British Columbia tot pop stars Bobs & Lolo are coming to New Westminster for a free concert to kick off Royal City Centre’s Christmas activities this year.

A drug-addicted single mother of a 10-year-old girl trying and failing to hold her life together. A father of two, the sole breadwinner in the family, laid off from his job and desperate for work. Families like these struggle to scrape together money for groceries, let alone presents. As evidenced by the long lines at Metro Vancouver’s largest food bank here in New Westminster, many local families need help. They need you and me to step forward and offer it.

New Westminster author and nominee for the Governor General’s Literary Award JJ Lee will talk about his new book The Measure of a Man at the New Westminster Public Library on Thursday, December 1 at 7 pm.

With its fenced dog parks, beautiful green spaces, and riverside trails, New Westminster is a pretty good place to be a dog. That is, unless you have the misfortunate to be born with a big head, stocky body and short coat. If you resemble one of the “pit bull” or mastiff breeds targeted under the city’s animal control bylaw, you face a very different kind of lifestyle.

It’s been with a keen interest from the perspectives of both a New West kid and that of a Realtor I’ve watched a positive renewal of many a New Westminster neighbourhood. Everyone operating within the city, visiting, or just driving through, has made note of much change. A while ago I had the opportunity to sit down with Mayor Wayne Wright and chat about this growth. Today I’ll share a few thoughts from my perspectives and conclusions from that meeting.
As a New West kid I grew to know downtown as …

In an homage to ‘silly season’ shenanigans, we’re co-sponsoring an upcoming New Westminster all-candidates’ event that will feature a comic along with the candidates. We’ve teamed up again with NEXT New West and New Westminster Environmental Partners to co-host Fun & Politics, an non-traditional, informal all-candidates’ mixer aimed at encouraging younger voters to become more engaged in city politics.

Halloween is a magical time of year, when visibly normal neighbours often show their most macabre tendencies with their Halloween decorations. Sometimes, it’s pretty subtle – a single Jack O’ Lantern with a psychotic grin, for instance. But, other times, they come up with something original when it comes to Halloween decorations. So, with that in mind, and being something of a Halloween fan, I decided to venture forth to find out what some of your neighbours here in New West are up to, decoration-wise. Some things I found were kind of cute. Some were garish. Others, I have to say, really freaked me out.

Halloween is just around the corner, so here’s a handy dandy list of events for everyone (and we do mean everyone) in the family. The pets in your life will be snout over tail for the Petrifying Pooch Parade, the horror fan will scream with joy for the Haunted Hall and you can even get a chance to PUMP yourself up with a Halloween workout!

If you and your pet are into dressing up, this event is for you!

I have a confession. I have a Thrifty Foods problem. I grew up in Mill Bay BC (home of one of the first Thrifty Foods) so it holds a special place in my heart. I dream about the cheese scones and I wax philosophically about the marinated meats. It’s grocery nirvana.

A group of dedicated women from each of the twenty-three North American 30-Minute-Hit locations is participating in the KICK THE *&%! OUT OF CANCER event. They have pledged to “hit” (complete the kickboxing workout) a certain number of times during the month of October in exchange for donations to the British Columbian Cancer Foundation.

Well, it’s the Thanksgiving long weekend. And I thought that it might be a good idea to look around me, and take stock of all of the things that I have to be thankful for, particularly here in my adopted home of New Westminster.

Local author JJ Lee’s new book, “Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit” is so much more than its title suggests.

I was lucky to win a couple of tickets to this years incarnation of Freelance Camp, an ‘unconference’ hosted by The Network Hub. It’s certainly a nice change to see an event promoting freelancing, networking, and technology come to little New Westminster.

In just a few weeks the Royal City Gogos, a group of almost 50 New Westminster grandmothers and “grandothers” formed to help the Stephen Lewis Foundation are hosting a Scrabble event entitled “Good Words for Africa.”

Olympic curler Kevin Martin and his foursome will be in New Westminster over Thanksgiving weekend to take part in the 12th annual Westcoast Curling Classic, October 6-10 at the Royal City Curling Club.

Movies capture our imaginations, and take us to another world. But, sometimes that world can look strangely familiar, especially living here in New Westminster: A myriad of films and TV series have been filmed here in New West.

On Sunday, September 25, the Carter Foreshore Park and the South Dyke Road from Gifford Street to Boundary Road in Queensborough were targeted for cleanup by 28 people who participated in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Even though downpours occurred just before and after, the event was rain free. Collecting approximately 95 kg of litter was a bittersweet moment for participants.

If I had an HGTV producer’s blank cheque to go redecorate my living room, my first stop would be Red Brick. On October 5 from 5:30-7:30pm, the store will host the fall kickoff event for NEXT New West, a monthly casual social group for young professionals.

On October 21 and 22, New Westminster will be the place to be for documentary film, with the launch of the first annual New West Doc Fest at Douglas College. A fundraiser to help with the cost of running this festival is coming up on September 28th at Heritage Grill.

When I was young and living in Alberta in the 1980’s, I belonged to the Dairy 4-H Club. One of our big projects every year was Highway Clean-up. We picked up garbage on the side of the Highway for probably about 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon. It was amazing to see the amount of garbage that littered the side of the road. Fast forward to 2011. Have we as humans learned our lesson about littering? It seems that we as a collective whole have not. That is why The Vancouver Aquarium partnered with TD Canada Trust and started the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up, happening this weekend in New Westminster and beyond.

Saturday, September 24th The Royal City Humane Society is celebrating with their 6th annual Variety Show featuring great live entertainment and of course their fabulous and famous Silent Auction in Sapperton at the Pensioner’s Hall at 318 Keary Street.
Doors open at 6:30 PM and entertainment starts at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $20 each and available from Greens & Beans located at 143 East Columbia, Alpine Animal Hospital at 348 Sixth Street and VANPET at the Royal Square Shopping Mall at 800 McBride Boulevard. Tickets are also available by calling …

The Knit 1 Take 2 knitting group that meets Sundays at Waves Coffee is holding their Second Annual Knit in the Park this Sunday, September 18th, from noon to 4. They’ll be meeting at the bandshell rain or shine and activities include the very fun Yarn Steal and a Potluck. From their email:
If you want to participate in the yarn steal please bring 100 grams of yarn, wrapped.  Please select a yarn you’d enjoy knitting. The event is also picnic pot luck. Since this is a picnic please choose food that’s easy …

Sonse Home Design is full of beautiful finds. I heard about Sonse Home Design from Sheila Keenan whom I follow on Twitter (she writes a great blog about shopping locally in New West) a week or so ago. Promptly forgot about it, but caught a glimpse of Sonse today as I exited London Drugs and decided I’d better check it out before I forgot again!

If you are an avid reader like me, then you might be on the look out for a Book Club to join. I love the two book clubs that I belong to. They challenge me to read books I would have never have read before, ever. If you are interested there are a few book clubs around town.