interests of understanding, diversity and friendship."

In the same spirit as the 2014 Global Citizenship Summit, the Round Dance will celebrate our community's diversity.

We’ll give you details about the night as they become available, but this is certainly something to look forward to.