After nearly a year in partial isolation, it is safe to say that most of the community (campus and beyond) is itching for a new hobby, particularly one that takes us beyond the confines of our homes. 

In this regard, the Mount Allison community benefits greatly from its rural surroundings, there are opportunities to engage with nature in every direction. Each year, the Town of Sackville’s Recreation department “hosts recreation programs for residents of all ages and abilities.” They recommend getting out and active with members of your quarantine bubble by sledding at the Swan Pond, playing disk golf at Beech Hill park, or cross-country skiing on the groomed trails on Walker Road, to name a few. If you give them a call, they will even lend you a pair of snowshoes for the afternoon. 

One activity described by the town though, is a little less conventional: geocaching.

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) were invented for the United States military in the 1960s, eventually becoming available to the American public in 1996. Shortly thereafter, Dave Ulmer planted the first ‘cache’ on May 3rd, 2000 in Beavercreek, Oregon. It’s coordinates were posted to an online forum, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Geocaching is essentially an evolved version of letterboxing, a game played in Britain during the 1850s. Letterboxing was a pass-time that combined orienteering and puzzle solving. Players would hide weather-secure wooden boxes containing a hand carved rubber stamp and a small logbook, then publish clues to the box’s location in the local paper. Seekers, after solving the puzzle, would add their personal stamp to the logbook and print the found stamp on their own to keep track of their finds. These puzzles could be quite difficult, and there were often other obstacles, like having a box that could only be found by word of mouth, or that was planted on a moving vehicle or person.  

Nowadays, each cache is carefully crafted to withstand the elements, and then posted to geocaching.com (Groundspeak inc., launched 2000), where the coordinates are logged with the name of the keeper. Cachers can check in for clues, or update other players about its location. As a whole, the activity is intended to promote outdoor activity and sustainability. It also encourages finders to pick up trash, minimize their environmental impact, and includes educational material about local ecology in the clues to their caches. 

There is a local chapter based in Moncton, the New Brunswick Geocaching Welcome Centre, that boasts nearly 400 members on Facebook and allows cachers to “make announcements, post information, post your adventures, and ask questions about everything geocaching!”

With the helpful addition of GPS and digital communication, geocaching has become a global phenomenon. There are over 3 million active geocachers in 200 countries worldwide, including right here in Sackville, NB!

According to the website there are 316 caches in the Sackville area, the first having been planted in July, 2002, by Mike and Cathy Keeling. There are none thus far in 2021, but caches can be hidden by anyone. Grab a container and a smartphone, maybe yours could be the first!

Mount Allison’s campus radio station—known officially as CHMA 106.9fm or colloquially as the voice of the marshes—is one of only 3 members of Canada’s National Campus and Community Radio Association hailing from New Brunswick and thus representing the province at the NCRA’s 39th Annual General Meeting (AGM).

After being postponed in June due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AGM took place October 28, 2020, with breakout sessions in the weeks to follow. While the meeting was held via Zoom and attended by a representative of each station, it also streamed live on the NCRA Facebook page for other non-voting members to interact with. The meeting boasted 40 active participants, with 27 station representatives in attendance, including (in order of announcement) CHRY, CFUZ, CITR, CFFF, CHLY, CJAI, CFMH, CHMA (that’s us!), CJHR, CFRC, CHSR, CJLO, CFRU, CICK, CJLX, CFUV, CILU, CJQC, CJRU, CJSW, CKHA, CKUT, CKUW, CKXU, CHRY, CFUR, & Heatwave Radio.

Despite having to overcome the challenges of conducting a meeting abiding by Robert’s Rules of Order, a widely used reference of business meeting procedure, online—such as motioning to move and voting a majority of quorum in the ‘chat’ feature—the meeting ran smoothly, although not without some ironic silences from a congregation of seasoned radio hosts. 

The flow of the agenda was primarily due to the professionalism of Danae Peart, acting chairperson and former station manager of VIBE radio in Toronto, ON. In her opening address, Peart set the tone of courteous discourse with the comment, “we are a robust unit and while we will have conversations today, they will be respectful.” She also expressed her admiration of “the diversity of those coming up in the ranks” in community radio across Canada.

Udokam Iroegbu continued the gathering with a presentation on cultural and gender hurdles in volunteer-run spaces on behalf of Cicely Blain Consulting, a co-founding member of the Canadian chapter of Black Lives Matter. Iroegbu defined intersectionality through her own experience, stressing the importance and nuance of how socialization compounds systems of oppression. She encouraged participants to engage vulnerably, experience discomfort honestly, and commit to an ongoing dialogue of equity and inclusion. After all, “the conversation is not about the relationship, the conversation is the relationship”. 

Newly elected Board Member Tyra Sanderson read the NCRA Statement of Principles, as approved by NCRC 1987: “the NCRA is committed to providing alternative radio to an audience that is recognized as being diverse […] and whereas mainstream media fails to recognize or in many instances reinforces social and economic inequalities […] therefore, be it resolved that member stations of the NCRA encourage programming policies that prohibit material that is sexist, racist, ageist, homophobic, anti- Semitic, or that maligns differently-abled or economically disadvantaged peoples.” 

Randy Reid (CHRY, President of Board) read the annual report, which included their work with the ministry of heritage to secure funding for equipment necessary for remote broadcasting during social isolation, the consideration of environmental impact of station operation throughout the past year, and the Board’s support of an internal review of BIPOC experience across its membership. 

Board Member Glen Swarnadhipathi delivered the equity report, asking members to consider how their station interacts with their community and described the committee’s work to create a larger platform for BIPOC artists and support the expansion of !earshot for more underrepresented creators. In his words, “challenges have existed in this sector as long as this sector has existed.”

After the financial report from Reid and Swarnadhipathi stressed both the irregularity and importance of independent and federal grant funding to not-for-profit organizations, several motions were passed by the members. A new Member Code of Conduct was approved, CFRC 101.9fm of Kingston ON, won the bid to host the National Campus and Community Radio Conference in 2022, and this year’s board was confirmed, with a few seats to be filled via by-election in the coming weeks. 

The meeting concluded by a warm congratulations to Randy Reid (CHRY) as President, Cassidy Villabrun (CFUV) as Indigenous Director, Mark Kilfoil (CHSR), Emily Chiarvesio (CJAM), Meredith Lister (Heatwave Radio), Wayne Smith (CJQC), Tyra Sanderson (CJSW), and Glen Swarnadhipathi (CFUV), and an extended thank you retiring member Catherine Fisher for her work in the organization.  

Local Activist and Green Party Representative Weigh in on Hope for Sackville’s Future

On September 27, Sackville community members and Mt. A students gathered virtually on Zoom to brainstorm innovative projects to be implemented in the town with the support of the Rising Youth program. Rising Youth is a grant initiative by TakingITGlobal created “for youth by youth,” which provides funding for youth-led acts of community service. Individuals aged 15 to 30 are eligible to apply for up to $1500 in funding year round, in an effort to continually model sustainable civic ecosystems.  

The virtual information session was organized by Laura Reinsborough, who became involved in Rising Youth through her work as Director of Food for All NB, a non-profit that aims to advance food security in New Brunswick, thus supporting related projects, such as community gardens and foraging initiatives. Reinsborough, in addition to being a Mount Allison alumnus and Magesteriate of Environmental Education and Community Development through the Arts from York University, was also the Beausejour riding’s Green party candidate in the 2019 federal election. She was inspired to run for office in spring of 2019 after witnessing the inaction of the federal government in response to the rallying call to climate action from students at the local and national level. 

“I was so impressed and inspired by the Sackville students’ savvy ability to self-organize. They had demands for every level of government, and they delivered them with unwavering determination,” said Reinsborough. Many of the same students were involved in her campaign, and “kept [her] motivated on seeing their demands met with decisive action.” After a close second finish—with a 22.2% increase in Green party votes—last fall, the campaign was more driven than ever. Now nearly a year later, Reinsborough continues “to seek out ways to amplify the voices and demands” of Sackville students.

Cue the brainstorm. This electrifying Zoom call included discussions of taking over the high school cafeteria with local food, hosting fashion recycling workshops, opening up a zero-waste shop in town, and much more. It also included a question period with Cory Herc, Youth Engagement Activator of Rising Youth, and a presentation by Bliss Behar, a local student who received a Rising Youth grant in the fall of 2019.

Behar is an activist, exhibiting artist, and co-founder of the local queer-teen-hangout space Queer Room in the basement of the Sackville United church. He describes being encouraged to apply for support for the endeavour by Rev. Lloyd A. Bruce. “Though the intention always remained the same—to unify and raise the voices of LGBTQ+ people—my actual ideas were all over the place,” says Behar, describing his process before he settling on hosting A Very Gay Cabaret. He “didn’t know what it would be specifically, only that it would be the gayest event in town. Which of course wasn’t hard to do.” Performed last September, the cabaret featured 10 local queer performers and allies including Mt. A graduate Sam McCormick and The Argosy Arts & Culture reporter Hannah Tuck. Overall, it was a “heartwarming night of positivity, support, and celebration”.

Both Behar and Reinsborough emphasized the importance of fostering community initiatives in all sectors to spur change. Behar points out that while Sackville has been accepting, it is somewhat low-energy. He described the isolation of growing up in a rural area, and that he sees opportunity for more collaboration with the Mount Allison student body. Together, he aspires to normalize LGBTQ+ lives and create a vibrant queer culture in Sackville. In his words: “Leadership is something we’re not encouraged to do in public schools, so it’s something we as young people have to find on our own. Whether it be Rising Youth or another way of going about it, I feel my peers should know what it’s like to feel in control and inspired by what they can achieve”.

Reinsborough described a similar optimism after brainstorming programs during the virtual Rising Youth session. “Should all of those projects happen? Yes, absolutely yes. Will they happen if we don’t organize around those great ideas? Less likely. And will they happen if there is no funding support to see them through? Probably not. So the Rising Youth grants will help get some of them going. But the key ingredient is the engaged, determined, and savvy students who dreamt them up and egged each other on to dream even further. Sackville – and the broader Tantramar area – have those bright minds in abundance! That’s what gives me hope.”