Vancity Member Perk: Visit Science World FREE

Did you know that Earth Day is happening in just a few days? This year, two of my favourite things are coming together to celebrate--Vancity & Science World. In honour of Earth Day (4/22), on Saturday, May 2nd, the first 422 Vancity members will receive free admission to Science World. Additional members & their guests will receive 50% off admission (that's a savings of $11.25 on adult admission!).

Vancity is making Science World even more awesome that it already is--they will be onsite throughout the day with fun games & prizes, of course. Just show your Vancity member debit card or Vancity enviro Visa (or some other form of membership verification) at Science World's Guest Services desk to get in.

Go green to Vancity's Earth Day celebration at Science World: take transit or ride your bike! If you arrive on two wheels, the Bicycle Valet will be on hand to park your bike & provide basic tuneups too. Both for free!

For more information, visit Vancity.com

Follow Spokesmama here too:

#VancityMemberDay at the PNE August 27

Membership has its perks

Are you a member of Vancity? If you are, you and a guest can explore The Fair at the PNE on Vancity Member Day, Wednesday, August 27 for only $5 each. (That’s a savings of $11 on adult admission!) You'll need to show your Vancity MEMBER CARD® debit card or Vancity enviro™ Visa* (or other form of membership verification) at The PNE. It's one day only: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 (11am – 11pm).

The PNE goes green

You can also visit the Vancity Eco Zone to find out how Vancity is supporting the PNE on their journey of going green. Get fun facts and helpful tips on how you can go green at home through fun and interactive activities. Why? Well, Vancity's bottom line includes the well-being of members and their communities, which includes environmental sustainability. On Vancity Member Day they are working towards Zero Waste at the PNE!

Ch-ch-ch-changes..

In the Vancity Eco Zone, last year’s fairgoers had a chance to make suggestions on how the PNE could be greener. Here are the changes that came as a result of that:

• A new policy to ban Styrofoam and plastic cutlery to encourage vendors to use biodegradable food packaging
• Fair vendors are not permitted to have ‘show’ lights until dusk so the PNE will decrease their energy consumption
• The PNE has a Light Bulb Eater. This gadget breaks down the bulbs; reducing labour, storage space and recycling costs.

Reduce, reuse, and RECYCLE

Through Vancity’s Zero-Waste Events initiative, 75 new recycling stations have been installed throughout fairgrounds to help PNE improve its waste reduction, recycling and composting activities. On Vancity Member Day, Green Chair Recycling will be at each station to help sort waste and share recycling tips.

Moooo!

One thing that hasn't changed at the PNE since last year's Vancity Members Day is Cowpower. What does that mean? Cowpower supports local farmers and our environment by generating renewable energy from waste cow manure. For Vancity Member Day, Vancity is cowpowering all attractions at The Fair. Seems appropriate, no? To find out how your home can be cowpowered, check out their website.

How can you be more green at the PNE? Here are some tips:

• Ride your bike to the PNE. During The Fair, there will be a complimentary Vancity-supported bicycle valet service. The bike valet stations are set up inside Gate 1. Valet your bike during The Fair to be entered to win a prize pack from Vancity community partner, PEDAL.
• Bring your water bottles on Vancity Member Day. On Vancity Member Day, August 27, a drinking-water station to refill re-usable water bottles will be provided by Metro Vancouver. 
• Dispose your waste responsibly. 75 new recycling stations have been installed to collect three streams of waste: garbage, recyclables and compostables. Please follow the signage at these stations or Green Chair Recycling staff to help the PNE divert waste from our landfills. 

See you at the Fair!

For more information, please visit Vancity's events website, RSVP at the Vancity Members Day Facebook page, and if you're tweeting or Instagramming, use the hashtag #VancityMemberDay.
     

Follow Spokesmama here too:

Bucket List Scorecard

We'll call it a Staycation kind of summer. (beach at Lumberman's Arch)

Thought I'd go back & look at our Bucket List for this past summer to see how we did now that the season is pretty much over. Not terribly impressed with our results, notes added in italics to the original list. Here they are:

1. Travel (via transit, as usual) to Victoria to visit friends. Nope.
2. Edit: Whoops! Forgot #2... Heh. Did a lot of forgetting of things. I blame baby-brain.
3. Go camping: probably tent camping with a car at a provincial park--nothing too strenuous. Didn't get to this one either.
4. Stay on at least one of the Gulf Islands for a weekend or more. Still nope.
5. Go hiking: likely not anywhere too ambitious--given my 'delicate condition'--maybe a quick one to Quarry Rock or something? Again, nope.
6. Visit Spanish Banks at low tide & play on the sand bars. We did make it to Spanish Banks but not at low tide.
7. Go to the Vancouver International Children's Festival at least once. YES, we did this twice! & it was awesome, as always!
   
8. Have a picnic dinner in a park somewhere. Brought Hawkers Delight takeout to VanDusen Gardens. Sadly, they forgot to include the rice with our order & some of the food included a piece of packaging in it, but we picnicked, yes we did.
9. Host a barbeque with friends. We had people over for food, but I think we didn't actually use the barbeque to do it. We'll still count it.
10. Make popsicles! I keep seeing great recipes for interesting & healthy versions online that I need to try. Inspired by the 50 pounds of plums, pears & apples we got from our Tinka Orchards CSA, I whizzed up some plums in the blender with cinnamon & a little cane sugar.
11. Go swimming in an outdoor pool like Kits or New Brighton. Done! We swam at New Brighton one very warm evening.
12. Visit the PNE. Should be fun this year with a rambunctious three-year-old & me at about 38 weeks pregnant. Gulp. We went on Vancity Member Day, August 29th. I waddled around with my 38-weeks-four-days-pregnant belly & it was a blast. Well, okay, Sprout had fun & we ate mini donuts. :)
13. See some outdoor movies. It was so much fun last year seeing The Princess Bride in David Lam Park, Monty Python & The Holy Grail & Labyrinth in Ceperley Meadows. I definitely want to do it again! Getting to these events is best done by transit plus a bit of a walk, or biking. Most of the movies happened once I'd gotten too pregnant to comfortably use either combination of transportation, so we just didn't go. :( Sprout & Oli did make it to a movie in the park near our house, but I was so tired that night that I stayed on the couch. Maybe I'll give us a half point for that one.

Hooo, 8.5/13? Not a brilliant score, probably would get us a grade of C. There's always next summer, I guess.

Did you write a bucket list for this summer? How did you do at ticking off the items? Care to share your 'score' below?

Follow Spokesmama here too:

PNE 2013: Seven Tips for Attending with Small Children

Well, we did it. I managed to waddle around the PNE for our annual family tradition of attending Vancity Members Day. At 38 weeks & 4 days pregnant, this was quite a feat. The weather wasn't ideal, but we had fun. There are LOTS of benches to sit on everywhere & we sort of planned things so I could sit & relax in between short bursts of walking.

There are still a few days left of the Fair--it runs until September 2, so I thought I'd share some of my ideas for how to make it a fun outing when you go with little kids &/or babies along with a few highlights of what we got up to:

1.
The PNE has got some great amenities for parents of babies & toddlers. Notably, the baby zone, a couple of portables where you can change babies, warm bottles & breastfeed on a couch  in a separate room if you're not comfortable doing it al fresco. There are extra washrooms near the kiddie rides area too which are not that busy.

2.
The helicopter rides are a good bang for your buck with really small kids (even under 36"). Just two tickets gets your kid in & a parent/caregiver gets to ride for free. Ask for the list of rides that allow parents on for free at the booths in Kids Playce where you buy tickets.

Papa & Oli 'flew' in Zippy the helicopter

Over 36": tall enough for lots of rides!

3.
There are quite a few water fountains around, so keep hydrated in the lion's jaws or bring your own bottle to refill. The cheapest cold drinks we saw were $3.75!

Drinking water from the jaws of a lion? Why not?

4.
The best deal on fried snacks is pakoras at Curry in a Hurry: $3 a plate. Everything else is quite expensive. Bonus: pakoras actually have vegetables in them!

Gotta get a photo before we polish them off...

$5 corn dog. Meh.

5.

If there are big line-ups, keep walking into the park: the third or fourth mini-donut stand won't be as busy.

I can't resist these & make a beeline for them immediately upon arrival.

6.
Cloudy/showery days are much less busy if you don't mind getting slightly damp. Putting the kids in muddy buddies & gumboots mean no wet pants from benches/rides or puddles.

He might have had more fun in the puddles than one ride he tried.

7.
Check the live show schedule at beginning of your visit, or better yet online before going--we saw a farrier shoeing a police horse & caught a bit of a kids' stage show but missed out on Superdogs & the pig races as we didn't plan ahead.

8.
For our little urban boy, looking at all the animals is always a highlight of the Fair. It was also a great place to get out of the rain & sit for a bit--there are benches everywhere in there, great for resting while pregnant or breastfeeding.

Poking at some ducklings.

Did you go to the PNE this year with little kids? Got any other tips to share? Leave them in the comments below...

Follow Spokesmama here too:

#VancityMemberDay at The #PNE + a #Giveaway

Photography by Winston Wong

It's August in Vancouver, which means it's almost time for one of our annual family traditions: going to the PNE for Vancity Member Day! The tradition started in 2010, just after Sprout was born & we've been every year since. We could go on any of the days that The Fair is open, but Vancity Member Day is special--here's why:

Vancity Member Day

Each year, during The Fair, a special day is designated as Vancity Member Day. This year it's on Thursday August 29, 2013. Members & a guest can celebrate being a part of Vancity & enjoy discounted admission to The Fair: just $5 each (a savings of $15 each). (Psst: RSVP & tell your friends on Facebook here on the Vancity Member Day Event Page)

A Greener Day at The Fair

Vancity is always looking for ways to make our region greener & supporting local initiatives that do just that. This year, Vancity will “Cowpower” all the electricity consumed at The Fair on Vancity day, i.e. by supporting Cowpower our dollars go to enabling local farmers to install biodigesters on their farms to process cow manure to make electricity (& it also make a digestate that is a high nutrient natural soil amendment that farmers can spread on their fields).

BYOB--Bring your own water bottle!

A drinking-water station will also be made available on Member Day, to encourage visitors to use re-usable water bottles for the day. The water station will be provided by Metro Vancouver.

Eco Alley

Eco Alley is an engaging activation area in a green zone area of The Fair that will showcase the Fair’s current green initiatives with a strong focus on recycling & composting, engaging visitors in generating new ideas &  proposing additional ways the PNE can “go green.”

The area, highlighted by a 20x20 activity tent & a 10x10 composting tent, will feature a number of activities centered around recycling, composting & transportation for attendees to participate in:

• Eco-enga Enviro Trivia Game – We’ve designed a life-sized Jenga game specifically for PNE 2013. The traditional Jenga game is given a “green twist,” as each block offers attendees a chance to answer enviro trivia for a slew of fun prizes.
• Feature Ideas Wall – We want to engage attendees & solicit their feedback on how the PNE can further green their operations, so we’ve built a dry-erase ideas wall that will elicit attendees to write their ideas around water, waste & energy.
• Commuter Survey – we’ll have a survey wall asking attendees to pinpoint where they commuted from & their method of transportation. Along with the survey, we’ll be offering tips on how they can further green their commute.
• Onsite Commercial Scale-Composting Demonstration - A commercial composter will process food scraps from PNE food vendors & will be adjacent to small food gardens (planted by students from local schools) sharing the message of “Fork-to-farm” & how food scraps can be digested into nutrients to help our soil grow food. The composter will be provided by Recycling Alternative, a proud Vancity community partner who provides eco-solutions to communities around the Lower Mainland.
• “Silver Dragon” In-home composter Display – A composter designed for residential use called, “The Silver Dragon,” will also be on display for visitors to learn more about how they can add composting to their lifestyle.
• Make Good Money Photo – Vancity has also prepared a social media component, where visitors are encouraged to share their ideas on how to build a healthy community, snap a photo with their idea written on one of our exclusive social media blocks & share the photo with their social media networks.
• By the entrance of the PNE Main gates, Vancity is also providing a free valet bike service for PNE visitors, providing secure bicycle storage & a chance to win a green prize pack for users of the valet.

Win this stuff & have some clean, green fun!

I did promise a giveaway too, didn't I? :) Here are the details. Vancity will send one lucky winner a gift pack (worth over $200) which includes:

• A pair of Fair gate & ride passes ($108 value)
• A green cleaning kit – with products from Seventh Generation & other eco-friendly brands ($50 value)
• A stainless steel countertop green bin ($50 value)

Enter to win in the Rafflecopter widget below. You can increase your chances by doing as many of the options as possible: tweeting about the contest (you can do this daily if you want more chances to win!), following me or Vancity on Twitter, following me or Vancity on Facebook & leaving a comment about your favourite part of the PNE. Please don't forget to do the action & click 'I did it' on Rafflecopter so your entry is valid. If you're not sure, email me! lisa.corriveauATgmail.com :)

I'll choose a winner in a week (well, the random number generator will, actually), just after midnight on Wednesday, August 21. I'll post the winner's name on the widget & notify them by email. If you've won, you'll have 48 hours to respond to my email or I'll ask Mr. Rafflecopter to choose another winner... :) Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: Vancity will be providing the prize to the winner, but this is not a sponsored post.

Follow Spokesmama here too: