Back to school? Not for Me
As the summer comes to an end, I reflect on my first day as a homeschooler. It marked the day of a wonderful beginning of a new chapter.
Search Results for: back to school
Back to School Photos and Other Traditions
Back-to school shopping trips were special, it was just my mom and I. We’d have time to pose for the back-to-school picture.
Back to School in Haiti
As September chills the air, whether with excitement or dismay, kids in Whitehorse turn their attention towards the new school year. Half way across the world, and minus the frost, Haitian youth are thinking about heading to school, as well. With the help of Yukoner Morgan Wienberg, who is based in Haiti, I was able …
Back to School: Public
I go to a school called Robert Service School in Dawson City. I know it’s common, but going back to school is a feeling you get when you go and buy school supplies and new school clothes. When I first started school I was clueless to the fact that it was going to be much …
Back to School: What Kids Say
What they were looking forward to, and who was the happiest about their return to school—themselves, their parents, or their teachers.
Sam McGee Connects The Yukon to B.C.
“Memorizing poetry is my daily training and therapy,” B.C. storyteller Andre Sutherland Begin said, adding he will be coming to the Yukon…
Skills Canada Electrician
I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands, whether it’s something as small as Lego or as large as a building…
Welcome to Vaucluse and to Olive Oil, Wine and Sun-kissed Hills in the South of France
Mont Ventoux (literally Mount Windy). Not quite as impressive as the peaks of Kluane National Park and Reserve, at 1,909 m (6,263 ft), it is the highest mountain of the region. The “Giant of Provence” is also well-known to be the iconic climb during the cycling race, Tour de France.
The Battle at the Mad Trapper Bar
Northerners; we tell stories. Our northern stories are our wealth & our identity. They are about independent, hardy people full of character.
Beverly Brazier turns to thoughts of fall
September is quite a month. There are poems about it. It’s a month that digs deep into the range of our emotions.
Parenting in a Pandemic
Having my kids home all day isn’t a new thing, as I was a stay-at-home parent for the last six years of my life. But being home all day with my kids while simultaneously watching the world fall apart around us is a new thing, however.
Muskrat season
In the delta, March meant one thing—muskrat trapping season was open. And trapped muskrat pelts fetched damned near $2.50 apiece back in 1976.
Joining the big kids – the ABCs of kindergarten and beyond
The lazy days of summer will soon come to an end, for teachers and students alike.
Stand up for Stephen McGovern
On March 9, Yukon comic Stephen McGovern will be gearing up to take the stage at the Just for Laughs Northwest comedy festival in Vancouver. The 10-day event beginning March 1 offers a wide variety of shows that highlight Canadian and international comedy. McGovern makes his Just for Laughs debut performing in The Outsiders Comedy show, which …
A conversation with Bruno Bourdache
There are about 600 NGOs in the Yukon. They need at least three to four board members, and they are all volunteers. So yes, in the Yukon, we cannot be as dynamic or strong as we are without volunteers.
Experiencing the Beauty of Canada
Heather Newman graduated from high school in 2007 from Robina State High School on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. Not exactly in 2009 and definitely not in Whitehorse. All the Whitehorse kids from the class of 2009 seem to be busy this summer; as I haven’t been running into any of them lately. Some …
The Heart of a Queen
When Telek Rogan decided to run for Rendezvous Queen in the 2017 Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous competition, she did so as a celebration of who she had become. Talking with me about it, Rogan has no problem articulating the changes that have shaped her. “I’ve done a lot of transitioning in my life. I became a …
What Happened to the Kids?
I have Marie write out her full name for me. ‘Achtymichuk.’ It’s Ukrainian, where her dad is from. I compliment her on her beautiful handwriting. We have this interview in the store where Marie is a manager, we were interrupted by staff a few times. Marie is needed! Marie’s parents started the business in 2006, …
Journeys That Open the Heart
Whitehorse musician and adventurer Thorin Loeks is off on another journey. On June 4th, Loeks started to hitchhike from his home just outside of Whitehorse up to Dawson City where began a cycling trip. His initial plan was to bicycle south to Montana. There, he was going to switch his bike for a paddle, and …
Claire the Bartender
If you’ve ever been to Lizards Lounge in the Town and Mountain Hotel on a Friday or Saturday night, you’ve seen Claire Mechan. She’s been behind the bar making your drinks for the last fiveand-a-half years. “It’s my identifier in Whitehorse,” Mechan says. “I go into Walmart and people say, ‘It’s Claire the bartender!’” But …
College is easier than logging
My dad figures it’s more common for adults to go back to school these days. This is compared to when he went to college for the first time when he was 33. In the ‘90s. He says, “These days, people don’t stay in the same career.” He had a wife (my mom), four kids (a …
Up Ghost River Without a Paddle
When Edmund Metatawabin’s (Ed) residential school memoir, Up Ghost River, jumped off the new-books shelf of the Yukon Public Library and landed in my book bag on top of Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe, I was tempted to blow my whistle and send him to the penalty box for obstruction. I was hunting for some …
Fall
Living in the Yukon, people want to enjoy summer to the fullest, “summer” being those 14 to 21 days randomly sprinkled across June, July, and August. Gardeners are no different.The perception of many is that a long, hot summer brings an abundance of produce normally grown in hot houses down south. In truth though, a scorching summer …
Safety First. Always
When Whitehorse students go back to school on August 25, many of them will be meeting Peggy Hanifan for the first time. Many others will have spent hundreds of hours with her already, but they won’t call her Peggy. To them, she is School Bus Driver. Hanifan has spent 14 years transporting students to and …
Salt of the Yukon
Dwayne and Nellie Backstrom might never be listed in the pages of The Colourful Five Percent; I don’t think they would care to be. But 2014’s Sourdough Rendezvous’ Mr. And Mrs. Yukon have a more meaningful legacy. In their own quiet way, they are quintessential Yukoners — understated, hard working, and full of love for …
Carving an Impression in Whitehorse
Angel Hall has only recently started coming into Peggy Hanifan’s Whitewater Wednesday Jam Night at Flipper’s Pub, but she’s already making an impression. She stands tall and confident at the mike and captures the crowd with a unique guitar style and quirky songs, including The Mothership, a surf-rock song she’s recording for Yukon Women In …
Tomatoes: The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few
One sunny August afternoon, I walked into our “Tomato” greenhouse only to find my husband, Frank, yielding a machete (OK, a large knife) chopping off the tops of all the tomato plants. Positive that the heat finally got to him and he’s gone berserk, I yelled: “What the heck are you doing?” The long rows …
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Fit ‘n’ Healthy: Keep Track to Keep on Track!
Fall is here, the kids are going back to school and you are going back to the gym. Yes, it’s time. In order to be sure you’re successful this year, it is time to re-organize your life. A bit of “fall cleaning” of sorts. To be sure you are setting yourself up for success, print …
Artrepreneur: Art Investigates Illustration
Cathleen Collins has taken some of the strategies used in illustration and has pushed them through acrylic paint to create a show that’s well worth seeing. Exploring Illustration at the Chocolate Claim is Collins’ first show. The young artist has been working for the summer at Arts Underground. She’ll go back to school in the …
Fit ‘n’ Healthy: Time to Tweak Your Goals
Fall is here, 2009 is almost over and I’d like to know if you’ve reached your goals for this year. It’s time to look back at your goals that you set back in January and then re-visited in May. What goals do you still want to accomplish? Have you reached your goal weight? Have you …
Nicholas Mah, Guitar on Two Wheels
Nicholas Mah is obsessed with music. But obsessions are good: “You know how, when you are an adolescent, you can get obsessed with things?” he asks. “For me, it was music. All I wanted to do was to be a professional guitar player.” You don’t get to make a living as a professional musician, by …
Gallant Talent
At 17, Calvin Laveck is a remarkable singer, dancer and musician. All these gifts, however, have not gone to his head, and his attitude is one of gratitude. He is a true gentleman performer and a role model for young male dancers. As we sit at Umbellula on the River, sipping our hot chocolates, I …
Just a big wacky musical about corruption
”It’s a huge show,” Todd Duckworth the director tells me. Twenty people in the cast, four in the band. “When you see 20 people stretched out in a line on stage singing their hearts out — it’s pretty impressive. “This is a piece of entertainment. It’s also a satire. So with all the fluff, there’s …
Entertainment and Education for Kids — and Grown-ups, Too
By now the kids have settled back to school and there’s calm on the home front …or is there? What to do with your family’s little early birds in the wee morning hours when all you can think about is a steaming cup of coffee and maybe a hot shower? Well, help is literally just …
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Fit ‘n’ Healthy: Getting S.M.A.R.T. About Fitness
Kids are going back to school … maybe you’re an empty nester … or maybe you are a summer outdoor enthusiast. Well, it’s fall time and with the fall comes time to re-set your schedule and, with it, your fitness and healthy lifestyle goals. We have discussed goal setting a few times over the last …
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From Welding Class to LA
If all the people who have played at Whitewater Wednesday Night Jam, Dan Halen has the coolest name. And it’s his real name. “Write me a cheque and we’ll find out,” the finger-picking blues/jazz guitarist and onetime Trapper Dan jokes with me over matcha lattes. Originally from Winnipeg, Halen got interested in music while working …
Happy New Year, Universe!
How does everybody feel going into 2012? And you Mayan calendar devotees can just zip it right now. You’re still gonna have to get up for work next December 22nd. Got it? Honestly, I’m pretty darn excited. This is going to be an amazing time in human discovery and achievement. The Voyager 1 just left …
Finding Her New Voice
When Caroline Drury-Márkos last performed at the Yukon Arts Centre, she was a jazz crooner with the popular Peter Drury Trio. When she returns next week to kick off the Whitehorse Concerts 2011-12 season, it will be as an opera singer. Although she studied voice with Barbara Chamberlin as a teenager, and took a few …
Fit ‘n’ Healthy: Fall Fitness Tips
Autumn in the Yukon is a fantastic time of year. It is bright, energetic, crisp and clean. It’s also a transitional time of year. When kids go back to school, schedules at work become more consistent and life has a tendency to settle down a bit. So before the snow flies and the darkness settles …
Playwright Sherry MacDonald shares her secrets to the creative process
Sherry MacDonald, the newest writer-in-residence at Dawson City’s Berton House, has a place secured in heaven. “There’s a special place in heaven for single moms who have raised three boys,” she says. MacDonald is a playwright and her plays have been seen on stages in Vancouver, Calgary, and Florida. Her sons are now grown and …
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That Summer in Elsa
One morning in the mess hall, the man sitting across from me took a sip and—as much to himself as anyone else—said, “I think this is my last cup of coffee here.” By the time I’d finished my shift underground, he was gone, his musing over caffeine his only goodbye. Lots of people left Elsa …
Youth in Style
This fall, back-to-school fashion trends I like for girls are racer back tank tops, lacy back T-shirts, and hair up in a ponytail with feather earrings (like Selena Gomez wears her hair in a scene in her music video “Hit the Lights”). Fashion I like for boys are high tops, hats and cool T-shirts. I …
A Little Off the Top: Prepping for Those First Days
Exciting. But also terrifying. That’s how Paula Thompson sums up her feelings about the beginning of a new school year. She could be referring to what many students go through as summer wanes and the classroom beckons—whether it’s for the first time or something they’ve gone through several times already. “It’s one of those interesting …
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Fit ‘n’ Healthy: Just Do It
It’s five months into 2012 and what have you done this year? Have you tried something new? Have you learned anything? Have you done something that scares you? Have you done something to help you live, not just exist? As I am sure you have all heard by now, Lee and I sold Peak Fitness. …
Skateboarding Through ‘The Horse’
Jorden Murray had an unusual motive for moving to the Yukon: he came to Whitehorse to skateboard. Murray’s skateboarding has inspired him to travel and live in many different parts of the country. Originally from Salmon Arm, BC, he moved to Whitehorse in January 2007, but “little pieces of me remain scattered around western Canada,” …
