Issuu

PEOPLE

COMMUNITY

C U LT U R E

MAY 2016

Piloting drones above the canyon walls – the skies are open to technology Local high school teacher’s Get to know Campbell River’spath to the classroom interesting

FIRST RESPONDERS Quadra Island Golf

442 Squadron stand – Worth the ferry ride ready to respond

Publisher Editor Editorial Team Advertising Team

1/2 PG

CORILAIR

Graphic Design Team

Dave Hamilton Alistair Taylor Kristen Douglas Mike Davies Dean Taylor Debbie Baker Maria Kirley Jacquie Duns Darcey Wood Michelle Hueller Rachael Beckley Kristi Pellegrin Marnie Neaves Tammy Robinson

Wave is Campbell River’s leading lifestyle magazine. To advertise or learn more about advertising opportunities please send us an email at publisher@campbellrivermirror.com

Dave Hamilton

Alistair Taylor

Kristen Douglas

Mike Davies

 Editor

 Publisher

 Writer

Michelle Hueller

Shauna Lambeth

 Graphic Designer

On the Cover: Campbell River’s newest attraction, Elk Falls Suspension Bridge, has opened to huge acclaim and immense popularity. To promote the spectacular bridge and its setting in Elk Falls Provincial Park, a cooperative effort involving SuavAir GoCampbellRiver.com and Stagecoach Media, produced a short film on the new bridge. SuavAir’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) were used extensively in the filming.

 Contributor

PEOPLE

COMMUNIT

C U LT U R E

MAY 2016

Piloting drones abo ve the canyon walls – the skies are ope n to technology Local

high school teacher’s Get to know Camp bell River intere

FIRST RESPONsting’spath to the classroom DERS Quadr

Golf 442 Squadron a – Worth thestand ready ferry to respon d ride

Wave is produced by: Wave magazine is published quarterly by Black Press. The points of view or opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of Wave. The contents of Wave magazine are protected by copyright, including the designed advertising. Reproduction is prohibited without written consent of the publisher.

[2] WAVE MAGAZINE | MAY 2016

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MAY 2016

ISSUE #11

Contents 20 27

Starting off on the right foot

5 Simple, sustainable gardening tips Enbrace sustainability in your garden ..................................................................................... 6 Indoor Herb Garden – Tending to your plants.................................................................. 8 Fantastic Fairy Gardens – Get inspired, get started ..................................................... 9 Mother’s Day – Express gratitude to your mother .........................................................11 Make room for some relaxation A personalized gift mom will love ........................................................................................12 Give mom a break in the kitchen Take mom to her favourite restaurant.................................................................................13 Drone technology – SuavAir taking flight ......................................................................14 Home trends – See what’s hot............................................................................................19 Quadra Golf – Worth taking the ferry for ...........................................................................20 Local potter Sylvia McGourlick and her pottery wheel ........................................23 Local teacher Tylere Couture – His path to the classroom...................................27 Get your hands dirty in the garden...........................................................................................

14 [4] WAVE MAGAZINE | MAY 2016

on the

Many gardeners cannot wait to soak up the springtime sun and get their hands dirty in the garden. Such excitement is not just good for gardeners, but can benefit the garden in the months to come as well. Completing the following projects can ensure your garden gets off on the right foot. One of the best things you can do for your garden is to clear it of debris. Winter can be especially harsh on a landscape, and gardens left to the elements are often filled with debris once spring arrives. Dead leaves, fallen branches, rocks that surfaced during the winter frost, and even garbage that might have blown about in winter winds can all pile up in a garden over a typical winter. Clearing such debris likely won’t take long, but it’s a great first step toward restoring the garden before the time comes to plant and grow the garden once again. Soil plays a significant role in whether a garden thrives or struggles. Examining the soil before the season starts can help gardeners address any issues before they plant. Ignoring the soil until a problem arises can turn the upcoming gardening season into a lost opportunity, so test the soil to determine if it has any nutrient or mineral deficiencies. This may require the help of a professional, but if a problem arises, you might be able to adjust the acidity or alkalinity of the soil and still enjoy a successful gardening season.

Another way to examine the soil is less complex but can shed light on when would be a good time to get back to work. Reach into the soil and dig out a handful. If the soil quickly crumbles, you can start preparing for gardening seasoning. But if the soil is still clumped together, it needs more time to dry out before you can begin your prep work. Edging is another task gardeners can begin as they get ready for the season. Edge plant and flower beds, but be sure to use a spade with a flat blade or an edger designed to edge flower beds. Such tools will cut deep enough so grass roots that may eventually grow into the flower bed are severed. Depending on how large a garden is, edging can be a time-consuming task, so getting a head start allows homeowners to spend more time planting and tending to their gardens once the season hits full swing. Though weeds likely have not survived the winter, that does not mean they won’t return once the weather starts to heat up. But as inevitable as weeds may seem, homeowners can take steps to prevent them from turning beautiful gardens into battlegrounds where plants, flowers and vegetables are pitted against unsightly and potentially harmful weeds. Spring is a good time to apply a pre-emergent weed preventer, which can stop weeds before they grow. Though such solutions are not always foolproof, they can drastically reduce the likelihood of weed growth.

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Simple, sustainable Sustainable gardening involves preserving and protecting resources, which can benefit us both in the present and in the future. Here are a handful of ways green thumbers can embrace sustainability in their gardens.

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Choose to water more effectively. Oscillating sprinklers may harken today’s gardeners back to the carefree days of their childhoods when they would run through the sprinklers in their parents’ yards. But such sprinklers can lose substantial amounts of water to evaporation. When designing an irrigation plan for your lawn and garden, use drip irrigation or soaker hoses to conserve water. If you must use sprinklers, make sure they are not shooting water too high, as wind can blow the water away from the yard. Be sure to position them so no water is landing on sidewalks, driveways or the street.

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Add mulch to flower and plant beds. Mulch is perhaps best known for helping flower and plant beds retain moisture, but mulch also prevents the growth of weeds. Preventing weed growth means your water is going to the plants and flowers you intended it for and not to greedy and unsightly weeds. Preventing weed growth also reduces your use of potentially harmful pesticides to curtail the growth of weeds. Develop a compost pile. Compost is made up of decayed organic material, and it can be used as a fertilizer. Gardeners can make their own compost piles at home, providing valuable minerals and nutrients for their lawns, without having to rely on store-bought amendments that need to be produced, packaged and transported before they can make it onto the shelves in your local lawn and garden centre.

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A garden filled with exotic plants and flowers may be stunning, but unless those plants are native to where you live, that beauty is coming at a steep price. When choosing plants for your garden, choose native plants that are fully capable of thriving in your local climate. When planting trees around your property, plant them in locations that can reduce your reliance on air conditioning in the warmer months. Plant a tree in a place where it will help to shade common areas inside your home so such rooms are comfortable. You can go one step further, and plant deciduous trees that will shed their leaves when the weather gets cold, ensuring that sunlight you want to keep out in the summer can get in and warm up the house in the winter, reducing the amount of energy needed to heat your home.

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Tending to your Herb gardens are perhaps some of the easiest gardens to cultivate indoors because they don’t require much space. The plants themselves are relatively compact, and it only takes a pinch to give a meal some extra flavour. Your indoor growing area must have adequate light to simulate the longer days of summer; otherwise, the plants may go dormant. It’s ideal to have southern exposure, with at least eight hours of daily sunlight. Indoor air can become too dry for herbs, so you will need to compensate by providing humidity. Think about misting the plants daily to create some extra humidity, or place herb pots on top of a water-filled tray with pebbles so the evaporating water will add moisture without making the roots soggy. Group herbs together according to their watering needs to make maintenance easier. New sprouts generally need more water than established plants. Prune the herbs as needed for recipes. If the herbs experience a growth spurt, trim some of the plants and freeze them for later use. Many indoor herb gardeners begin by growing parsley, chives, oregano and basil, but you can experiment with just about any herb.

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Inspiration is the key to getting started By Shauna Lambeth – Campbell River Garden Centre I’ve got to admit, I wasn’t an early believer in the fairy garden trend, but it is winning me over. In the last couple of years, I’ve grown to see the value of this whimsy. Watching parents and children or often grandparents and grandkids speak of creating a tiny magical space is pretty fantastic. And this isn’t a trend limited to kids; I believe that the miniature garden may be the new Zen garden where grown-

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ups create and unwind and reconnect with their playful side. A little while ago on the TV news, a White Rock Garden was highlighted for showing a tree in a boulevard with a fairy door, stone path and miniature garden planted at its base. This planting might very well have made the homeowner happy, but the real treat here is that it seemed to be mostly for passersby to enjoy! The news went on to say that local elementary school teachers were taking their classes on field trips just to walk by and enjoy thinking about the fairies and gnomes that live there. Anything that gets kids using their imagination gets my vote! Inspiration is the key to getting started. What would make you or a visitor to your garden smile? It might be a door in a tree or fence panel or like one of our staff members it was a few miniature chairs that she placed in a circle in a wide bowlshaped pot filled with back mulch. Then she added some tiny sticks to replicate a campfire in miniature. In one garden I created I put little sedums in two rows that represented cabbages and placed some fairy garden tools beside them. Elfin thyme and other small leaved plants lend themselves to miniature gardens. It’s all about scaling people size to fairy size. As for choosing your location, you are going to have to let your creative side out. Like all creative ideas, the best ones come to us when we take the time to relax and have fun with it. Any empty patch of ground will work, but you might have a great tree to use or an unloved corner. Also, any container will work whether it is a shallow bowl, a broken pot, a bird bath repurposed, an old bath tub, a large pot that has a tree in it but nothing yet planted at the base. I’ve seen some elaborate miniature gardens, and I’ve seen some super simple ideas, and as long as it makes you happy, the fairies and gnomes are sure to follow, as long as you believe. [10] WAVE MAGAZINE | MAY 2016

Express your gratitude! Mother’s Day is the perfect occasion to express gratitude to our mothers for everything they have done, and continue to do every day. They give so much, all the time; that is why so many of us want to say “thank you” by offering them a gift on this special occasion. A gift with no feeling behind it can ring false though, if Mother’s Day is the only time of the year that a mother is pampered by her family. Authenticity and consistency are the best ways to convey gratitude. A real thank you goes straight to the heart and is more appreciated than the most spectacular of gifts. Mother’s Day isn’t the only time of year when we can express love and gratitude to our mothers.

Even if you have never been very demonstrative, try to show your love with lots of small gestures now and throughout the year to come. Be more attentive to the things that your mother does for your well-being, and take into account the lengths she goes to in wanting to help you do well. Try to understand that these little things she does are her way of telling you how much she loves you. When you realize how often your mother communicates this to you in her own way, you’ll want to reciprocate and express some gratitude. Mother’s Day could be the time to start over, if you’ve had a few hurdles in your relationship. Dare to take the initiative; it is sure to touch her heart.

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It’s your turn to give her a personalized gift that you know she’ll love It’s a well-known fact that mothers who devote themselves wholeheartedly to their families often end up forgetting about themselves. So, give your loving mother the chance to recharge her batteries by offering her some time at a spa or beauty clinic. It’s a great gift for the person who is always showering you with love!

If there’s a woman who knows you better than anyone else in the world, it has to be your mother. Now it’s your turn to give her a personalized gift that you know she’ll love. A massage, manicure, or facial done by professionals has special meaning when offered as a gift by a loved one. While your mom is being thoroughly pampered, she’ll be even happier knowing that the experience was a gift from you.

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A bit of research will help you make sure she enjoys this treat. Some spas and wellbeing centres clearly advertise their specialties. For example, if your mother suffers with arthritis, she’ll appreciate thermal pool treatments or a massage with hot stones. Or, if she loves a bit of sparkle and glam, she’ll enjoy a facial and manicure. If you can’t make up your mind about the right kind of spa, you might want to ask family and friends for recommendations.

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[12] WAVE MAGAZINE | MAY 2016

When it comes time to pamper Mom, body and soul, it’s important to give her an opportunity for total relaxation. Help her have a soothing day in peaceful surroundings, far from her daily routine, where she can allow her thoughts to drift gently — and appreciate the thoughtfulness of your gift!

Give mom a break in the kitchen Even though moms work hard at their jobs and have busy lives of their own, in many families they are still the heart and soul of the home. And because the kitchen is usually the centre of home life, it is often where we find them. Day after day, mothers browse recipes, plan the grocery shopping, and work at the stove to prepare nutritious meals for spouse and children — not to mention the effort it takes to cater to all the different dietary needs and tastes of various family members. The chief cook’s role is no small one! Yes, mothers deserve to be honoured for their efforts and their devotion. It is often they who make sure the lunch boxes are packed with appetizing and balanced foods; it is usually they who prepare snacks, plan birthday parties,

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and cater to guests. Mothers are the ones who ensure that everything is cleaned up once the family’s ravenous appetites have been satisfied. And for the everyday evening meal, it is they who try to turn out tasty dinners that won’t leave the family complaining — and they can tell you, too, that meal preparation usually takes more than the 30 minutes the recipe books say it should take! This Mother’s Day, find a way to show your favourite chief cook and bottle washer your appreciation. Why not get the family together and take her out to her favourite restaurant. Whether you treat her to a chore-free day, a meal out with her loved ones, the lady of the house is sure to be touched by all the attention.

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By Alistair Taylor A local company is taking flight with the soaring popularity of drones.

venture that uses drones to capture professional imagery from new heights.

Colin Filliter and Blair Hunter are partners in SuavAir, an aerial photography and videography

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), are small, remote-controlled aircraft that fly with

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the aid of propellers mounted parallel to the ground and carry a combined video and still camera. They have taken off in popularity in the last few years both as a commercial or industrial tool and as a recreational activity. “They are a lot of fun to fly,” Hunter says. “I can’t fly

a plane but I can fly one of these things. You get the same view; it’s breathtaking.” The rise in popularity of drones with recreationists has created some concerns with federal aviation regulators but commercial operators have proven the usefulness of the technology when operated safely.

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Local company leading the way in

innovative and responsible use of unmanned aerial vehicles

“They are a great tool but they need to be used properly,” Filliter says. The value of the technology is exemplified by the flight path SuavAir is plotting for itself. With professional foresters at the helm, the company has found great application within the forest industry. Their promotional material has the distinct air of somebody who’s been there, done that. Their website says: “Are you tired of: trudging up mountains, tripping over wasp nests, slipping through slash, crunching through cross-ditches and falling from fatigue?” “Slips, trips and falls are the leading root cause of reportable incidents in the forest industry.” Now, doesn’t that sound like the manager of a forestry crew? That inside knowledge led to the realization that drone technology can provide a solution. “Instead of climbing over hazards, we fly over them. Our affordable, high quality aerial videos and photos can significantly reduce the amount of caulk-time required to get the job done, eliminating the risk of injuries.” Caulk refers to caulk boots, the signature spiked footwear of the logging industry, that allows for the safe traversing of logging sites.

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“Leave the caulks in camp and let us fly for you,” SuavAir says. And the message is catching on as the company has

found numerous applications within the forest industry. But they haven’t stopped there, they applied the technology to mapping and 3D modelling and are branching out into real estate, construction monitoring, environmental consulting, incident investigation, tourism and UAV technology consulting itself. At the heart of it all, of course are the drones themselves. SuavAir has two of them made by DJI Industries, a Phantom 3 and an Inspire model. They also have their eye on stepping up a class of drone in the next year or two. The UAVs are approximately two feet wide and are air lifted into the sky on the strength of four blades facing upwards and extended out from the centre of the body on four arms. They look like a flying insect, something like a spider. The whirring of the blades is the only sound they make. When the Inspire model, for example, lifts into the air the arms can lift above the camera housing to provide unobstructed views from the suspended lens. Depending on the model, they can shoot in High Definition or 4K video as well as 12 mega pixel stills. An interesting feature of the vehicle is the optical flow stabilization function that uses sensors to stabilize the camera making video images smooth and level. They can even fly indoors.

They have two remotes so the operator can fly the vehicle while the client can see the images as well. That way they can have input into the image they want. The idea for SuavAir came about three or four years ago when Hunter and Filliter were in a logging camp and the foresters had been climbing through slash all day. “And they were saying they need rocket packs or jet boosters; then they could fly above all these things and a remote control helicopter so that they could videotape everything,” Hunter says. That’s when the light came on. Ping! Hunter had been on Facebook the day before and remembered seeing something about a remote control device that could record video. After a bit of research by a friend, they came upon the Phantom UAV or drone. “After that we just had to convince the forest industry that this was a good idea,” Hunter says. Since then, they have also picked up some real estate work along the way. “Lately we’ve started to see more diversification,” Filliter says. In January, they did some work for the Comox Valley Regional District recording sedimentation in streams and lakes. They discovered software that allows for the meshing

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of still photos which can be compiled into a photo mosaic. You can also re-shoot the same area which allows for comparison of conditions over a period of months or years. This permits you to see how a river is changing over time. “Traditionally, you would use a helicopter or an airplane to get a high-altitude shot,” Hunter says. “So we’re quite a bit cheaper. An hour of our time is about 30 seconds of a helicopter. Plus the imagery is more stable,” Filliter adds “And you’re not hanging over the side of the helicopter.” SuavAir also offers service to the tourism industry. Their imagery is ideal for showcasing this beautiful region and province for tourism. SuavAir has partnered with a media production company to produce commercials that feature aerial and ground videography to showcase locations. A prime example of this is the work SuavAir did on the new Elk Falls Suspension Bridge which opened in Campbell River last year. A video shoot was spearheaded by Catherine Temple of GoCampbellRiver.com in partnership with SuavAir, Dan Franklin and Jordan Groves of Stagecoach Media and BC Parks. The goal was to produce a high-quality short

[18] WAVE MAGAZINE | MAY 2016

video on the newly-built suspension bridge for use in the promotion of Campbell River’s newest attraction. Temple explained the scene in an article in the Campbell River Mirror: “The process took a few weeks to set up and a team to manage. On the day of filming the weather was perfect, and park visitors were cooperative and especially interested in the use of the drone. While Colin and his assistant were expertly piloting the drone above the canyon walls over complex terrain, Dan and Jordan were employing hand-held cameras mounted on sophisticated gimbals to facilitate filming from the ground while coordinating with Colin via radio. While all this was going on, Catherine and Brent Blackmun from BC Parks were providing information and fielding questions from park visitors to ensure safety and consistency for each shot.” Another unique application is incident investigation, again within the forest industry. Aerial imagery can be an excellent tool to help understand the root cause of how an accident occurred. In addition to photo and video, SuavAir’s mapping and 3D modelling services grants investigators the ability to take measurements and

look at the incident scene from every angle to gain a greater understanding. The incident investigation can continually review the site conditions from a computer screen long after it has occurred. Having pioneered the use of drone technology in this region, SuavAir can serve as consultants for anyone looking to apply the technology themselves. And that begins with Transport Canada Certification. They recognize that many operations will benefit from owning and operating their own UAV fleet. SuavAir has acquired multiple Special Flights Operations Certificates (SFOC) from Transport Canada and are familiar with the process. They can help train employees in using UAVs safely and develop checklists and operations manuals. They will also examine which UAV best suits your needs, recommend insurance providers, and streamline the SFOC writing process so that you get approved quickly. They’ve been through it before and know it is a tedious process. They can mitigate the headaches to help you save time and money to get certified. So, the skies are wide open to drone technology and Filliter and Hunter have placed SuavAir in the forefront of its use on Vancouver Island.

TRENDING Trends in home remodeling and decor tend to come and go. Something that is popular for a little while can fall out of favour when the next new idea comes along. New trends are always on the horizon, and 2016 may encourage homeowners to try something new.

are one-of-a-kind and handmade rather than mass-produced. Expect to see more accessories that are made by hand or in small batches, like pottery or handwoven textiles, as homeowners support independent artists when choosing art for their homes.

Metallics and metals are back. The glistening look of metal and metallic shades are back in a big way. Inspired by the 1950s and 1970s, brass, gold and metallic ﬁnishes are popular right now.

Textiles will increasingly turn up on walls and in places they

Texture is a big component of interior design. Furniture and accessories featuring faux fur and natural ﬁbres are becoming popular. Organic shapes, such as tables looking like the tree trunk they were cut from, are also more popular.

metallic ﬁnishes are popular right now

haven’t traditionally been seen. Patterns may lean toward ﬂoral, tropical and indigenous artisan weaving designs. Expect to see pale pink and blue in various design applications, which pair well with the increasingly popular metallics. Technology is changing the way people look at their homes. Water-resistant music systems for the bathroom, wirelessly operated Bluetooth devices that turn on lights or appliances from a smart phone and even ﬁxtures that use technology to selfclean are turning up more and more. Home decor trends are always changing, adding new life to homes and keeping armchair interior decorators on their toes.

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Quadra Golf: Well worth taking the ferry across for By Mike Davies A couple of summers ago now, I walked off the ferry in Quathiaski Cove and looked around for someone holding a “MIKE DAVIES” sign, because my ride was supposed to be meeting me, and I’m a pretty big deal, right? You always see a few of these people in the airport – at

least in the movies you do – so how was this any different? Okay, maybe I’m being a bit facetious, but I did think it was pretty cool that Quadra Island Golf will pick you and your clubs up at the ferry terminal and take you to the course (and back after your round, obviously), thereby saving you

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the extra cost of BC Ferries bringing your car across.

and you’ll be fine.

Once in the van, I had a nice chat with their driver about the course’s short history – it’s one of the newest tracks in the region, first opened in 2012 – on our way across the Island, unloaded my clubs (watch your head on the rear door of the van, by the way, if it’s still the same one), and headed out for my round.

If you don’t care to listen to this one simple tip, I sincerely hope you reloaded your golf bag before you got on the boat, because you’ll frequently be digging into it for a new ball, assuming you’re not a scratch (or better) golfer.

The first hole begs you to unload with your driver, but just don’t. Play to the marker in the middle of the fairway – which is well below you, making for a wonderfully picturesque opening to your round – and play to position yourself for an easy approach. That’s good advice for the whole course, actually. It doesn’t add enough benefit to be long off the tee anywhere, really, to compensate for missing the fairway, especially if you miss on the wrong side of a dogleg and block yourself off from having a path to the green. Follow that advice as you make your way around the course,

In any case, I recommend booking yourself in for twice around this nine-hole gem when you’re making your way there, because as soon as you come off the ninth, you’ll want another crack at this track. The green undulations are subtle and difficult (but fair – try to stay below the hole) and the mistakes you made the first time around are likely easily correctable, so you’ll be itching to see what your score would look like if you played it properly now that you know how. You’ll especially look forward to having another go at the par-5 third, where you probably chose the wrong club off the tee box, because there are very specific places you need to be landing your ball if you are to get through this hole MAY 2016 | WAVE MAGAZINE [21]

unscathed, and if you didn’t take enough club on your uphill approach, your ball rolled back quite some distance towards your feet, which was pretty annoying, wasn’t it? The other par-5 is a monster – in the best possible sense of the word. At 494 yards from the back tees, the fifth hole bends to the left and stretches uphill a full 40+ yards, so it plays like it’s 700 yards long for someone who moves the ball left to right (yes, I’m exaggerating, but it’s a beast). Turn around and look back down the hole before you write down your score and head towards the sixth tee box. It’ll take the edge of the number you had to write down. Speaking of the sixth: here’s another great opportunity to take the wrong club off the tee! Long hitters will look down

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the fairway of this beauty and see the green a mere 350 yards from the back tees and think about letting rip with the driver. The only problem with that theory is the creek that runs across the hole about 50 yards short of the green, gleefully adding penalty strokes to your card like it’s some kind of … evil score zombie … or something. Then there’s the ninth. One of the most beautiful par-3s I’ve played anywhere on the West Coast of the country, this stretch of 180-yards is one of the bet finishes you’ll find to a round of golf. Just make sure you pull enough club to make the carry over the pond so you can fully enjoy it. In any case, enjoy your round. Maybe I’ll see you over there, because I’m on my way back at my earliest opportunity.

By Mike Davies Sylvia McGourlick doesn’t have a sign up in front of her pottery studio. She doesn’t advertise her work in newspapers, or pump her products on various Facebook pages, or try to get into art brochures and leaflets at galleries and shows. She doesn’t even have a website. It’s not that she doesn’t want to sell her pots and bowls and oil bottles and serving dishes. It’s that she’s too busy to keep up with the demand already, so she can’t take any more business. And McGourlick is one of the lucky ones in the art world, in that she’s not a potter because she needs to make a living at it. Yes, she’s a potter by trade, but she doesn’t do it because she needs to. She does it because she wants to. McGourlick was first introduced to pottery – or rather “ceramics” – in the 1970s, when her husband got a job in Haida Gwaii (then the Queen Charlotte Islands) at a logging camp. “When you’re in a logging camp, there is not a lot to do for the women and kids,” McGourlick says. “But the

MAY 2016 | WAVE MAGAZINE [23]

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company was really good, and tried to make sure there were things for the wives to do, because I guess they understood the old cliché, ‘Happy wife, happy life,’” she laughs. There was a “ceramics” room at the camp, as it was a popular passtime of the day – “it was like scrapbooking is now,” McGourlick says – and she just started playing with clay. There was no opportunity to actually learn how, but it was fun to just mess around with the materials. In 2000, when her husband was transferred to Campbell River, she was still having fun “playing” with clay, but was suddenly in a place where she could actually formally learn some techniques – or get the fundamentals she still didn’t have. So she took an introduction to pottery course at North Island College (NIC). “That’s when it really blew up, you could say.” After some time working in the ceramics department at NIC – “when you register for a course you can go into their studio anytime,” she beams, “so there were days I was in there from nine in the morning to nine

at night” – she realized it’s what she needed to be doing and took the plunge, making a studio in the room in their house that was meant for a hot tub. “It’s great in here,” she says, smiling around at the shelves full of pots and bowls in various states of completion. “So much natural light.” And so for the last 15 or so years, she’s been playing away in her studio, developing her own style, which turns out is a style other people like, as well – so much so that she actually has to keep herself from working as much as she could. She goes into the studio three days a week, she says, for anywhere from four to six hours per day.

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example, some of her pottery work started having little birds on it. “I enjoy the process of learning new things and trying new things,” she says, “but I always end up back at the wheel throwing clay.” McGourlick is part of a pottery collective in the Comox Valley called The Potters Place, and while she’s happy to be a part of such a supportive and inspiring group of like-minded artists who have a place to gather and practice their art, and she encourages everyone to support local artisans and vendors – she does certainly tries to. And that’s enough for her. “I need to make things I like,” she says. “People have asked me to make special orders, but it was either way out there or didn’t make sense to me. I’m pretty lucky that I make what I like, and it turns out that other people seem to like it, too. I do pretty well.” She doesn’t want to take on more work, because she likes having time to play with other mediums, explore other ideas in her work other than what will sell on the market, and do the other things she doesn’t see as “work.” “In the summer, I like to turn my attention to my garden,” she says, “and I want to have time to do my stained glass, or my knitting, or my quilting, or just play with my clay, like I used to.” And she thinks her other artistic and creative dabblings make her a better potter. When she works with stained glass, she’s exploring colour and pattern, for example. When she explores other artistic facets of her life, she learns things she can incorporate back into her pottery work. When she was learning to paint, for

“Even when I’m in Vancouver at Northern Reflections or something, and I see something I like, I wait and buy it when I get back here.” She also donates work to various charity causes, like the annual Potters’ Chilli Bowls event where for $15, the public can get a bowl of chilli in a local potters’ work, keep the bowl and know that all proceeds go to You Are Not Alone, an organization which helps families who need to travel to access medical treatment for their children. So what would she say to someone thinking about getting into pottery? “I would just say go for it,” she says enthusiastically. Despite there not being a huge market for pottery, she would like to see more people practicing the art. Pottery is so personal – people like what they like – she doesn’t feel more potters take market share away from others. Some styles of pottery sell better in different places, after all. McGourlick says she knows one local potter whose work simply doesn’t sell in this area, but flies off the table when she sets up a booth at a show on Granville Island, for example. “With art, there’s no right or wrong, it’s just a matter of finding a market for the work that you want to make. “Where there’s a will there’s a way.” Check out The Potters Place on Fifth Street in Courtenay the next time you’re down that way or head over to thepottersplace.ca if you’re not familiar with McGourlick’s work. Or send her an email at symcag@telus.net to get in touch directly.

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By Mike Davies “This is Scribbles,” says the excited, energetic young teacher excitedly showing off a machine of some kind, seemingly built with bits of wood, with a spool of yellow plastic wire perched on the top and what looks at first glance, to be a blob of melted yellow plastic below it. The teacher is Timberline Secondary’s Tylere Couture. The machine is a 3D printer.

who graduated from this very school 17 years ago and is now teaching its computer programming, digital photography and digital art and design programs. This, after his time as a laser physicist in Vancouver and civilian/military liaison in Afghanistan with the Canadian Armed Forces, who happens to have a master’s degree in Human Security and Peacekeeping.

I’m looking at the machine after standing up from my chair at the Oculus Rift – the virtual reality contraption that just took me on a roller coaster ride around a fictional living room that I’m not hesitant to admit, made my stomach turn a bit.

Wait, what? Yeah, let’s go back to high school graduation and start this story, shall we?

Above me is a three-foot tall statue of Darth Vader on a shelf, overlooking a room of computer screens. And I’m talking to a man

“After I graduated, I moved to Vancouver with my then girlfriend, now wife, to go to school. She went to Langara; I went to UBC to study physics and chemistry,” he says, simply enough. Like many who go off to post secondary, however, he wasn’t really MAY 2016 | WAVE MAGAZINE [27]

Couture helps Justin Chuang with a video editing problem. sure what he was going to do. Upon looking around at some options, he began thinking seriously about a military career – as a medical officer. “But I had no idea what military life was like, so I joined the closest thing I could get without signing on the dotted line with a massive commitment, which was joining up with the Reserve Medical Unit as an administration officer.” While he was doing that, he says, he also, “kind of fell ass-backwards into a job studying holograms,” using his chemistry and physics education while he finished his degree. He continued on with the Reserves, and after he graduated, he was working full-time as a laser physicist – yes, that’s an actual thing – and

he was trying to figure out how to also get some use out of his military training. He happened across an organization within the military called CIMIC – Civil-Military Cooperation – which selected reservists from all different trades and skill sets and used them to liaise with civilian populations in areas where the Canadian Armed Forces had operations. And Afghanistan popped up on his radar. But he didn’t know anything about Afghanistan. So he started doing some reading, “and becoming more and more ashamed of myself for not knowing anything about this place, which had one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world.”

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He resigned from his laser physics job, went to Edmonton for a year for training, and was off to Kandahar. “I was appointed the team leader for Kandahar City,” he says. “I ended up being the main military liaison with the mayor of Kandahar City at the time. My job was to say, ‘okay how can we – as NATO, as an international force – help you?’” As part of his lead-up to deployment, Couture had taught himself Pashto – one of the languages spoken in Afghanistan. This was no easy feat, because it was before resources were widely available to be able to do such a thing, but he credits that work with much of the his success in his role. “That was probably the most important thing I did to build relationships in Kandahar – which was my job,” he says, recounting numerous times where, “the crappy little bit of the language I had, cracked through the shell of these people and enabled me to develop great relationships.”

At the end of his tour, he says, he came back, “and the deal I had with my wife was that I could go to Afghanistan, if when I came back, we could move back to Campbell River. But there weren’t – and although I haven’t looked into it, there probably still aren’t – a ton of businesses in Campbell River hiring either laser physicists or Afghani liaisons.” So he went back to UBC to get a teaching certificate, they moved back to Campbell River, and he applied to become a teacher in School District 72. He became a Teacher On Call (TOC) with both SD72 (Campbell River) and SD71 (Comox Valley), but he was still doing physics work on contract for his old employer based in Vancouver, and was working at the clinic at CFB Comox, so he was sort of too busy to accept teaching calls when they came. And so he was removed from the TOC list. He wanted to be a teacher, but he “wasn’t really interested” in sitting around and waiting for calls to fill in for someone else, so he dropped teaching and went back to school, yet again, at Royal Roads University.

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time – “as you can tell, I’ve bounced around a lot with what I’ve done,” he says – and wanting to push himself and his career as far as he can, he’s since added another passion to his teaching schedule, as well. He recently presented his pitch to the SD72 Board of Education to begin teaching Philosophy 12 next school year, following from the Philosophy 11 course he began this past year. Philosophical discussions and theories, he says, open the mind and get people thinking critically about the world around them. Fittingly, for someone of his background of international aid and social justice, one of his personal favourite philosophical scenarios is called, “The Drowning Child.” “If you’re driving home today”, Couture asks, “and you hear a child calling from a creek likely drowning – maybe your window is down, so you heard their struggle – do you pull over and run to save the child?” “Of course you do,” I say. “Okay”, he says, “but what if you’re in a neighbourhood where the chances are good your car will be stolen by the time you get back to it?” “Of course you still try to save the child,” I say. “Okay”, he continues, “what if there are a bunch of other people, already standing around watching the child drown, and nobody is doing anything?” During his completion of that program – a master’s degree in Human Security and Peacebuilding – he ended up back in Afghanistan again, completing his RRU thesis on an under-the-radar school for girls.

“Obviously, that’s irrelevant,” I say. “You still try to save the child.”

“It was probably the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. It was this nondescript building – gated like everything there, you wouldn’t even notice it if you were walking by – and you open the gates and in every corner of the compound, in every nook and cranny, there were young women – girls, really – taking classes in English, computer skills, they had all sorts of stuff, and I was totally blown away.”

“So what you’ve admitted”, Couture points out, “is that you would do your part to save a child – who may die anyway, despite your efforts – even though other people also have the opportunity to try to save the child and it may cost you, say, $1,000?”

It wasn’t illegal, per se, for this place to exist. It was, however, extremely dangerous.

“Okay, but what if there’s a pretty good chance the child will still die anyway, despite your efforts?” “Also irrelevant,” I say.

“Yes.” And that’s the answer most people give to that scenario. But children die all over the world every day, and we know about them, and we can help them, but we don’t.

After completing his graduate work while volunteering in the school – he returned to Campbell River. He signed back up for the TOC list, deciding to give this teaching thing another go.

It’s an internal struggle Couture lives with every day.

While he was subbing this time around, he was chatting with other teachers, making connections, and actually getting semi-regular classroom work.

His wife, a local potter, donates 20 per cent of the sales of her work to the charity Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan as a result of their discussions around the “Drowning Child” scenario, and Couture is doing his part to get more people thinking critically about the world, as well.

Then at the start of the 2014 school year, while he was prepping for the math class he was supposed to be filling on a temporary basis at Timberline, it was mentioned to him that the computer teacher had retired late in the previous year, and they were having trouble filling that role. “And I said, ‘Hey, I know a bit about computers,’” he laughs. “And I’ve been full-time teaching computers here ever since.” Never being completely content with what he’s doing at any given

“Do I really need that new computer?” he asks rhetorically, sighing. “Maybe not.”

Meanwhile, he’ll be in his crazy, geeky classroom filled with 3D printers, a television that has a constant game of Tetris running, a computer in a fish tank and a remote controlled foam missile launcher on his desk to get students’ attention when he needs it, broadening the minds and educating of the youth of our community, while he waits for his next opportunity to go volunteer with that school in Afghanistan. MAY 2016 | WAVE MAGAZINE [31]

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