This email made my night and if you have followed this story i think you will enjoy it too.
From Chris Williamson,
"Hey Norm, I hope you are well. I just wanted to share this little story with you. A couple of weeks ago we had Ocean Day, where the school had tonnes of activities down at the water with salmon bbq, coast guards, sea creature tanks, kayaks and the SUPs. David Applebaum and I spent the entire day getting students from grade 1 to 12 out on the boards at the dock. We had 1/2 hour line ups and it was non-stop the entire day.
This was all very exciting but the The coolest part of the day was when a humpback surfaced in front of Bella Bella and James ran down and hopped on his board to go and check it out. He kept on paddling and was a tiny speck in the distance. A while later the coast guards zoomed out after him only to return a few minutes later. They said that he was annoyed that they were checking on him and that he refused a ride back. It was an incredible thing to see him venturing out on his own, full of confidence, pushing the boundaries of his experience. It made me very proud to have been a part of making that happen.
On a separate, but nearly equally as cool, note, a few students have a 10 day workshop down at Hakai learning wilderness first aid etc and they brought their boards with them. As well a student has brought her board to Goose Island for the summer where she is an intern with QQS doing some research.
Anyways, thought you might like to hear the update on what is happening with them. I have been given approval to build more next year and I think the class is pretty darn full again!! Are you up for another course, say in the spring of 2012?
Take care, Chris"
Thanks Chris for sharing these stories with me. I am smiling a big smile.....norm
