Westerman honoured for support of Kwantlen, students

Margaret Westerman, a retired teacher and active volunteer, has received an honourary membership from the KSA for her contributions to the university.

Westerman and her husband, Ernest, sold a large portion of their land in Surrey to Kwantlen in 1982. Although they could have sold it to developers, they opted instead for the university so that a campus could be built on the lot.

Kwantlen President David Atkinson said that without the land and support from the couple, the school would not be where it is today.

“Kwantlen has flourished,” he said. “If it had not had a sense of place, I suspect none of this would have happened.”

Westerman, who still lives next door to the school, was humbled by her honourary membership and was adamant that the students of Kwantlen have done far more for her than she has every done for them. She added that since her husband’s death in 1984, the presence of students and staff have had a calming effect.

“I’ve had 24 years alone in that house, but I haven’t felt lonely once…just seeing those students is what keeps me going.”

Ernest Westerman’s family set down roots on the land when they arrived in the province in 1919. In 1948, after the couple returned from their honeymoon, they built a house by hand to solidify those roots. The small house, on 126th Street between the two parking lots on the west side of campus, is still home to Westerman.

Westerman said that she has no intentions of ever leaving the house and wants to continue her relationship with Kwantlen.

“I hope to die there, and if I don’t, I hope my spirit dies there.”

Power Smart teams wades through campus to promote contest

“Do you want $2,500?”

Angela MacDonald’s sales pitch doesn’t get any simpler than that.

MacDonald, a member of BC Hydro’s Power Smart team, was roaming Kwantlen’s Richmond campus in blue and orange scuba gear on Wednesday promoting Invent the Future, a new online contest that pays you for your energy conservation ideas.

“We’re here trying to convince people to enter their videos and their essays, and we’re trying to promote conservation,” she said, “because our energy demands are going up 45 per cent by 2020 and our infrastructure is about 50 years old.”

Invent the Future gives B.C. students a shot at a top prize of $2,500 in exchange for a 1,000-word essay or 30- to 60-second video detailing their energy conservation idea.

The goal, according to BC Hydro, is to find ideas that foster energy conservation or discover a “new technology or innovative practice” resulting in increased efficiency.

The contest, open to individuals or teams, ages 13-29, has a second prize of $1,000 and an iPod Touch for the people’s choice in each category.

Anyone can vote for their favorite entry online until Nov. 4, and simply for registering, voters are entered into a draw for four iPod Nano’s.

The deadline for entries is Oct. 31, and more information is available online at www.inventthefuture.ca.

Nurses hit the bar to raise funds for Thai clinical work

Devon Beard and 11 other Kwantlen University College nursing students are hoping to do their clinical placement in Thailand next summer.

But helping the sick and injured has its price: the five-week trip will cost anywhere from $1,800 to $3,200 for each student. So as well as attending third-year classes, Beard and classmates plan will spend the next year raising funds.

They start Friday, Sept. 26, when they host a club night at the Mirage Nightclub in Surrey. The event begins at 9 p.m., tickets are $10 and there’s a free drink if you arrive before 10 p.m.

“We’re hoping to do a lot of other fundraisers throughout the year to raise money as well,” says Beard. “We’re pretty much just getting started right now. This is our first event, and it’s been kind of hectic…so hopefully it will go well.”

Beard said the nursing students want to work with children in Thailand.

“We’re going to HIV clinics and orphanages and working with the kids…teaching them about prevention and hand washing — basic stuff like that,” she said.

Green Wednesdays push sustainability, healthier living

Kwantlen’s Langley campus will promote environmentally-conscious ideas in a new series called Green Wednesdays. Every second Wednesday of each month will be devoted to movies that deal with environmental issues, as well as presentations about sustainability and healthy living.

Gary Jones, horticulture instructor at Kwantlen, is putting on the event along with the Green Ideas Network. Jones says that the event is open to everyone because “we want what we do here to be relative to the community.”

Jones said that last semester, they put on a similar event called the Environment Around Us, which was held only three times in the spring. He said that they had a great turnout and, by the last event, they had 120 people show up.

This year, the Green Ideas Network approached Jones and said it wanted to get involved and include its movie picks in the itinerary. Jones, along with students from Kwantlen and the horticulture sector, set up the evening, bring in guest speakers and make sure that everything is running smoothly.

The Green Ideas network, consists of two women, Doreen Dosdwell and Joyce Rostron. It’s a non-profit society, based in Surrey. Jones said that Dewell and Roston share his goal for the environmental series, which is “to make people more aware of issues surrounding food security, community development landscape, housing development.”

Jones said that he hopes people will leave the series with an idea about issues such as sustainability, alternatives to oil and challenges to the food supply. He hopes that people will teach these issues to other members of their communities so people will “decide to do something, specifically, that they can implement themselves and make a change on a local level.”

The first Green Wednesday will be held Wednesday, Oct. 8 at the Langley campus auditorium. King of Corn, a movie about farmers finding out what happens to their crops in a “fast-food nation.” Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 for the general public and $4 for students.

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