 |
Imagine1Day is a Vancouver-based charitable organization whose mission is simple: work with Ethiopia to create quality education for everyone, to be sustained free of foreign aid. Their approach is progressive: instead of simply asking for donations, i1d have invented a new method of fundraising with a snappy name. |
Alicia Baddorf
Do you know where your food comes from? Really? Beyond trusting the label on a package, there isn’t a whole lot many of us citygoers can do to ensure the integrity of what crosses our table. Alicia is out to change that. She works with local organization The World in a Garden to educate people and businesses about the seed-to-table process, how we can take control of our own food security, and the fantastic health benefits that come along with eating whole foods right out of the ground. She also sells fresh veggies from her Kerrisdale garden at the Thursday afternoon Pocket Market at Kits Neighbourhood House, all summer long.
Grant McDonagh
Zulu Records is one of the top record stores in Canada, and its continued success in this age of light sculptures made of old (lo-fi) CDs and earbuds full of (even lower-fi) mp3s, is largely due to the controversial contention of its owner, Grant McDonagh, that every era produces good music (including locally), and that music is something worth sharing with your friends.
Grant founded Zulu at West 4th & Maple in 1981, in the void created by the shuttered Quintessence Records, with the intention of continuing that store’s mission to promote the alt-sounds coming out of New York & London (punk, new-wave). Also, then as now, the store became committed to supporting local acts and even producing a few of their records.
Just last month, Grant & his staff acted as musical curators for the Khatsalano Art & Music Festival, which saw 29 bands play over 6 stages spread across a car-free 4th Ave, many of them local, all of them excellent and eclectically selected. As the city and neighborhood around it have changed owners, functions, and skins over the years, Zulu has maintained an enviable consistency & appeal, growing into its role as elder statesman while remaining the coolest kid on the block.
Bradley Messer
Wood speaks to Bradley. He trusts in it, sees faces in it. He reads the knots and rings to find the spirit living within each found piece, then lovingly transforms them using fine materials such as sharpies and wax scuff-repair crayons. The result is about as direct an artistic expression you will get out of old mother nature. Very often the characters living within these grains bear a striking resemblance to passing Chinatowners, graffiti kids, urban animals, 3-eyed creatures, Gremlins, other 80s movie icons, dive-bombing seagulls, and the occasional awful-tie-wearing portrait victim. He does it for love, but (most of) these items are very much for sale.
Katie Jeanes
Katie Jeanes is optimistic that the world is not about to end. Yes, good old Earth is facing its share of hardships, and there is no shortage of social & economic challenges to solve. But ‘doom & gloom’ never solved anything. And the drastic lifestyle changes prescribed by many activists can be daunting, to the point where we can lose sight of the fact that small changes, small acts of kindness & responsibility, mean a lot. Just because you aren’t willing to move to the country and start raising your own organically grown vegetables doesn’t mean you can’t support the local people who do.
A Little More Good is Katie’s response to the idea that change has to be drastic, huge, or difficult. Her blog (launched in 2010) is full of stories and ideas about good companies, good people, and great ideas for fun things to do that bring… a little more good to Vancouver. You should follow Katie & ALMG on Twitter etc.—always a ray of sunshine.
ALMG partnered with The Social Feed last month to bring a group of up-and-coming entrepreneurs together (in public, offline, like in real life) for a long-table dinner at the Irish Heather in Gastown, where world-altering conversations were had, and monumental partnerships between new friends-for-life were formed. Book yourself into an upcoming event with the Social Feed guys—there are always upcoming events listed on their website.
