Mental Health May: LiveDifferent is helping young people feel connected

Circles program’s road team is coming to schools across the country to deliver a message of purpose and be longing to students who need mental wellness support

Elissa Grohne, Director of Marketing, LiveDifferent

April 28, 2023

Elissa Grohne, Director of Marketing, elissa@livedifferent.com 403-829-5751

CALGARY, Alberta – LiveDifferent, a non-profit organization that focuses on inspiring young people to make positive changes in their lives, is encouraging schools and organizations to book their Circles program for the upcoming school semester.

With all the issues that youth are facing—depression, bullying, peer pressure, suicide—there tends to be a common thread: A lack of connection and purpose.

In about 70% of cases, symptoms of mental illness begin before age 18.

During this month of May (Mental Health Awareness Month), LiveDifferent invites schools to invest in their students’ well-being and host its Circles mental wellness programming.

Through in-school assemblies and peer-mentorship curriculum, the Circles Program gets to the root cause and helps youth deal with these issues in a positive way. Circles helps young people explore important values, build stronger relationships and get activated in kindness—leaving them more compassionate, resilient and hopeful.

“At LiveDifferent, we believe that young people have the power to make real positive change in our world,” says Johnny Henderson, Director of School and Community Programs.

The Circles Program is designed to give students an opportunity to explore topics such as resilience, empathy and altruism. It includes interactive activities such as group discussions and compassion projects that help students develop strong relationships with one another while learning about teamwork and empathy. The program also encourages students to take ownership of their mental health by creating action plans for managing stressors such as bullying or anxiety.

“Our goal is to help them build a sense of purpose while giving them practical ways to make a difference—our starting place is helping build meaningful and authentic peer-to-peer relationships,” says Henderson. The road team will be in the Calgary area the week of May 8th for onsite coverage. Bookings for the 2023/2024 school year are available now. Schools can book a one-hour assembly and choose to include additional breakout sessions or book an entire LiveDifferent Day. Learn more about Circles at LiveDifferent.com/circles or watch this short video to see Circles in action: https://youtu.be/gciw2-AiN8A

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MAKE IT THROUGH ANOTHER SEASON

Nick Jeffrey

The first day of May brought hot and sunny weather to Alberta, so I decided to perform my annual changing of the beer style, putting away the dark and malty beers of winter for the pale and refreshing beers of summer.

Unlike the past few spring seasons spent drinking solo in lockdown, this year’s summer beers were enjoyed with friends on a sundrenched patio, and they even had a couple of different Radlers, both on tap and in cans.

For those not familiar, Radler is the German term for a beer mixed 50/50 with soda or fruit juices, most commonly lemonade or grapefruit. The term was first coined by a Bavarian innkeeper in 1922, who had craftily sponsored the construction of a bicycling trail through the forest to his pub, located 12 miles outside of Munich.

Business boomed almost immediately, with thousands of cyclists descending on his pub each weekend, parched after their long ride, and very nearly drank the pub dry.

Fearing the loss of revenue from running entirely out of beer, the clever innkeeper realized he had thousands of bottles of clear lemon soda in his storerooms, which were virtually unsellable to the beer-loving Bavarians. Thinking quickly, he mixed the lemonade with beer in a 50/50 ratio, and proudly announced it as a special cyclist-friendly beer that would let them drink to their heart’s content, but not fall off their bicycles on the way home.

The beer was naturally named Radler, after the German word for cyclist, and a new style of beer was born. Popularity grew rapidly, and every German drinking establishment soon had their own version of a Radler, usually made up onsite by the bartenders as they were pouring pitchers. Today, the Radler market is dominated by an Austrian megabrewery called Stiegl, and the tallboy cans of Stiegl Radler have been a common sight on the patios of Alberta for the last several years.

Made from half Stiegl Goldbräu and half grapefruit juice, it weighs in at a mere 2.5% ABV, and the tart citrus finish makes it particularly thirst-quenching on a hot day, especially if you happened to ride your bicycle to the pub.

As you might expect, once a new beer craze hits the market, imitators quickly jump on the bandwagon, offering their own spin on the Radler style.

The first Canadian megabrewer to produce their own Radler was Rickards (owned by Molson), in the form of their Rickards Radler, which is remarkably similar to Stiegl Radler, down to the same tallboy can and blend of grapefruit juice. As an unrepentant beer snob, I eschew most of the output of the megabreweries, and my Radler habits will be no exception.

Fortunately, there are several crafty Alberta brewers producing Radlers, including Big Rock, Trolley 5, and Citizen Brewing, all located in Calgary.

My personal favourite from Brauerie Fahr in Diamond Valley, the new municipality formed from the merger of Black Diamond and Turner Valley, also home to the most authentic German brewery this side of Munich!

This small brewery in Diamond Valley is named for its owner, who grew up in a small German village, and moved to Alberta a dozen years ago to complete a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Calgary.

While his schooling was originally intended to focus on industrial processing, the beer lovers of Alberta rejoiced when he decided to open a craft brewery in 2015, putting those engineering skills to good use in designing and constructing a brewery in Diamond Valley, about an hour southwest of Chestermere.

All the beers are exceptionally well-made German styles, with the Radler being no exception. I like to drink the Fahr Radler on its own, or throw caution to the wind and mix it with the Fahr Hefeweizen. Look for them at your local booze merchant or on a sunny patio near you!

Okay so I know it’s Spring but with this beautiful weather we’ve been having it’s easy to start planning for the Summer. So with this in mind we should start to think about how it may affect our dogs in a negative way.

CREEPY CRAWLIES: A few years ago, Steve attended a seminar on ticks and parasites(yuck!) put on by our vet and if you’ll excuse the idea, he was keen to spread the word. Once you get past the thought of these tiny creatures taking up residence on your pup and the sight of them and the psychological desire to scratch, the bottom line is to keep a close eye on what your dog gets into when outside. If you detect, or suspect, that your dog may have ticks, fleas or digested a dead creature that itself may be carrying harmful lavae act quickly. In Southern Alberta it is highly recommended that your dog has a course of parasite prevention in the months from May through October. There is a great deal of information to digest on these topics but, if you want/need more information on ticks, fleas, roundworm, hookworm, heartworm, tapeworm or whipworm, please contact your vet.

HEAT: Please don’t leave your dog in the car on a hot day. It seems obvious but frequently this still happens. A car parked in direct sunlight on a 20 degreeday can reach an internal 40 degrees in an hour. I genuinely believe that people do not intentionally mean to harm their dogs by leaving them in hot vehicles. It is more likely that people just do not understand what they are doing and the consequences of their actions. Rather than risk harming your dog’s health, or worse, through heat exhaustion, please leave your dog at home with access to fresh water. The same consideration should be given to when you take your dog to an event in hot weather. Take water for the dog as well as yourself. I remember a few years ago, Steve walking around John Peake Park