By Lisa Dreves, Glen Valley Watersheds Society 

The Glen Valley Watersheds Society (GVWS) will be out with birders from all over the lower mainland on Saturday, June 6th, 2015 @ 6 am for the 12th Annual Glen Valley Spring Bird Count - in search for all the amazing birds that call Glen Valley home in the spring. 

If you are interested in giving birding a try or already have a “good ear” – as they say – contact the GVWS at [email protected], newbys and experienced birders are all welcome!

The dawn chorus starts up a bit before 4am this time of year but the GVWS has a much more reasonable start time of 6am. 

The bird count gets underway at Poplar Bar (end of Lefevre Road at River Rd) where everyone is arranged into groups and car pools are sorted out. Everyone is assigned a different area and they head off. Everyone meets back at Poplar Bar at 11:30am for a potluck lunch and to compare notes.

The group is looking for volunteers to join the count and properties to count on. If you are interested in joining the count please contact their coordinator at [email protected] or call 604-546-0336. OR you can count in your own backyard or invite the birders on to your property to count for you. 

The bird count area boundary is the Fraser River on the north (but they do include Crescent Island), Armstrong Road and Telegraph Trail on the west, Starr Road (64 Ave in Langley) on the south and Bradner and Ross Road on the east.

Over the past 11 years 126 different species of birds have been counted but on average they see about 73 different species each year. Please feel free to share, we always welcome new birders, recorders, drivers and more of the amazing experts that join us every year. The long range forecast is for mostly sunny with a high of 21oC so it should be an amazing day!

If you haven’t already, please let me know you are coming so we have an idea of the number when we arrange carpools and for the potluck after (we usually have about 16 people out if you are making something for the potluck).

Take care and enjoy the sunshine!

Lisa Dreves
Langley Stewardship Coordinator
Langley Environmental Partners Society
p: 604-546-0336 f: 604.534.6593 
[email protected]
www.gvws.ca

By the Bradner Community Club

So…have you noticed the new yellow lines on the tennis court…? 

The Bradner Community Hall is excited to announce the introduction of Pickle ball, the white tennis court lines still remain painted also! Special thanks goes to Bradner Community Club Members Stacey Ferguson, Murray Brown, Doug Howarth and Geoff Birnie for their work on transforming the Bradner tennis courts.  

What is pickleball you ask..? Well, Pickleball is a sport in which two, three, or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated ball, similar to a wiffle ball, over a net. The sport shares features of other racquet sports, the dimensions and layout of a badminton court, and a net and rules similar to tennis, with a few modifications. Pickleball was invented in the mid 1960s as a children's backyard pastime but quickly became popular among adults as a fun game for players of all levels.

Check out this link for more information on the game of Pickleball: 
http://pickleball.com/pages/rules-how-to-play-the-game

Stay tuned for game times/tournaments. See you on the court! 

By the Bradner PAC

THE 95TH BRADNER MAY DAY FESTIVITIES WERE A HUGE SUCCESS! 

The Bradner Parent Advisory Council (PAC) would like to extend their gratitude for the amazing show of support from the parents, family members, and community of Bradner for yet another amazing and successful May Day Celebration! There's no place like Bradner! 

Here are some of the great members and businesses of our school and community we would like to personally thank and acknowledge for the generous auction/raffle donations:

By The Mount Lehman Garden Club 

Most of us are familiar with Gladioli for summer colour, but there are many other summer bulbs that will give a real splash of colour in your garden. Some are hardy, but many have to be lifted in the fall and stored in a cool dry place until the last frost has passed. Many of them are cheap enough to replace every spring if you don't want to store them.

By Marlene Xenis 

Oh Happy Day! We are so pleased to tell everyone, we have reached our goal! Everyone who has pledged so far will be receiving the reward they pledged for.

For those of you who have received our previous emails you will know what I am talking about for those of you who did not I will briefly explain.  On May 1st, 2015 we launched our "Pinocchio Project" on Kickstarter and so far it has been a very successful campaign. For more information on the Kickstarter program read article here.

We still have until June 30th, 2015 and hopeful we will keep on going as we have some great ideas for several other designs we are working on. We would like to raise enough to purchase a 3D Scanner, so we can offer our collectors and supporters more diversification in the size of dolls and character pieces we produce.

To encourage our collectors to support our project we came up with an incentive that may be of interest to some of you.  

For anyone who makes a pledge on our 'Pinocchio Project' we will offer a 40% discount on any other designs not featured on the project.  That means our character pieces, 'Einstein' , 'Red Skelton', 'Mark Twain', etc. would be $ 2,160.00  or how about one of our new designs 'Jack & the Beanstock', 'Beauty & the Beast', 'Hansel & Gretel' or 'Sleeping Beauty' plus a new 'Pippi Longstocking goes to Sea' at a 40% savings!!

These are just a few we are working on and would like to have them finished and available for this Christmas season.

To help us get there. Take a look at our website at www.xenis.com and click on the link to our 'Pinocchio Project' and make a pledge... anywhere from $2.00 and up!

Thank you for your support,

Marlene 
Xenis Gallery
28221 Starr Road
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada, V4X 2C5
Phone:  (604) 856-9613
www.xenis.com
[email protected]

By Marlene Xenis

As we have been asked by several of our friends and collectors how Kickstarter works I thought I should send information explaining just what Kickstarter is and how it works:

• Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that gives businesses, small startups and individuals the opportunity to raise money for new projects and designs
• You can only make “One” Pledge per Project.  So if you are interested in more than one reward you will need to contact us directly so we can make arrangement to ensure you receive all the rewards you are interested in  
• Money pledged for rewards will be debited from your credit card on the completion date of the project (June 30, 2015).  The “Reward” pledged for will be shipped out on the date indicated in the project 
• We are hoping to go well over the goal we set for ourselves in order to make our project really successful and  hopefully purchase a 3D Scanner so we can offer our collectors more diversified sizes of our wood characters.
• We have many Rewards at very reasonable prices, not all of them are dolls… We have colouring posters, a custom jigsaw puzzle, aprons & tote bags screen printed with our Pinocchio and Geppetto. These make wonderful gifts and will be ready to ship in August or September 2015 in time for the Christmas season

You can access our “Pinocchio Project” through the link on our website at www.xenis.com or visit our Kickstarter campaign here.

If you can, please make a pledge for one of our Rewards, we need all the support we can get.

By D. DeForte

DESIGN STUDIO USES THE KICKSTARTER PLATFORM TO BREATHE LIFE INTO DREAM OF PRODUCING MUSEUM-QUALITY WOODEN CHARACTERS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES

Vancouver, BC – (May 1, 2015)  The Xenis Gallery, an artist design studio that creates hand-carved wooden characters so exquisite that each piece is considered a stunning work of art, announced the launch of their Kickstarter campaign, The Pinocchio Project, with the idea of bringing their two new 10-1/2” wooden Pinocchio characters to life at affordable prices.

The studio was founded in 1995 by Bradner resident Marlene Xenis, who was later joined by her two daughters, Tania and Jesse, and a team of highly skilled artisans.  Hand-carved out of a variety of woods including Canadian Maple, the Xenis team has turned their love for the arts into unique, eye catching, collectible characters. But times have changed, and this talented design team has taken notice. “We are a small studio struggling to survive in a world geared to mass production,” notes Marlene. “It is our dream to create a new Pinocchio that maintains our high quality standards, yet affordable so that more can share in the joy of owning a finely crafted wood character.” 

Xenis believes that people are looking for designer products with an artisan-quality, rather than the plastic replicas found at mass retailers.  The studio sources components for their wooden characters from around the world and bring them back to their studios outside of Vancouver to be assembled and given their final, artistic touches, making each assembled piece a true work of art, meant to be enjoyed for years to come. Xenis has cut costs by dealing directly with a wood manufacturer in Italy, whose high-quality standards match theirs, cutting out the middleman, but not compromising design integrity.

Xenis is asking for support to raise funds for The Pinocchio Project to assist them in bringing these loveable characters to life from a single block of wood. Based on the level of funding, backers are guaranteed something special from Xenis.  The Pinocchio Project launched on Kickstarter May 1, 2015 and will end June 30, 2015.  

Visit our page to learn more and to offer your support. 

Marlene Xenis
28221 Starr Road
Abbotsford, B.C.
[email protected] 
xenis.com
Kickstarter