Feel Good Friday: Global BC’s highlights of the week

Each week at Global BC we highlight our stories to bring a bright spot to your Friday and into the weekend.

Here are the five stories we wanted to share:

B.C. Nisga’a totem on display at Scotland museum since 1930 is heading home

The board of trustees at Scotland’s National Museum has at last agreed to transfer an 11-metre (36-foot) memorial totem pole, on display at the institution since 1930, back to Nisga’a territory in B.C.

Nisga’a Chief Earl Stephens said he shook with emotion when he saw it for the first time in Edinburgh. It carries the spirit of his great, great grandmother, and carries spiritual significance to the First Nations people of the Nass Valley, he said.

“The pole is part of a living being,” Stephens told The Canadian Press said in an interview from the Nisga’a village of Laxgalts’ap.

The museum has said it will now begin planning the safe removal of the totem from its display location and prepare it for transport to B.C.

0:39 Scottish museum agrees to return Nisga’a memorial totem pole

B.C. Sikh temple steps up with food, tea, shelter as drivers trapped overnight in snowstorm

Tuesday night’s commute in the snow turned into a nightmare for many Metro Vancouver drivers, but in at least one instance, it turned into a master class of service and community spirit.

Among those stuck in the traffic jam were a group of volunteers with the Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar Sikh temple, which happens to be adjacent to the bridge on the Queensborough side. Around 6:30 p.m., after they’d already been stuck for a few hours, they decided to make their way to the temple on foot to warm up and use the washroom.

As Amandeep Singh Garcha told Global News, the volunteers then loaded up a large bucket with hot tea, packed up snacks and headed back out into the snow where they began providing relief to stranded motorists. Volunteers also offered to stay with people’s cars so they could head over to the temple and use the washroom or warm up.

2:08 Kindness of strangers help stranded drivers stuck in snow

More than 2,400 ‘mystery’ scrap tires removed from remote island off B.C. coast

More than 2,400 scrap tires were removed from a remote islet off the Sunshine Coast last month, a group of environmental organizations has reported.

A 33-person team from the Ocean Legacy Foundation and Let’s Talk Trash removed the offending tires between Oct. 29 and 30 from the small island off the east coast of Nelson Island. No one knows the “mystery” of how they got there, according to plastic pollution specialist Abby McLennan.

“We first caught wind of ‘Tire Island’ while out scouting for shoreline cleaning projects in early June of this year,” the Let’s Talk Trash team co-founder told Global News.

“We were just cruising along the coastline and sort of saw from afar this little island … it was just covered in black sort of stuff. As we got closer, the black stuff turned into mountains of tires.”

After an exhaustive removal effort by hand, the tires were loaded up onto a barge and taken to Powell River, where they were loaded again into eight 27-metre (30-yard) bins and a trailer. From there, the tires were taken to Liberty Tire’s recycling facility in Delta, B.C.

0:37 Thousands of ‘mystery’ scrap tires cleared off remote B.C. islet

CKNW Kids’ Fund Pledge Day raises record-breaking $2.7 million

Generous donors kept the phone lines buzzing this week, helping raise more than $2.7 million for the CKNW Kids’ Fund during its annual pledge day radiothon. The hefty sum is more than $1.2 more than donors gave last year and eclipses the previous record of $2.6 million donors set in 2019.

“We are so grateful for the generosity of CKNW listeners,” said CKNW program director Kathryn Stewart. “The money raised on Pledge Day helps the Kids’ Fund support so many B.C. kids throughout the year, and this record-breaking total is a real game-changer at a time when there is so much need in our province.”

The fund is one of the largest sources providing direct funding help to kids and families in B.C. Areas of focus include therapies, educational supports, summer camps, mobility aids, and medical equipment for children with physical, mental and social challenges.

2:16 45th annual CKNW Kids’ Fund Pledge Day raises record amount for charity

‘Words can’t describe it’: B.C. man honoured for helping save electrocuted coworker’s life

Alaster Osborne and Marc Dandurand were working late at Squamish Finishing Solutions on Dec. 16, 2019, when Dandurand accidentally electrocuted himself. He had been working on an illuminated piece of wooden artwork as a Christmas gift for his parents.

Osborne rushed down to find Dandurand in the midst of cardiac arrest and performed CPR until paramedics arrived, only stopping briefly to call 911. Osborne was awarded the BC Emergency Health Services’ (BCEHS) Vital Link Award for bystanders who perform potentially life-saving CPR either with or without an automated external defibrillator.

2:10 Paramedics award Squamish man for life-saving CPR