After IVDAARA Director Judy Belbeck lobbied Georgian Bluffs Council to install a life ring at the Big Bay Dock, the Council’s Recreation Committee at their recent meeting decided to install such a ring in the near future. Murray Hackett, CAO, thanked Judy for bringing this to their attention. Judy had been made aware of the unsafe situation by one of our members.
The above award winning photo of the Big Bay Dock was shot by local potter and photographer Steve Irvine. It was published in the Jan/Feb 2012 edition of Canadian Geographic Magazine, and it’s being featured in one of Canadian Geographic’s calendars for 2014.
IVDAARA to participate in Art in the Garden
Meet your IVDAARA directors at a “booth” at Art in the Garden, the annual arts fair at Keppelcroft Gardens, to be held Saturday July 13, 2013, We will attempt to answer any questions you might have, including about hot topics such as the proposes downloading of Grey Road 1 to the township, water level issues, etc. For listings of this and many other events, see our events page.
Allen Smutylo to be guest speaker at our AGM
Local visual artist and writer Allen Smutylo will present the keynote speech at IVDAARA’s Annual General Meeting, on Sauturday July 20, 2013, at 9 am at the Kemble United Church. Allen’s recently published book, “The Memory of Water”, is a collection of ten short stories, all personal memoirs of Allen’s adventurous travels to the High Arctic, Maui and varenasi, and – to stay closer to home – Tobermory in the sixties and Owen Sound’s Sydenham River.
From Allen’s website:
Allen Smutylo has lectured extensively from his experiences throughout the world. His many ventures include the Arctic region (20 sea kayak and backpacking expeditions) and the Himalayas (visiting and traveling with the iconic Tibetan Buddhist nomads, over a 9 year period). The unique point of view given by Smutylo, the artist, the writer and the adventurer provides for an inspiring, informative and captivating presentation. In the Arctic, Smutylo has had numerous first-hand encounters with whales, polar bears, muskoxen, rogue walruses, exploding icebergs and ferocious waters. Central to his interest, includes the celebration of human creativity as evident in the life of the Inuit and pre-Inuit people, who, in the harshest of environments developed and adapted unique technologies to survive. At its core, Smutylo probes a crucial and contemporary issue – that of the modern world’s relationship to a fragile and severe environment and to the human life and wildlife that calls it home.
In the Himalaya, Smutylo was fortunate enough to encounter and become friends with a number of nomad tribes that roam its high elevations. In the region of Ladakh, on the border of Tibet, at 15,000′, these hardy Tibetan Buddhists, with their horses, yaks, sheep and goats have maintained a vibrant culture, essentially unchanged for centuries. Smutylo is one of very few North Americans to have written and portrayed these illusive and fiercely independent people. This presentation captures the taste, smells, sights and textures of a way of life that is hard to believe still exists.