Bringing the FREE Creston Valley together. November 2011 Soul Survivors Fresh start in Creston restores hope for refugees Creston Entertainment Museum Sports New York twist on Local wartime Forestry Corps Community-minded Thunder Elena Yeung’s latest CD a cut above the rest Cats scoring off the ice PROVEN LEADERSHIP John Kettle On November 9th (advance poll) and November 19th (general election), YOU will have the opportunity to elect a Director for Area ‘B’ Regional District Central Kootenay. The person you elect will have a direct impact on you and your family for the next 3 years. We do not need more government in our lives, we need ecient government. EVERY VOTE COUNTS! It is easy to nd a reason not to vote. I’m asking you to take the time to VOTE. Good people with good ideas and basic family values need to speak out with their vote. Join with me to continue the good work in Area B, let’s work together to make our valley a better place to live. On NOVEMBER 9th (advance poll), you can vote at the Creston Recreation Centre or the Yahk Community Hall 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. On NOVEMBER 19th (general election), you can vote at the Creston Recreation Centre, Erickson Elementary School, Canyon School, Kitchener Community Hall, Lister Community Hall, Yahk Community Hall from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Voting Information 18 years of age or older. On November 19th You must be a Canadian citizen. A resident of the province for 6 months. A resident of ‘Area B’ for 30 days. RE-ELECT (see ‘Area B’ locations above) Must have 2 forms of Identication. (1 must have signature) For more information John Kettle Call John (250)428-6096 or visit Thank You www.re-electjohnkettle.com www.re-electjohnkettle.com contents what’s inside Resources 9 Cross-border pact under review. Mayor’s Desk 10 Reflections on first term in office. Theatre 12 Aladdin latest musical collaboration. Music 14 Little glamour in life on the road. History 16 Creston crew kept Allies in lumber. Remembrance Day 19 Honouring our soldiers. The joy of freedom and safety is apparent as Sports Tareq, Bilal and Ziad Abo-Nofal (from left) race 23 T-Cats on the prowl for around the streets of their new home town. odd jobs. Wildlife 24 Public support key to From bleak to bright CVWMA’s future. Health 5 Creston Refugee Committee reverses outlook for displaced family of five 26 Are you off your rocker? Martial Arts 30 Much more than punching The Magazine and kicking. I Love Creston Magazine is produced monthly and distributed free of charge by I Love Creston Marketing Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohib- Wellness ited. Any advertisements or graphics designed in-house are property of I Love Creston Marketing Ltd. and may not be used in any other medium without permission. Views 32 Get with the transformative expressed in the magazine does not necessarily reflect those of the company. program. Letters to the Editor Letters to I Love Creston Magazine may be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to Box 143, Creston, BC, V0B 1G0. Letters may be edited for clarity and space. I Love Creston Marketing Ltd. www.ilovecreston.com Wendy Franz - Sales/Graphic Design email: [email protected] Justin Ziola - Sales/Financials emai: [email protected] COOLEST KOOTENAY Box 143, Creston, BC V0B 1G0 • Ph/Fx 250.428.2631 WEBSITE www.ilovecreston.com November 2011 3 this issue In March of that year, “Tareq’s Idris was sponsored to move to Guest brother Mohammed and a Canada earlier this year by the From the editor Palestinian friend were killed in Cranbrook-based East Kootenay he challenges of supporting a Baghdad after they were stopped in Friends of Burma, a group with Trefugee family for a year – in a checkpoint by unknown which the Creston committee a generous, caring community Shia militants. Their bodies were partnered to bring a Burmese family like Creston, at least – pale in found thrown in a street two days here. When that fell through, the comparison to the challenges of later. Creston group pursued a Plan B that simply trying to survive in refugee “After exactly one year passed, resulted in the Abo-Nofals getting camps like those in Syria the Abo- another brother, Omar, was killed the life-altering break they’d been Nofal family endured for four years by unknown militants who broke yearning for. while waiting for permission to into his house in Baghdad in front Linda Price chairs a committee to enter Canada. of his own kids and wife. Tareq or which she belonged the last time a They arrived this fall and have begun any of their family couldn’t attend refugee family came to Creston – the the sort of transition that none of us the funerals because they were afraid Samais in 2006 (who are revisited in privileged to be born in these parts (for) their own lives too.” this issue). can truly comprehend. But it’s an Their first refugee camp, the “After you have a family come . opportunity they wouldn’t trade for notorious (and since-closed) Al- it’s a lot of work,” she says. “We were anything – at least nothing short Tanf, just across the Iraqi border, pretty tired so we took a break.” of having been spared the whole was a dismal place. (An Al Jazeera nightmare in the first place. Now refreshed and inspired, not to documentary that can be found by mention excited about the possibility The Abo-Nofals – parents Tareq and searching “Far from home – Witness of the Burmese family yet being Eman and their three school-aged – Al Jazeera English” chronicles the cleared to come sometime in 2012, children, who are profiled in this plight of another Palestinian similar Price et al are toiling to help the Abo- issue of I Love Creston – are now to that of Tareq.) Nofals not only dream again, but to immersed in a culture and society “Then,” Idris says, “all the refugees realize those dreams. completely foreign to what they were moved to another refugee knew living in pre-war Iraq, save for “Even though I’m the chair, it’s only camp inside Syria called Al Hol one similarity. a name,” Price says. “We all are because the United Nations High working really, really hard. We’re all “They used to live a normal life,” Commissioner for Refugees saw it committed.” says Adem Salim Idris (an Arabic- was not safe enough. speaking Eritrean refugee now living To learn more about the committee “The Al Hol refugee camp was safer in Cranbrook who is the closest and its latest family, read on. but the family are now too worried thing to a translator the Creston for the refugees there because of Be sure to check out the I Love Refugee Committee could find), the declining political and security Creston Web site, as well, for “working in Baghdad until the war conditions in Syria these days. coverage of the local government in 2003. After that their life and ‘Always whenever any political elections set for Nov. 19. All area personal security started to decline instability occurs, we Palestinians candidates for town council and due to the civil war there.” are the victims and we are those the boards of School District No. 8 Tareq, a Sunni Muslim, received who pay the bill of violence, as it (Kootenay Lake) and the Regional his first death threat in 2006 “from happened in Iraq,’ Tareq adds. Tareq District of Central Kootenay unknown persons telling him he wants to use this opportunity to were invited to have submissions had to leave the country or would plead (for) any volunteer group or posted at www.ilovecreston.com/ be executed,” Idris says. “Tareq individual to sponsor his youngest meetthecandidates. Look for election then managed to leave Iraq with his brother, who lives in Al Hol with his results online too – and don’t forget family to Syria.” wife and only son.” to vote. 4 November 2011 www.ilovecreston.com feature Story by: I Love Creston Staff There is now an optimism for the Abo-Nofals (from left: Ziad, Dana, Eman, Tareq and Bilal) that did not exist until they immigrated to Creston. he simplest of pleasures elicit the 11 – along with their folks, Tareq he used to be a hard worker,” relates Tbiggest of smiles: racing around and Eman – was somewhat of a Adem Salim Idris, a onetime refugee the block on a bicycle, booting miracle, courtesy of the Creston from Eritrea (sponsored to live in a soccer ball, even stepping off a Refugee Committee which Cranbrook earlier this year) who school bus at the end of the day. sponsored them. knows Arabic and was among those greeting the Abo-Nofals at Canadian The kind of humdrum occurrences After four years in squalid Syrian Rockies International Airport on that wouldn’t even register on local refugee camps where the future Sept. 20. “He also says that it was kids are cause for the Abo-Nofal was bleak, at best, the displaced not easy for his wife nor for his siblings – Creston’s newest and Palestinian family had begun to lose children, who wasted four years of perhaps most appreciative residents hope. their precious time with no proper – to celebrate the new life and “Tareq says that it was too hard for education. renewed hope represented by their him to stay at home all day for four “Tareq says they are looking forward adopted Canadian home.