City discusses CDC Month; Celebrating French Immersion; Frozen John mascot
Council Proclaims CDC Month
The Child Development Centre launched its 2024 Capital Campaign at Fort St. John city council on Monday, when council proclaimed February to be CDC Month in the city.
Since 1973, the Child Development Centre has been providing a variety of services to children in the Peace region, especially those children with developmental and physical challenges from birth to age 19. The programs include speech-language therapy, physiotherapy, the Grow Autism Program, as well as a preschool, family services and an infant development program.
The Talent Show is a major fundraiser, one which has grown significantly over the last 51 years, with the unwavering support of the community. The 51st Annual CDC Talent Show – dubbed a Night of Stars – will take place on March 15 at the North Peace Cultural Centre.
The goal for this year’s campaign is to raise $500,000 and staff hope to raise $100,000 at the Talent Show. The proceeds of the campaign will, go towards the CDC building’s mortgage as usual, but also to a project the centre has planned, to be announced at a later date.
Crystal Kalas, Talent Show coordinator invited council to attend the Talent Show and asked Mayor Lilia Hansen to introduce the CDC Early Learning Program’s performance.
Celebrating French Immersion in FSJ
French Immersion Week is a celebration of the rich cultural experience that not only embraces bilingualism but helps develop a deeper connection with the French language which is Canada’s second official language.
French Immersion has been a part of the education system in British Columbia since 1969, and available to students in School District 60 since 1989, when it was introduced for students in Grade 6. In 2023, the Fort St. John chapter had much cause for celebration – not only were they the first chapter in the province to have their city proclaim French Immersion Week, but at the annual conference of the BC/Yukon Branch of Canadian Parents for French, they were invited to join the collection of speakers and outline everything they are doing to support local students.
“Last year marked our first ever French Immersion Grad dinner for dual dogwood students,” said Heather Balatti, president of the Fort St. John chapter of CPF. “This year’s grade 12 French Immersion students are hosting a fundraiser at the Lido later this month to hold a bigger celebration and include their families.”
Each year, between 35 and 50 kindergarten students enroll in the program at Ecole Central Elementary, but more than half leave the program before graduation. Last year, 14 students graduated from the program, this year there are 22 students who will graduate with dual dogwood diplomas.
Balatti says they are determined to find ways to reduce program attrition and better support students once they leave Ecole Central for middle and high school. Utilizing celebrations like French Immersion Week is one way to acknowledge their success.
“[We] are committing to supporting our French Immersion students to reach the goal their families laid out on their very first day of school.”
City helps SPCA with HVAC donation
Staff is to be commended for having the forethought not to throw the three used, but still fully functional air handing units away, and instead giving them new life by helping a valued service in the city, the North Peace SPCA, Councillor Tony Zabinsky told fellow council members at Monday’s regular council meeting.
“That is incredible, thanks to our staff for thinking that way, and helping our non-profits,” he said.
For months, the SPCA has been conducting extensive renovations on a new location, after their old location deteriorated into an unusable state. Brand new air handling units are very expensive, and one of the contractors, D Bauer Mechanical, who was doing work on behalf of the SPCA approached the city with the idea of possibly of using the HVAC units which had recently been removed from the North Peace Arena during its renovations.
Although the units are almost twenty years old, they still have life in them and their donation would greatly reduce renovation costs for the SPCA, which is a non-profit organization. The HVAC contractor working on the design of the heating and ventilation system for the SPCA said that the units are suitable items to incorporate into the design and would mean a significant cost savings for the SPCA.
The SPCA provides shelter to animals and opportunities for adoption, as well as filling the role of a pound for animals brought in by the city’s Bylaw Officers. This allows them to hold, and house found dogs until they can be reunited with their owners or adopted.
City discusses concerns over Frozen John mascot
The possibility that Fort St. John’s mascot, Frozen John, was a First Nations man who had died of exposure and an insensitive choice on the part of the city, led staff, in conjunction with the Fort St. John North Peace Museum to delve into the history of Frozen John.
The concept of having Frozen John as a mascot was brought forward in November 2005 by Sue Popesku and city manager John Locher, and first appeared as mascot at the annual Santa Claus parade on November 18, 2005.
Despite concerns that Frozen John was a member of the Doig River First Nations, after band manager Shona Nelson consulted with Elders and learned that Frozen John was not Indigenous nor a member of DRFN.
Thanks to the museum, city staff learned at Frozen John was in fact, a 40-year-old Swedish man named August Hjalmer Melquist, who had died of exposure in March 1918 near Fish Creek and was known as “Honest John”.
As a result of the report, Councillor Trevor Bolin moved that council receive the historical information in the report and continue using Frozen John as the city’s mascot.
Councillor Sarah MacDougall suggested moving forward with the alternative recommendation, which was to consider changing the name of the mascot to Honest John.
“I don’t think we should be having a mascot that talks about how someone died. It sounds like this was a great local historical figure in our community, he was nicknamed Honest John, he was like many of us in this community . . . he forged a new life in this area. I think we should honour him more with the Honest John name as opposed to the Frozen John name which really just says how he died,” MacDougall said.
Councillor Byron Stewart said he didn’t disagree, “celebrating a person’s death is an odd thing to be doing, but this person now has a historical relevance to our community and that story is significant. I think having his name as Frozen John or Frozen Honest John is something we could transition to. I don’t think we need actually do a change.”
Stewart felt that the city could carry on and make sure that people are aware of the history of where the mascot came from. He suggested that staff could undertake a “soft change” and make sure Frozen John’s history is made public, by being part of the High on Ice Festival and any other public events.
“The win in this is knowing now about him, because he’s been around since 1898 and nobody knew,” said Bolin.
Bolin suggested that staff put a segment on the city’s website explaining how the mascot got his name, his history and relevance to the city.