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December 18, 2014 Y www.CloverdaleReporter.com Y 604-575-2405
Do they know it’s Christmas? Youths aging out of foster care need your TLC By Jennifer Lang joy, traditions, and gifts for many Surrey residents, but for youths aging Amy, 18, sleeps on a mattress in a out of foster care, it can be a difficult cramped basement suite shared with time of year, according to SOS Chilher brother and dad, and wonders dren’s Village B.C. if the power will be cut The society, headquarbecause there’s no money tered in Cloverdale, is to pay the bill. A bright young woman with her They’re youths who asking for donations of gift cards. They will be heart set on studying “could really use given to youths in their a trade at BCIT, all she to Adult prowants for Christmas some love and magic Transition gram for youths aged 16 are the basics – food, a to 24 who otherwise have sent their way.” winter jacket, a bus pass, little support from family and shoes. Right now or the system. she’s walking to where In B.C., once foster she needs to be without kids turn 19, they’re appropriate clothing or footwear. A veteran of the foster care system, considered adults who are expected to fend for themselves. Amy had a part time job, but was Amy’s story is one of four being forced to quit when she fell behind shared in a Christmas call to action. in her studies at high school. Her The TTA team selected youths who friends bring her food so she has “could really use some love and magic something to eat during the day. See LUCY / Page 2 The holiday season is filled with
Amid battle, a feast of sorts BOAZ JOSEPH / BLACK PRESS
Mast.-Cpl. Garth Stromberg Smith, 16, was among roughly 70 cadets from 2277 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps Seaforth Highlanders who held their Ortona Christmas Dinner on Dec. 14 at the Cloverdale Legion. During the Second World War, nearly 1,400 Canadian soldiers died in the ruins of Ortona, Italy, in an eight-day battle dubbed Little Stalingrad, before the Germans were routed on Dec. 28, 1943. On Christmas Day, the Canadians ate in shifts in a bombed out church as fighting waged on around them. The meal is recreated each December by Seaforth Highlanders and cadets.
Santa house inspires artist
GABRIELLE GREIG
‘Santa’s Little Workshop’ is modeled on a Cloverdale landmark.
By Jennifer Lang A cozy winter scene painted by a local artist has won second place in this year’s Surrey Arts Council’s annual Christmas card and verse competition. Gabrielle Greig’s charming portrait of a snug, red-roofed cabin in the snowy woods was inspired by a real building in Cloverdale – Santa’s Workshop at Clover Square Village, a hive of activity in the lead-up to Christmas, as children wait for their chance to meet the Jolly Old Elf. “There is just something whimsical about that little house,” she says. “I love houses, and their stories.” The multifaceted artist is also a professional face painter and balloon artist. “I have a split personality,” she confesses, explaining she’s a member of a
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clown troupe. Greig has created two clown personas: The electric blue-haired face painter, Mrs. Picasso, and Balloonia the clown, who sports a neon-pink fuchsia hairdo. Both have made appearances in Cloverdale at various community events, from the annual Blueberry festival to Surrey’s Doors Open, which expanded to Cloverdale in 2014. “It’s so rewarding – that moment when you hold that mirror up to that child’s face and they just go, ‘Oh, wow!’” She started her Santa’s workshop painting last year, hoping to enter the Surrey Arts Council contest, but she put the project on the back burner; she wasn’t happy with the way the trees looked. “This year, I thought, ‘Well, why not
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finish it?’” She changed the trees, and transformed the painting into a snowy, winter scene – complete with smoke curling out of the chimney – before submitting it. It’s a location she knows well. “I always liked that little house,” she says, recalling memories of setting up her colour palette and painting the faces of countless eager children. “I have sat in there many times.” Formally trained in oils in her native Austria, where Greig grew up in a town near Vienna, she’s lived in Canada for 25 years. These days, she prefers working in acrylics and mixed media. She turned to clowning more recently. It’s a job that takes her to everything See PAINTER / Page 2
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