Feel Good Friday: Global BC’s good news stories of the week

Each week at Global BC, we’re going to highlight our good-news stories to bring a bright spot to your Friday and into the weekend.

Here are five good-news stories we want to share:

The fight to save bighorn sheep

Residents living in Radium Hot Springs are pushing for change to help save a herd of bighorn sheep.

They’re a magnificent sight for both locals and tourists, but this winter, there’s been a spike in the number of sheep that have died near the village.

Previously, an average of 10 have been killed every year in highway collisions, but since November, at least 13 road deaths have occurred, according to one wildlife scientist.

“Please slow down. You are in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Have a look. Nothing needs you to be that fast,” Reinhardt said.

Residents are calling on drivers to be more cautious instead of waiting for new infrastructure to be put in place, and have started an awareness campaign on Facebook where the number of sheep deaths are recorded.

They have also set a fundraising target of $400,000 towards building a wildlife overpass.

View image in full screen

Saving Indigenous language

A B.C.-based research team is developing a blueprint for revitalizing Indigenous languages that could help recover one of the most complex First Nations languages in the world.

Sara Child and Caroline Running Wolf are working to preserve Kwak’wala, an endangered language spoken on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland coast.

Their team is working with elders to develop a framework for a new teaching method for Kwak’wala, grounded in the unique cultural lens of Kwakwaka’wakw communities. The language, deeply tied to land and health, means it cannot be taught using conventional Western pedagogy alone.

According to UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, about 75 per cent of Indigenous languages in Canada are at risk.

Turning a layoff into a new business venture

In one This is BC story this week, Jay Durant met a man who’d lost his job as an artist because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more than a decade, Dave Benning has been creating pop culture portraits, even getting the occasional commission.

His daughter introduced him to a new idea that has seen his art sales really take off. She asked her dad to paint her a pair of shoes.

After buying some tiny brushes, he’s now turning out some incredible work.

He’s had a couple of celebrity purchases so far – a member of the band Anthrax and Battlestar Galactica actor Aaron Douglas – so word is getting around.

View image in full screen

It’s never too late to follow your passion

In another segment from This is BC, we met B.C. resident Betty Brussel.

The now-97-year-old didn’t start swimming competitively until she was 68, and has won so many medals since then that she’s lost count.

Brussel grew up with her 11 siblings just north of Amsterdam. They learned to swim in a canal near their home and would take the plunge any chance they could.

Now, she drives herself twice a week to the pool at the Guildford Recreation Centre in Surrey to train.

There’s still a lot of work to do.

“Her goal in life is to make it to 100 and break all the records in the 100 to 104 age group,” said her former coach, Carole Gair, in an interview.

Canada’s first Chinese Canadian Museum to open in 2023

The B.C. government announced that Canada’s first Chinese Canadian Museum will be established in this province.

The historic Wing Sang Building, the oldest building in Vancouver’s Chinatown, will be its permanent home.

“This is a historic moment for Chinese Canadians across the province,” Grace Wong, chair of the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of B.C., said in a release.

“This … will widely share the history, contributions and heritage of Chinese Canadians and their lived experiences.”