It takes *this* Village...

A Thanksgiving walk on Cypress Mountain brings home how fast the season's turning.  Alder and blue berry leaves the colour of fire, the first sheet of ice on Yew Lake that sings like a flight of kinglets when you skip stones across it.  But more festive still was Wednesday night and meeting the good members of the Dundarave Business Association at the Red Lion.  We talked about the work we've done together, the miracle of raising $25,000 last season in six weeks of organizing for the North Shore Shelter and how the shelter put this money to work in creating the North Shore Culinary Program.  Now Dundarave boasts some of the best eating in Vancouver, from the best and most ethical meats anywhere (thanks for the turkey, Sebastian and Jessica) to a constellation of amazing restaurants.  So why not, I asked, build a bridge between the Culinary Program and this haven for foodies?  The answer came as easily as turning the right key in the right lock.  With Christmas coming closer by the week, it takes *this* village to prepare the way for it by finding a permanent path out of poverty for some of the most vulnerable members of our community and lighting up our corner of the world in the Dundarave Festival of Lights.

---