INSIDE COMMUNITY EVENTS B2 M TERRACE STANDARD MUNITY The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 4, 1998 - BI SECTION B CRIS LEYKAUF 638-7283 Knitting together generation By CRIS LEYKAUF FINGERS § fumbling with unfamiliar knitting needics, 4 young boy frowns as he lacks over a row of stitches. “I think [ dropped one,”’ he confesses to an elderly woinan overseeing his work and that of three other stu- dents. She peers through her glasses at the neon green stitches. ‘‘No, I think you're alright,"" she reassures him, The boy hesitantly puts the needte through another loop of yarn as she watches. On a Friday aftemoon the grade six class at Copper Mountain Elementary is quictly busy with a low hum of chatter — for the most part — as students learn to knit. “Ws never been so quiet ou a Friday afternoon,” says teacher Pat Kolterman. And that’s particularly re- markable of a class with 16 boys and six girls. One student is passing gingerbread cookies around. Another offers cups of tea to six women from the Happy Gang Centre — who’ve volunteered to spend six weeks teaching students how to knit. Kolicrman read about a Similar program and thought it would be a good way to cereale links between genera- tions. MAY McFARLAND shows Michael Bell how to position his fingers to knit proper- ly. McFarland and a number of other seniors are spending Friday afternoons teaching a grade 6 class at Copper Mountain Elementary how to knit, They have the music, but need a director EVER WANTED to con- duct a band? The 747 Air Cadets have about 20 musically talented teens, $3,000 worth of instruments, but no one to provide the glue to make them a band. Charles Brunette, presi- dent of the cadet’s sponsoring society — that’s the group in charge of money and volunteers — says the cadets have plenty of teens, but not enough volunteers. The air cadets accept any youngster aged 12- 18. The program is free and there’s even a ride provided out to the air- port for weekly meetings. Once in cadets the teens learn about meteorology, air survival, citizenship, leadership, effective speaking, compass work and more, Cadets also go on organized trips, such as skiing, or to summer camps. “It's a great op- portunity,’’ says Brunette, The program is sponsored by the Depart- ment of Nalional Defense, and uniforms are supplied. Brunetle says he’s seen many youths underga positive transformation in cadets, gaining self- confidence and _ self- esicem. Visibility of the air cadets has increased in- terest in becoming a member — ihere’s now 53 youths enrolled, one of the largest groups in the province, But volunteers have had a difficult time keeping up with the growing membership... Brunette says part of the problem is that people believe they have to have a military background to be a volunteer instructor. But Brunette says any- one can volunieer to leach courses on things like leadership or citizenship. Course and lesson plans are already made up, he says. What the group really needs though is a band in- structor. ‘““We need some- body to bring it all to- gether,”’ he says. Charles Brunette The band would be a marching one, with em- phasis on percussion and drums. However, a mar- ching instructor is already available, so all the band instructor needs to do is to be able to read music and direct. If a director were found the band could compete in regional get-logethers. Cadets already compete in drill team and first aid competitions. If you’re interested in directing the band, or volunteering as an In- structor, call Brunctte at 635-3763 or come by the cadet hall at the airport at 6 p.m. on Wednesday nights. , ‘A lot of kids don’t have gtandparents in town,’’ she says, The women from the Happy Gang Centre act as almost surrogate — grand- parents during the project. For other students, the process of learning how to knil has caused them to seck out their own grandparcats. Learning to knit is an in- cidental part of the program. That's good news for a boy silling with a large mess of yellow yarn draped over his head —- a cheeky grin poking through. His friends mostly ignore his attempts to entice them into silliness, and the boy ends up helping to rewrap the yarn. Gladys Keeping, one of ibe Happy Gang volunteers, watches over the efforts of four boys. An experienced grandmother, she says it isn’t that hard teaching the Students how to knit. She’s starting them off with the garter stitch, and plans to work them up into the stocking stitch. “One boy iries to pull it too tight but they'll get the hang of it,” she says. David Rooker, a boy in another group, is being taught by Connie Porter. “Tt’s casy,” he says of leaming to knit. ‘‘] didn’t think it would be this easy.” Porter says the students “are all doing wonderfully. ‘'They drop a few stitches, make a few holes, but it’s going wonderfully.’ Their teacher confesses she was a bit worried trying to convince her students, the boys in particular, to try knitling. pes ARTIST VIRGINIA MORGAN was at the Teen Learning Centre last week, teach- ing students like Esmond how to make plaster masks. She enjoys watching them create unique designs, and then seeing how the masks transform some students. The power of plaster “There wasn’t a word of knitted square. They'll be ‘OOh, says Kolterman. combined into a blanket Which the class is thinking Alt the end of the project of donating to charity, yuck, girl stuff,’ each student should have a PATIENCE IS THE KEY — Connie Porter watches as David Rooker makes neat loops with his knitting needles. Rooker says knitting is easier than it looks, BEHIND A MASK of black, decorated with red and yellow flames, Esmond lifts his head proudly. His shoulders thrust back, he looks confi- dently out from holes he’s cut out for eyes, But when the mask comes off, Esmond (he doesn’t give his last name) is far more shy. He looks down, then sideways as he responds to questions about the mask he made during an informal art class at the Teen Learning Centre. Artist Virginia Morgan was at the school last weck, showing students how to create plaster masks, It's a complicated process, Students first coal their faces with vaseline, then sil back in a chair with eyes closed, Morgan dips strips of cloth covered in powdered plaster into 2 bowl of warm water, She then smooths the cloth strips over the student's face, one at a time, It’s a Messy process, and the tecns have to sit patiently, blind as they wait for the mask to dry. “You can hear everything bul you're blind and don’t know whal’s going on,’ explains Esmond. He found the experience slightly ceric. Esmond wasn't sure at first what to paint on his mask, bul liked the idea of being able to design whatever he wanted. He chose the flames for a Halloween theme. “T didn’t know it was poing to turn out this good,”” he says. Encouraged by his first mask Esmond de- cided to do a second one. That will feature a killer whale on the forehead — Esmond's tribe, a grouse and a wolf on the chceks and a frog on the hose, Another student Barbara Fowler, chose a different artistic direction, As she sits in a chair with strips of wet cloth shaped ‘over her smooth checks, Fowler says she wants a mask with red roses painted all over. She plans to cnlist the help of her cousin to draw the flowers. Other students paint cyes, graphic designs and striking swirls of colour on their masks. Morgan enjoys sceing the reaclions of the students as they put their masks on. Some are transformed as they dou their masks, adopting the character the mask portrays. "Iv’s no longer them thal’s belng cx- posed,’’ explains Morgan. Around Town A gift for your sweetie IF YOU'RE wondering what to get your sweethcarl for Valentine’s Day, how about a 1997 Monte Carlo LS Coupe. The Kermode Friendship Centre is selling raffle tick- els for the car at $10 each. You can buy the tickets at the centre or at the Skeena Mall on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Nutty family revisited LEAVE IT to Beaver this is not. Actors in Terrace Little Theatre’s upcoming play Better Living describe its characters as ‘the Brady Bunch on acid.” That plus sex, violence, loud music and guns all ensure this “is nol a polite play,”’ says director Marianne Brorup Weston, The play opens tomorrow night after hundreds of hours of volunteer effort. Home town audiences will be treated to a three-week run of Better Living before the play makes its debut at the Skeena Zone Drama Festi- val, If you think the crazy family featured in the play sounds familiar, you’d be right, Two years ago the theatre group featured another play by George Walker — Escape from Hoppiness. The play made it to the provincial theatre festival where it won a number of awards, Better Living is set in a time a few years before the other play. Some of the actors have returned to play the same characters, such as Karla Hennig, who plays the off-kilter Nora. But Brorup Weston is quick to point out that it’s a whole new play. The set for the play is a dingy kitchen in a run-down house on ‘Toronto’s east side, Brorup-Weston managed to find some of the same props from the last play, such as the slove, sink, radio and rocking chair, And to com- plete the set she sacrificed her own antique hutch, strip- ping it down and painting it, The set compliments the wackiness of the characters. Mother Nora is expanding the house by digging a room under the backyard, Her three daughters — Gail, Elizabeth and Maureen — all have their own problems. Marianne is about to have a baby; Gail wants to drop out of school to become a hairdresser and Elizabeth is a lawyer who defends the low life of the city. Then there’s Nora’s brother, a priest doubting his career choice, Nora’s ex-husband Tom suddenly reap- pears after years of absence, bul no one’s sure if il’s really him. “The play embraces and gives the finger to dysfunc- lional families,’’ says Brorup Weston, Piano workshop planned THE NW ACADEMY of Performing Arts is hosting a workshop with pianist team Jim Asagnoson and Les- lie Kinton on Saturday, Feb, 7 from 1-3 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend, but performance time is limited. Register by calling Bonnic Juniper at 635- 9649,