Welcome to the YRS Conference of the Americas 2015 |
Welcome, halo, hallo, hej, Namaste and hello from Kourosh, Gabby, Mr. Wright and Collingwood School! We are so happy to welcome you to the Young Round Square Conference of the Americas 2015. The theme for our conference is reFresh*reFuel*reFocus.
ReFresh is draining your mind and body with some outdoor activities. A great example would be the ziptrek adventure our student leaders went on a couple of months ago; all of you will get to experience this adventure on Wednesday. It is thrilling and refreshing at the same time because the ziplines take you from tree to tree in nature between Blackcomb and Whistler mountains. It’s a great opportunity to do something that may be out of your comfort zone, or ‘crazy!’
ReFuel is getting ready or ‘refueling’ so that we are ready to move on from one activity or workshop to another. A good example of this would be to connect ‘offline’ with each other during meals or social time with friends. Sometimes it’s great to force ourselves to drop our electronics and focus on the moment that you are in.
ReFocus is ‘refocusing’ once we have had some fun or time to relax; to start thinking about ways we could improve our world…make a change in our local or global communities. Our goal over the next five days together is to have every delegate learn more about our theme and the IDEALS of Round Square. We will have to reflect on these during our Baraza groups each evening. By the end of the week we should all have a better understanding of what each one means to us!
So, since all of you will be spending the next five days here you should probably get to know a bit about Vancouver. Our city is located in a temperate rainforest which put in simple terms - we live in a forest that rains a considerable amount throughout the year and maintains a mild (but cool) climate all year as well. Yes, it is almost always raining in the winter months which are why some of us nickname our city, ‘Raincouver.’ So we are lucky today that it is sunny and warm, but get ready for the occasional rainfall!
Vancouver also has plenty of fauna or animals including bald eagles, bears, cougars, orcas and plenty more. We will be visiting some of the wildlife homes right here on Grouse Mountain; Grinder and Coola are two grizzly bears that were orphaned at a very young age and now live on the five acre habitat on the top of the mountain. Grouse Mountain is also home to Alpha the wolf. As a wolf pup he was intended to be utilized in Hollywood’s movie industry, but unfortunately he did not cooperate as a ‘film wolf.’ Alpha did not develop the necessary skills to survive in the wild so was adopted by Grouse Mountain. He is well taken care of in his habitat on Grouse Mountain.
We are so fortunate to have so many people from around the world come to share their opinions on global topics and the IDEALS of Round Square. Let’s get this all started. On behalf of the two of us and Collingwood School, we are so happy that students and teachers from across the globe are here to officially kick off the 2-15 Young Round Square Conference of the Americas.
So, on the count of 3, let’s kick things off!
1, 2, 3…
By: Gabby BK & Kourosh S. (Grade 7 students, Collingwood School)
ReFresh is draining your mind and body with some outdoor activities. A great example would be the ziptrek adventure our student leaders went on a couple of months ago; all of you will get to experience this adventure on Wednesday. It is thrilling and refreshing at the same time because the ziplines take you from tree to tree in nature between Blackcomb and Whistler mountains. It’s a great opportunity to do something that may be out of your comfort zone, or ‘crazy!’
ReFuel is getting ready or ‘refueling’ so that we are ready to move on from one activity or workshop to another. A good example of this would be to connect ‘offline’ with each other during meals or social time with friends. Sometimes it’s great to force ourselves to drop our electronics and focus on the moment that you are in.
ReFocus is ‘refocusing’ once we have had some fun or time to relax; to start thinking about ways we could improve our world…make a change in our local or global communities. Our goal over the next five days together is to have every delegate learn more about our theme and the IDEALS of Round Square. We will have to reflect on these during our Baraza groups each evening. By the end of the week we should all have a better understanding of what each one means to us!
So, since all of you will be spending the next five days here you should probably get to know a bit about Vancouver. Our city is located in a temperate rainforest which put in simple terms - we live in a forest that rains a considerable amount throughout the year and maintains a mild (but cool) climate all year as well. Yes, it is almost always raining in the winter months which are why some of us nickname our city, ‘Raincouver.’ So we are lucky today that it is sunny and warm, but get ready for the occasional rainfall!
Vancouver also has plenty of fauna or animals including bald eagles, bears, cougars, orcas and plenty more. We will be visiting some of the wildlife homes right here on Grouse Mountain; Grinder and Coola are two grizzly bears that were orphaned at a very young age and now live on the five acre habitat on the top of the mountain. Grouse Mountain is also home to Alpha the wolf. As a wolf pup he was intended to be utilized in Hollywood’s movie industry, but unfortunately he did not cooperate as a ‘film wolf.’ Alpha did not develop the necessary skills to survive in the wild so was adopted by Grouse Mountain. He is well taken care of in his habitat on Grouse Mountain.
We are so fortunate to have so many people from around the world come to share their opinions on global topics and the IDEALS of Round Square. Let’s get this all started. On behalf of the two of us and Collingwood School, we are so happy that students and teachers from across the globe are here to officially kick off the 2-15 Young Round Square Conference of the Americas.
So, on the count of 3, let’s kick things off!
1, 2, 3…
By: Gabby BK & Kourosh S. (Grade 7 students, Collingwood School)
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