It’s easy to be cynical about the world after a year like 2016. While the headlines are often filled with stories of strife and people doing bad things, there was lots of good being done by everyday folk who want to make the community where they live a better place. And Burnaby was no exception.
Let’s take a moment to look back at some of the Burnaby residents we encountered in 2016 and salute them with the If Everyone Were More Like Them, the World Would Be a Better Place Award.
George Kawaguchi
If there is a person in Burnaby who personifies the word volunteer, it would be George Kawaguchi.
For decades, the Burnaby resident and father has been donating his time and skills to a number of organizations in the community.
Kawaguchi started volunteering with South Burnaby Metro Club in the 1970s as coach and manager for the boys’ soccer and baseball teams. Most recently, he’s been training service dogs that help people with disabilities through the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society. And in between, there have been a host of events and organizations he’s helped out – like the 1997 Burnaby Summer Games – that’s too long to list.
For all his hard work, Kawaguchi this year was given the Kushiro Cup Award as Burnaby’s 2015 Outstanding Citizen of the Year.
Leigh Taylor-Gibbs
Some people can’t live without their coffee. For Taylor-Gibbs, a teacher at Byrne Creek Community School, she turned the popular drink into a successful school coffee program.
For a mere $2, staff can place an order with them for a first-rate latte, cappuccino, mocha or freshly juiced fruit and vegetable drink.
Taylor-Gibbs, an Access Program teacher, launched the service about nine years ago when she came to the school to start an inclusion class for students with so-called “low incidence” disabilities – less common disabilities like Down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy.
Her job was to find a way to teach students numeracy, literacy and life skills while integrating them into life at school.
“It’s an all-around literacy, numeracy and social-skills program that the school has really cottoned on to,” Taylor-Gibbs told the NOW. “I think the most rewarding part is when I see the kids six years later, out in the community, and they still have some of these skills and they still have a sense that this was a special place for them.”
John Templeton
It’s not an unusual sight to see Tempelton literally getting his hands dirty with water up to his knees. As the chair of the Stoney Creek environment committee, he’s worked tirelessly to bring attention to, and keep the creek that runs through the Forest Grove area of Burnaby, running strong.
After a construction mishap in late 2015 threatened the very existence of the chum that call the creek home, Templeton got on the horn making sure the various levels of industry and government responsible for the cleanup did their job. The work paid off too. This past fall’s salmon run on the creek was one of the biggest in recent years and the waterway is as healthy as it’s been in years.
It means we’re doing things right,” Templeton told the NOW. It’s a sign (the creek) is healthy. If the water was polluted or dirty, the fish wouldn’t come here.”
Stephen D’Souza
It’s not uncommon to see Stephen D’Souza’s name in our paper during the holiday season.
That’s because, as executive director of Burnaby Community Services, he has lead the Burnaby Christmas Bureau for years. When he’s not in his office answering phone calls and media requests, he can be found in the bureau’s toy room – sorting, organizing and bringing festive cheer to all the people he comes in contact with. Whether it’s a cheque for $5, $50 or $500, D’Souza has always said that it’s the “little drives” that make the Christmas Bureau happen.
“It’s not a campaign that’s driven by big donors. It’s a campaign that’s supported by really a good proportion of the community who are giving what they can,” he said in a previous interview with the NOW. “They are reminders that there is a Santa in each of us.”
Being at the helm of Burnaby Community Services means D’Souza is always fighting to help low-income families and seniors.
Bill Der
There’s hardly a more inspirational story then Der’s. In September, Der – who was diagnosed with glaucoma in 1975 and was legally blind by ’86 – began an eight-day trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro with his son Spencer.
His decision to take on “Kili,” which stands at more than 19,000 feet, is a very personal one. On Feb. 1, 2015, Lana, his wife of 35 years, unexpectedly passed away of stomach cancer.
Another reason to take on the South African adventure is Der’s blindness. Right now, his vision is between one and two per cent. “I want to be able to look back at the Kili climb and say, ‘If I can climb Kilimanjaro, total blindness will be a cakewalk,’” he told the NOW.
Five days into the eight-day trek and more than 15,000 feet up the 19,341-foot mountain, Der had to call off his climb while Spencer pressed on toward the summit carrying a special staff carved with names of all three family members.
Janet Nordstrand
The Burnaby music teacher snagged a pretty big award in 2016 B.C. Music Educators Association award for outstanding professional education in elementary music. For 21 years in the Burnaby school district and three years before that in Saskatoon, Nordstrand has worked to teach skills and spark a love of music in her young charges. But the provincial award is as much about Nordstrand’s work as a music leader outside of the classroom as it is about her day job.
At the district level, she has conducted the district Sound Wave Handbell Choir for 15 years. She presents district workshops on music education through handbells and has coordinated Ring Out!, an annual weekend of student workshops under the auspices of the B.C. Guild of English Handbell Ringers.
Provincially, Nordstrand has presented workshops at the B.C. Music Educators Association’s conferences and served on the executive of the B.C. Guild of English Handbell Ringers.
This summer, she led fundraising efforts that allowed eight of her Sound Wave ringers to attend the 17th International Handbell Symposium in Vancouver, where Nordstrand herself presented a workshop and guest conducted a massed choir of more than 650 ringers.
