Grateful business

Though the Games had no economic impact on our business, the gifts far exceeded our expectations.

The Talisman was awarded by the mission staff, through consensus, the Best Host Award.

This was bestowed upon us by Manitoba..toba..toba..toba, Nova Scotia and Alberta.

Our staff had a ball with these folks. (After 23 days together, in the Yukon you’re engaged.)

If half these folks come back in the summer, they’ll only be that much more smitten.

 Let me finish by saying how proud I am of you all. From the Rock to Siwash Sound, we have been discovered.

Bobbie Kufeldt

Whitehorse

No negativity, please

Open letter to reporter Genesee Keevil, re Cancer Luncheon feeds hope (the News, March 23):

I read with interest your take on the Cancer Society’s luncheon held at the Westmark Hotel on Thursday, March 22.

Your interpretation of the luncheon was well reported and accurate … except.

Dr. Calvin Roskelley gave an inspiring presentation on breast cancer research and his lifetime dedication to finding out the whys of this dreadful disease.

Yes, at the beginning he promised to speak in “lay terms” to an audience that would have been bored stiff with a clinical approach. He very obviously knows his stuff and, in my opinion, presented it in the best “lay terms” a man of his education could do.

There is no doubt that some of his presentation would be over the heads of some, but if you had been a cancer survivor, at least a breast cancer survivor, you might have found his presentation to be extremely informative and not in the least clinical, offering, as Keith Halliday so beautifully put it, hope.

The hope that those who have suffered breast cancer still require on a daily basis, hoping that it will not return and that they will not have to endure chemotherapy and radiation another time.

As you are not a survivor (and I’m assuming here) you found his presentation to be over your head and not presented as he promised, in lay terms.

I can understand that.

Probably 95 per cent of the people in that room have in some way been affected by cancer, as either a survivor or as a caregiver or family or friend of someone with cancer, therefore their attendance to support the Canadian Cancer Society.

Hopefully you fall in the five per cent and will continue to be in that five per cent.

You will be one of the lucky ones not to have been affected by cancer. It is indeed a rare group of individuals who fit in that five per cent these days, given how widely this disease is spreading.

Cancer is always a learning process and I learned a great deal from Dr. Roskelley’s presentation.

I learned why cancer spreads and how it reaches a particular stage or diagnosis.

I learned that being receptor-positive doesn’t guarantee there will be no re-occurrence, but it does give hope that it won’t reappear in another part of the body.

People live in fear from the time cancer is diagnosed and still maintain a small bit of fear until the day they eventually die, not necessarily of cancer.

To hear Dr. Roskelley offer hope and to hear Halliday offer thanks for all the hard work people like the doctor do, was very emotional to me.

I could not hold back tears when Halliday spoke.

I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that you wrote a beautiful article, but if you could have just left out one sentence, “That lasted about five minutes,” it would have been a great article.

We need people like Dr. Roskelley to come into our lives to offer hope and people like Keith to give thanks.

If I were the doctor and read those five words, I might be tempted to think, to heck with you, that’s the last time I’ll take time out of a busy research life to help fund raise funds in that community.

Our community needs people like Dr. Roskelley. We are an isolated community with very little access to presentations like his.

Yes, I can move to a larger community to have better access, but I choose to live here because of all the advantages Whitehorse and the Yukon have to offer clean air, less traffic, wonderful friends and a great sense of community.

The next time you write an informed article about a presentation, it would be nice if you left out that one negative aspect and focused more on all the positive information he gave us.

He tried and you can’t fault him for that.

He did his best. We all need to offer hope and with those five words, you took that down a bit.

In spite of your article, I had a great time at the lunch and will attend each year it is offered.

M.J. O’Neal

Whitehorse

Action stations

On Monday morning, on my way to work, I saw my neighbours Cameron Eckert and Pamela Sinclair waiting for the city bus.

I offered them a ride, and casually asked if their cars had broken down. As with the majority of us, both of them normally drive to work.

They explained that they’d been despairing about climate change and how they saw so little being done about it.

Tired of waiting for the government, they resolved to take the initiative. Now they ride the bus, leaving their cars at home.

This is a perfect example of how ordinary citizens can make a difference.

Seeing this concrete and courageous example was so inspiring to me.

We need not wait for our government to move, feeling frustrated and helpless while not enough happens.

There are so many little things each and everyone of us can do to turn the tide of global climate change.

Here I offer some humble suggestions for those curious about where to begin:

If you haven’t yet, check out www.davidsuzuki.org and/or watch the film An Inconvenient Truth.

There are many great resources on climate change and these are just a few examples.

It is an issue that concerns us all and getting informed is an important first step.

Use public transportation and carpooling as much as possible.

It takes very little effort: check out a bus schedule or knock on your neighbour’s door to arrange car sharing.

As you surely know, transportation is a large source of the pollution causing climate change.

If possible, walk or ride your bicycle. Get healthy while saving the world.

Another daily activity we can make more sustainable is eating. According to a recent UN report, livestock creates more greenhouse gases worldwide than all cars combined.

Industrial meat production is by far one of the worst polluters for water, air or earth. Every one of us can make a difference by getting our nutrition directly from wholesome plant foods.

Vegetarian or semi-vegetarian diets are inexpensive, healthy and good for the planet. Even a few meatless meals a week will help.

Eating local food (or as local as possible) is another way we can keep down emissions from transportation.

Actually there is a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a local organic farming co-op, right here in the Yukon. Check out www.greatgreengrowers.com to learn more.

We all contribute to climate change, and so we can all contribute to the solution too. If you have a good idea, make it happen.

Children, teens, adults, seniors can all help,

I salute my valiant neighbours and urge you to follow these role models.

If every second or third or even 10th household carpooled or took the bus like them, there wouldn’t be this ridiculous traffic congestion between downtown and Riverdale every morning.

Our transit system would become better and better to fuel the demand for it. There is so much we can do, there’s no need to despair. Come on, Whitehorse, let’s lead the nation in sustainability!

Suat Tuzlak

Whitehorse