| “That’s why we like coming here – giving them that connection with nature and each other.” | | “That’s why we like coming here – giving them that connection with nature and each other.” | <div class="ExternalClass747D9C1822624B75877175D6823AB590"><p>“We come here at least once a week. It’s close to home and accessible for the kids. There’s no playground – they just play with the trees, rocks and sticks. They use their imaginations and we love that.”<br></p>
<p>“That’s why we like coming here – giving them that connection with nature and each other; not being on screens. We’re together having fun in this beautiful park.”</p></div> | | https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-1.jpg, “That’s why we like coming here – giving them that connection with nature and each other.”
https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-1.jpg | |
| “I see more people coming out here that are aware of the beauty and that makes me feel the warmest.” | | “I see more people coming out here that are aware of the beauty and that makes me feel the warmest.” | <div class="ExternalClassB33268B4E25D47E8A5F07F61934BA5C0"><p>“I got involved in the mid-70s before the park was a reality. I was teaching at schools in the watershed. My students got involved with the hatchery. Now I’m with KEEPS [Kanaka Education Environmental Partnership Society]. My kids have grown up in the creek and now my grandkids. Nature is all around us here and that’s been preserved in perpetuity by Kanaka Creek Regional Park. That makes me feel good. I see more people coming out here that are aware of the beauty and that makes me feel the warmest. We are so fortunate to have this in the Lower Mainland and Kanaka Creek Regional Park is only one cog in the whole regional parks system concept.”</p><br><br><br></div> | | https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-2.jpg, “I see more people coming out here that are aware of the beauty and that makes me feel the warmest.”
https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-2.jpg | |
| “I feel like it’s something I was put here to do, is to watch over and take care of it.” | | “I feel like it’s something I was put here to do, is to watch over and take care of it.” | <div class="ExternalClass69B98F5489DA4BAAB0CF0FD406C0C49A"><p>“In almost all cases, people don’t try to be nasty to nature, they just don’t know how to take care of it. So, I thought, let’s get KEEPS [Kanaka Education and Environmental Partnership Society] into the schools and we can teach kids about their local creek and then they’ll teach their parents. Today, there aren’t too many people in Maple Ridge or Pitt Meadows that we haven’t touched in some way.</p><p>Kids are great. One time the kids were starting an impromptu funeral for this dead salmon that they found in the creek. I had to think really fast because emotion is contagious at that age and they were getting upset. So I said, ‘I want you kids to think of an animal that will be made happy when it finds this dead salmon downstream.’ Someone said, ‘A raccoon?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Seagull?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Bears?’ ‘Yeah.’ Then one girl pushed the salmon away and she said, ‘Goodbye salmon. We’ll miss you. Your babies will be beautiful just like you.’ And I’m trying to hold it together. Four of the moms are dabbing their eyes with Kleenex.</p><p>This place, this is my church. That’s the way I feel. It’s part of me. I feel like it’s something I was put here to do, is to watch over and take care of it.”</p></div> | | https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-3.jpg, “I feel like it’s something I was put here to do, is to watch over and take care of it.”
https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-3.jpg | |
| “This park is so close to us and it’s really beautiful.” | | “This park is so close to us and it’s really beautiful.” | <div class="ExternalClass3BB648C0A3574B22B76ED6C6000CE6D1"><p>“This park is so close to us and it’s really beautiful. We love being by the water. We want to keep active and moving and our son likes it too. Hopefully as he gets older he can see the animals and start pointing them out. He loves nature and we want to keep him in nature as much as possible. Someday he’ll run ahead of us!”<br></p></div> | | https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-4.jpg, “This park is so close to us and it’s really beautiful.”
https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-4.jpg | |
| “I do a lot of early morning walks and it’s quite lovely.” | | “I do a lot of early morning walks and it’s quite lovely.” | <div class="ExternalClassD7034EC048B54380A5632D25292C1616"><p>“I do a lot of early morning walks and it’s quite lovely. I’ve seen bald eagles, rabbits. We saw a bear once. Luckily, I saw it and my dog didn’t and we turned around. I’ve never felt afraid. It helps that I have a big escort here, but I’ve even come walking on my own when I haven’t had a dog. It’s as close to natural, wilderness walking as you’re going to get in a place so close to developed areas.”</p></div> | | https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-5.jpg, “I do a lot of early morning walks and it’s quite lovely.”
https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/PublishingImages/humans-of-regional-parks-kanaka-creek-5.jpg | |