B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Around Town

New scholarships
highlight road safety

A FIRM, personal commitment to improving
road safety could earn a high school student a
$2,000 scholarship for university or college.

B.C.’s Autoplan brokers have created 25
youth scholarships worth $2,000 each for
Grade 12 students.

The deadline for entries is March 14.

Applicants must write a 500-word typed
essay describing their commitment to road
safety.

They must include a cover letter describing
why they’re attending a post-secondary institu-
tion.

Applicants must also provide high school
transcripts or a letter outlining their predicted
grades, and reference letters.

Application forms are available from Au-
toplan brokers” offices or from the Insurance
Corporation of B.C.’s website at www.
icbc.com or by calling 604-982-2468,

Winners will be notified in May.

Better news the

second time around?

YOU CAN WATCH - or listen to — some of
biggest news stories filed by CBC radio and
TY reporters over the past 50 years.

The CBC has opened up an on-tine archive
that’s free to the public.

The site doesn’t have every story filed over
the past five decades, but it does contain an
impresstve number of highlights.

It has the capacity to bring recent Canadian
history alive by documenting the sights and
sounds of individuals and major events.

The public can search old audio and video
clips on two siles: cbc.ca/archives and radio-
canada.ca/archives, which is the French lan-
guage service of the national broadcaster.

More than 1,000 news and current affairs
radio and TV clips are presently available,

‘plus 1,000 pages of information.

itage Canada’s Canadian Culture Online fund-
ing program, which has given the project a
$4.6 million grant, the amount of information n
the site will double this year.

Teachers are encouraged to make use of
some of the resources available at the site that
encourage students to discover the people and
events that have left their mark on Canadian
society.

The site offers a number of different class

flict, politics, disasters, and the economy.

The materials are suitable for a variety of
grade levels and intended to compliment cur-
rent Canadian school curricula.

The CBC and the National Film Board of
Canada ‘teamed up to offer a timeline of im-
portant historical events and milestones, as
well as links to relevant web sites.

THE HIKE for Hunger is a way for Brow-
nies and other Guides and Scauts to
help the food bank. — FILE PHOTO

Be prepared
LOCAL Guides and Scouts kicked off a very
special week Feb. 16 by singing the national
anthem at a Terrace restaurant.
Scout-Guide week 2003 began Sunday ‘with
a flag raising ceremony at McDonald” s in Ter-
race,

TERRACE STANDARD

638-7283

“Culture club

A Terrace tradition, the annual multicultural potluck dinner, turns 18 this year.
But organizers suggest its roots date back to the very origins of the town itself

By JENNIFER LANG
IT WAS a hit right from
the start.

When a group of Ter-
race residents goi together
in 1985 and decided to or-
ganize a cross cultural
potluck dinner at the
Thornhill Community Hall,
no one knew quite what to
expect,

Would anyone come?

The Terrace and Dis-
trict Multicultural Asso-
ciation needn’t have wor-
ried.

“In that first year, the
hall was full,” Rani Par-
mar says, smiling at the
memory. There must have
been between 200 and 300
people. “We sold tickets
just like that!”

A Terrace tradition was
born. And while the venue
has changed, more than
once, the spirit behind the
enduring event has not.

One year Terracites
from 69 different countries
of origin turned out to the
dinner, notes president
Jane Dickson. “We were
really surprised.”

Saturday’s potluck din-
ner is the only event the

multicultural association
has planned to coincide

RANI PARMAR, left, and Ewa Luby invite you to join them at the multicultural
potiuck dinner, Saturday at the arena banquet room. JENNIFER LANG PHOTO

European backgrounds.

Dickson notes people
from other northern coun-
tries like Sweden and Nor-
way have long been start-
ing new lives in Terrace.

“Each successive wave
of new arrivals — the Por-
tupuese in the ‘50s, Indo
Canadians in the 1960s
and ‘70s, Asians, South
Americans and Africans —
has broadened Terrace’s
multicultural base, enrich-
ing the community with
new traditions, making it a
more vibrant, diverse
place.

The Feb. 22 event takes
place at the Terrace Arena
banquet room, starting at 5
p.m. Tickets are $5 al
Misty River Books.

Bring a favourite dish |
that celebrates your herit-,~
age — and a favourite re-
cipe. Otherwise, expect a
follow up telephone call
from Ewa Luby of the
Multicultural Association.

“I’ve been trying very
hard the last few years to
make a recipe book. We
really want to finish it.”

Each banquet table in:
the hall will be named
after various streets in
town — sireets that carry
the names of settlers,

with Terrace 75th Anniver-
fizzled.

Come dressed in a

The site is already Canada’s largest digi-. ;
lized archive, and thariks*to support’ ‘from Her-."*

sary celebrations,

Curiously, - attempts. to -
‘ launch ‘similar’ potlucks “i ‘in

other northwest communi-

In delving into

Terrace’s past, members of
‘the ‘association have dis-
-Govered a solid history: of «

cultural diversity — unlike,

say, Smithers or Vander-

hoof, where the dominant -

ethnic groups were Dutch
and German settlers.
The decidedly metropo-

litan mix began when the

First Nations-were joined ..

here in the Skeend Valley’

“by. non-aboriginal settlers :

1920s-era costume repre-
Senting your heritage, in

-keeping with the 75th an-

niversary theme.

projects linked to themes like war and con-

ties over the years have

of various Canadian and

UFO survey says we’re the

No. 3 town

By JENNIFER LANG
MOVE OVER, Kermode bear. A flying
saucer might make a more fitting symbol
for Terrace.

It turns out Terrace is B.C.’s UFO capi-
tal - and one of the top spots in the coun-
try for sightings — according to a national
survey released last week.

In fact, a record number of sightings here
helped push Terrace into the 2002 Canadian
UFO Survey’s top 10 for the first time.

Remarkably, Terrace is in third place — be-
hind such urban heavyweights as Toronto and
Vancouver.

The survey counted 25 eyewitness reports
from here in 2002.

Calgary and Hamilton also appeared in the
top 10 for the first time. Other urban areas re-
porting a significant number of sightings were
Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa and Whitehorse.

In all, the survey compiled 483 eyewitness
reports from across the country, with one-third,
or 176, originating in Canada’s westernmost
province.

Contrast that with just six UFO sightings re-
ported in Saskatchewan last year.

Joining Terrace in the top four is Houston,
B.C., home of Brian Vike, the northwest’s resi-
dent "UFO researcher,

Vike, who investigates reports of UFOs and
other unexplained phenomena, including crop
circles, says his phone has been ringing off the
hook since the survey was released last week.

Terrace residents have been seeing some
curious objects in the sky over the past year,
according to Vike’s HBCC-UFO website.

Some flying objects were barrel-shaped,
while others looked more like cigars or had

EYEWITNESSES captured footage of
three objects hovering above Francois
Lake one night last year. HBCC-UFO PHOTO

blinking lights.

Unlike stars or airplanes, they moved oddly
over such familiar locales as Braun’s Island,
Jackpine Flats and the southwest skies towards
Prince Rupert. .

Vike is just one of the contributors who ass-
ist in compiling the survey, which consisls of
reports from regionally-based UFO researchers

“Hollywood-style flying sau-
cers are uncommon.”

from across Canada that are compiled into one
database. ,

The survey is headed up by Geoff Dittman
and Chris Rutkowski of Ufology Research of
Manitoba (UFO ROM), a prairie-based group

that has been compiling UFO reports since

1989,

for sightings

The survey defines UFOs as any unknown
flying object scen by a witness.

That means the survey includes reports that
were later found to be known objects, such as
stars, plancts, meteors, or aircraft.

The researchers believe it’s important to
verify that eyewitnesses who report UFOs have
indeed seen something - rather than imagined
it.

The survey suggests most UFOs are actuai-
ly conventional aircraft or an astronomical ob-
ject.

On average, about 13 per cent of sightings
are unexplained, Last year, 87 cases were un-
known out of 483,

“As with previous studies, the 2002 Cana-
dian UFO Survey does not offer any positive
proof that UFOs are either alien spacecraft or
a specific natural phenomenon,” the report
says.

Most sightings, about four out of five, occur
at night, but reports of “daylight discs” ac-
counted for 15.8 per cent of sightings last year.

Sightings in 2002 peaked during the months
of July and August, but also in February, ac-
cording to the report, a pattern that held true in
the northwest. "

The typical UFO sighting is witnessed by
two people, suggesting the witnesses are actu-
ally seeing something real, the survey says.

The report assigns a “strangeness” rating
between one and nine to each sighting, with
nine being the strangest.

The 2002 survey’s average strangeness ra-
ting is 3.6 — which is not very strange at all,
the report says.

“Hollywood-style flying saucers are, in
reality, relatively uncommon in UFO reports.”

TV crew uncovers UFO obsession

That was followed by a free swim at the
Terrace aquatic centre later on that afternoon.

On Wednesday, Feb. 19, they'll take. part in
a special church service and informal camp
fire at Knox United Church,

On, Thursday, Feb, 20, don’t be surprised if
you see children and youths wearing their uni-
forms around town on Pride in Uniform day.

Scout-Guide week wraps on with World
‘Thinking Day on Saturday, Feb, 22, the same
day the Hike For Hunger takes place.

The event coincides with Terrace’s Food for
Friends campaign. Guides and Scouts carry
their collected donations from City Hall to the °
Food Bank on Lazelle.

By JENNIFER LANG
NORTHWEST B.C.'S resident
UFO researcher Brian Vike will
be featured in an upcoming TV
show on Canada’s Life Network,

Vike, field researcher and pre-
sident of HBCC-UFO, said a four-
man television crew from the
channel interviewed him at his
home base of Houston, B.C,, last
week,

The show, called Magnificent
Obsession, will also feature crop.
circles. The crew planned td head
to Florida and Engiand next.

Vike was joined by
Chris Rutkowski, a
Maniloba-based UFO re-
searcher who compiles
the annual Canadian
UFO survey,

The crew taped 17
hours of footage for an
upcoming show,
Last year British Co-
lumbia.once again had
the highest number of
‘reported sightings in the country.

“But the biggest surprise is that
two jiorthwest, B.C, towns, Ter-

race and Houston, accoun-

ted for more sightings than

almost anywhere else in

Canada, according to the

latest survey,

Vike says he received

more than 100 different -

eyewitness reports from

¥ people in communities all
along Highway 16 last
year.

Thal included a. large
number here in the Terrace area ~.
the undisputed hot spot of the te-
gion for UFO sightings in 2002,

Vike says CBC TY is also
planning to send a team to inter-
view him in Houston in the near
future,

Contact HBCC-UFO Research .
or Vike’s magazine, Canadian
Communicater, by phone or fax at
- 1-250-845-2189. His email address’
is hbccufo@yahoo.com. The web-
site address is
www.geocities.com/hbccufo/home,
html ,

Canadian residents can call a
new toll-free UFO hotline. at i.
866-262-1989,

‘

Brian Vike