Community News

Go Bird Watching this Winter

 

There’s a heightened awareness of the beauty and vulnerability of birds in Toronto, thanks to a new guide called Birds of Toronto (available free at public libraries) and a FLAP awareness campaign consisting of TTC ads and a booklet Common Birds of Toronto (www.flap.org). Hundreds of bird species grace Toronto’s environment.

 

Cardinals are one of the most common year-round residents to see in backyard trees and shrubs in wintertime. The males begin to sing in late February and the pairs begin to nest in early April.

 

The Birds of Toronto guide celebrates the variety of bird species. It provides a checklist of the 399 bird species seen in the Toronto area, information on their migration routes, a calendar of when to spot different birds, and tips on the best places to go.

 

Sadly, millions of migratory birds die from window collisions with buildings every year in Toronto. The bird guide also provides tips on how to protect our feathery friends with bird-friendly gardens, homes, and offices.

 

Internationally renowned bird artist and conservationist, Barry Kent MacKay, illustrates the Birds of Toronto and TTC ad campaign with lovely bird paintings. Let’s appreciate and protect some of the most beautiful creatures on earth.

 

For more information on bird art and awareness campaigns visit www.progressiveaesthetics.org

 

World Wildlife Fund Holiday Gifts

 

There are few gifts as meaningful or memorable as helping to protect Canada’s wildlife and wild places. This year, adopt an animal through WWF-Canada for a gift that will be remembered long after the holidays are over.

 

The WWF-Canada Adoption Program offers a chance to symbolically adopt a threatened species and support critical work to protect nature. More Canadian animals are available for adoption than ever before, including the caribou, polar bear, grizzly bear, Arctic fox, monarch butterfly, Atlantic cod, northern leopard frog, common loon, meerkat, blue shark and the black-footed ferret. You can also select from popular international species such as the emperor penguin, Asian elephant, giant panda, orangutan, tiger and snow leopard.

 

Each adoption package costs $40 and contains a 12.5 cm stuffed animal of your choice, a personalized adoption certificate, a letter identifying you as the gift giver, a brochure about the species you are protecting and the work you will be supporting, as well as a $30 tax receipt – all wrapped in a reusable WWF-Canada tote bag. Gift- givers looking to make a greater contribution can also adopt a family of polar bears, orangutans, Arctic fox or pandas.

 

WWF-Canada also carries a variety of other environmentally-friendly gift options including Gifts for a Living Planet. With no packaging or mailing, these gifts directly fund WWF’s critical conservation work. For $100 you can “Help a Polar Bear Keep Cool” by supporting WWF-Canada’s work to monitor and protect Canada’s majestic polar bear from the effects of climate change and ensure they are around for future generations.

 

To make a purchase, please call 1-800-26-PANDA or visit wwf.ca. All deliveries are guaranteed in time for the holidays if ordered by December 14.

 

Free Clinic For Children With Special Needs

 

On January 16, ChildS’pace Toronto is offering a free clinic for children with special needs. This gentle, pain-free work uses innovative techniques to help the brain form new neural connections and patterns resulting in increased functioning physically, mentally and emotionally.

 

Integrating the teaching of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, Anat Baniel and Dr. Chava Shelhav, this groundbreaking work is effective for children of all ages, including infants who are just beginning therapy.

 

For more info or to reserve space for a free lesson call Skydancer (416) 923-3893, www.awarenessmatters.ca.

 

You and Your Hands

 

On January 17, attend this Feldenkrais workshop to explore the unique, gentle movement of distributing flow of activity to help restore you and your hands to an easier functional state.

 

Successfully managing your everyday tasks depends largely on the skill with how you distribute the flow of activity from your strong central core to more fragile extremities – your hands. Whatever you choose to do should be easy, efficient and pleasurable, but repeated, less-than-ideal patterns can lead to awkwardness, discomfort, even disability. Fortunately, habits of misuse need not be permanent. 

 

The workshop will be held at the Feldenkrais Centre, 390 Dupont St. www.feldenkraiscentre.com

 

Power of Raw

 

From January 18 to 20, raw fooder Erika Wolff presents “Detoxification – Fasting Retreat,” and “Preparing for Pregnancy and/or Healthy Pregnancy,” at her Raw Retreat in Prince Edward County.

 

For more than a decade, Wolff has worked to introduce the self-healing, rejuvenating benefits of the living foods lifestyle, and uses her training as a certified Hippocrates Health educator and nutrition coach to demonstrate the pleasures of a delicious diet based on unprocessed, uncooked organic foods.

 

Considered Toronto’s raw food expert, she conducts Toronto workshops on a regular basis (September through May), and also offers workshops in her rural base of scenic Prince Edward County.

 

For more info, call Erika at (416) 428-1039, email erikawolff@powerofraw.com, or visit www.powerofraw.com.

 

Day of Renewal

 

On Saturday, Jan. 23, The Inner Eye hosts a Day of Renewal, setting aside time to deepen spiritual insights, positive direction and resolve for the coming year. Included will be meditation, gentle movement, centering and more, to strengthen daily practice, renewed purpose and letting love inform your decisions and actions.

 

Located in Toronto, near the subway with guest parking. For more information call Virginia Hart Nelson, C.CHt. at (416) 960-1690; email to virginia@theinnereye.ca; visit www.theinnereye.ca.

 

29th Annual Guelph Organic Conference

 

Save the dates January 28-31 for the Our Canadian Organic Identity Conference at the Guelph University Centre, Ontario, Canada.  The focus is on providing sustainable solutions for the entire food supply chain. There will also be an Organic Expo & Tasting Fair from January 30 to 31, with up to 150 exhibitors.

 

Margaret Webb, author of Apples to Oysters, as well as writer of the recent Toronto Star series “Crisis on the Farm,” delivers the opening address.  Her talk, Think Big Canada – The Organic Food Fix will imagine a totally organic Canada – and “how we can get there.”

 

Enjoy seminars on learning to farm, with New Farmer Panel – make your living and lifestyle out of farming; selling organic products with Farmer’s Market Forum – challenges, opportunities and connections for producers and consumers; supporting farmers and businesses with Expert market gardening for year-round sales, and many more.

 

This is ‘THE’ market networking event for Canadian organics, attracting the gamut of sector players. For more info visit www.guelphorganicconf.ca. Send an email to Tomas at organix@georgian.net for more info.

 

Annual Walk for Memories

 

On Saturday, Jan. 30, from 9am to 12pm, join the Alzheimer Society of Toronto’s 2010 Manulife Walk for Memories, at the Allen Lambert Galleria, Brookfield Place. Come out for a 45-minute indoor stroll and help raise money for Alzheimer’s research and programs.

 

Enjoy live entertainment, dress in costume, and win exciting prizes. Tie a yellow shoelace around your finger to honour those people in your life who have been touched by Alzheimer’s disease. To register, form a team, volunteer and pledge online, visit www.alzheimertoronto.org or call (416) 322-6560 for a brochure.

 

Benefit for Habitat for Humanity

 

Join Esther Myers Yoga Studio in welcoming the New Year with gratitude on Sunday, Jan. 31, with a day of yoga and complementary workshops. Enjoy energizing and uplifting practices during the depths of winter. All proceeds support Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.ca) to assist in their mission of helping people build affordable housing at sites across Canada and internationally. Choose up to three workshops from a total of six.

 

Workshops will be held from 10 to 4:30pm. Cost: $35/workshop,  $100/3 workshops, including lunch. For more info call (416) 944-0838 or visit www.estheryoga.com.

 

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society to Attend UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen

 

The December 2009 climate meetings in Copenhagen gives Canada and governments around the world an opportunity to include requirements that protect forests. In the next global climate change agreement, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is campaigning to make forests count, because Canada’s Boreal forest, home to the threatened woodland caribou, also stores vast amounts of carbon. The Boreal forest acts as a shield against global warming, and purifies our air and water.

 

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is Canada’s voice for wilderness protection.  With 13 chapters across the country, CPAWS is working to ensure at least half of Canada’s wild lands and waters are protected.  Since 1963 CPAWS has taken a lead role in establishing two-thirds of Canada’s protected wild spaces – an area over seven times the size of Nova Scotia, including famous parks like Nahanni, Tatshenshini, Kluane, Algonquin and Dumoine.

 

In June 2009, CPAWS had a landslide victory with the announcement of the expansion of Nahanni National Park Reserve to over 30,000 sq km.

 

For more information about CPAWS and its conservation work visit www.cpaws.org, or contact CPAWS Wildlands League, 380-401 Richmond St. W., Toronto, Telephone: (416) 971-9453, www.wildlandsleague.org

 

Congratulations to the Class of 2009!

 

The Canadian School of Natural Nutrition Graduation Ceremony, November 2009, with special guest Julie Daniluk, R.H.N.