Love it or hate it, the new Cactus Club Cafe at English Bay is open for business.
Situated on the citys busiest beach, where an old bathhouse was once located, the restaurant boasts a menu featuring exclusive items influenced by the seaside and created by celebrity chef Rob Feenie. The menu includes a choice of steaks, including the Millionaires cut with Creole jumbo prawns. Should go well with the million-dollar view.
According to the park board, the restaurant was built to LEED certification standards with a commitment to the environment and community. The licensed bistro will allow beachgoers to have a drink with their meal, while those who want more casual fare can order off a special concession menu.
The great outdoors
The park board has partnered with the charity Power to Be Adventure Therapy to provide inclusive outdoor education programs in Stanley Park this summer for people facing challenges as diverse as cancer, autism, Down syndrome, brain injuries, abuse or poverty. The program is wide ranging and includes cycling, hiking and sea kayaking.
To date, Power to Be has been best known for its work on Vancouver Island, but the program recently expanded to the Lower Mainland. Its designed to fill the gaps in health, education and social services for people facing significant life challenges. It also empowers them to discover their own ability through various outdoor activities that can translate to other parts of their lives, such as school, family or community involvement.
The new partnership will allow the group a temporary storage shed in Stanley Park to house adaptive recreation equipment such as bikes, hiking gear and sea kayaks. The park board owns much of its own adaptive equipment, including aquatic pool lifts, aquatic wheelchairs, beach wheelchairs and ice sledges, which are available at pools, beaches and ice rinks.
For arts sake
The park board has chosen the artists who will organize neighbourhood-based projects at Kensington, Trout Lake and Renfrew community centres for 2012.
The boards Artists in Communities program for 2012 includes a community performance project at Kensington, organized by dance artists Julia Carr and Meghan Goodman and puppeteer Maggie Winston, that will culminate with an open house celebration in early June. For information on the artists and upcoming workshops, go to kensingtonart.wordpress.com.
Artist Anthony Schrag will work at Trout Lake Community Centre from April through June and is looking for collaborators from the neighbourhood, arty or not. Schrags project will evolve from community input drawn from discussion, play and stories. Anyone interested in working with Schrag can check out his website at anthonyschrag.com.
And finally, an artist team from Something Collective, including Laura Barron, Flick Harrison, Juliana Bedoya, Maffie Winston and Natalie Gan, will explore the Renfrew neighbourhood through dance, sound, video, green graffiti, puppets and photography. Friends and neighbours will create an interactive, living picture of Renfrew to put favourite spots on the map. This project will take place between August and November. For more information go to somethingcollective.ca.
Twitter: @sthomas10
