Trick or eat!

Mary Poppins & Bert

This Halloween was a little different than others for me, for a few reasons. Firstly, my Halloween costume was more DIY then it has ever been before. Because I have vowed to not shop commercially this year, buying pieces for my costume was not as simple as popping into Wal-Mart or Value Village. Instead, I used what I had at home and sifted through the variety of thrift stores in downtown Prince George to find tid-bits I could use. Not being able to find the perfect Mary Poppins hat, I crafted accessories out of buttons and elastic I found at St. Vincent De Paul's thrift store.  It may have taken a little more time than convenience shopping but I was thrilled with the end result, I also saved money and wasted less by using things I already had. Definitely keeping this up for next year!

#TrickOrEat 2014 

With my costume all set my next project was collecting food donations with my friends at Meal Exchange for Trick Or Eat. The concept is simple, go door to door like the kids do, but instead of collecting treats we collected food for our local food banks! This year we collected food for the UNBC Campus Food Bank as well as St. Vincent De Paul's in downtown Prince George. We have already collected over 1300 lbs of food in Prince George but it's not too late to help, if you would like to donate please visit my page HERE and help me reach my modest goal of $50.00 that will go towards foods banks locally.

David Suzuki at UNBC

What seemed like a great week already was made even better by what I am unofficially dubbing David Suzuki day (otherwise known as Saturday). The morning after Halloween a few of us dragged ourselves out of bed, wiped off the leftover costume makeup and made it up to the University to attend a lunch with David Suzuki as part of the Blue Dot Tour. As a volunteer I helped with the set up and took tickets in exchange for a sweet t-shirt and a photo-op with the man himself. We then got to listen to him talk about the movement he is starting to have the right to a healthy environment entrenched in the Canadian constitution and talk to community members about what we can do in Prince George. Later in the evening we saw him again at the main event at Vanier Hall with other guests like Roy Henry Vickers . It was a day full of inspiration and learning and it gave be butterflies to think of people working together towards the common goal of helping our planet. My favourite part of the evening was a poem 'Shoulders' by Shane Koyczan that you can see here, once you start it you will not be able to stop! (It gave me goosebumps).

Here's to a week of feeling inspired and giving back!

Melanie

"My heart is a protest that I let rally against my ribs"- Shane Koyczan