EDITOR MONA BUTLER THE VOICE, THURSDAY, NOV. 26, 2015 5 Right: A chicken mod- els a hand-cro- cheted sweater avaiable from bagsandmore- bypam on Etsy, an online store run by Pam Todd in Bloomington, Indiana. PAM TODD submitted photo Left: Cordelia Mansfields’ chickens are hardy enough for the winter weather but she wouldn’t mind dress- ing them in sweaters for fashion’s-sake. BRIDGETTE WATSON Fowl fashionable statements Sweaters for chickens are a stylish and functional accessory By BRIDGETTE WATSON ixteen-year-old Vancouver chicken owner Cordelia Mans- field thinks putting her pets in winter sweaters would be ador- able — not necessarily life-saving. Chicken sweaters are marketed to keep the birds warm in cold winters. Mansfield agrees with experts that attentive pet-ownership is more important than purchasing poultry pullovers. Mansfield raises Brahma chickens and a mixed Dorking and Sussex breed. The Brahmas have feathered feet and short combs and withstand the cold well. The mixed breed might not require sweaters, but toques and legwarmers could help warm their large combs and exposed feet. “T do have to put Vaseline on the chickens with large combs so they don’t get frostbite,” explained Mansfield, who has also set up a heat lamp to keep her chickens cozy in their coop. Clayton Botkin, poultry industry specialist for the BC Ministry of Agriculture, said chickens should be shielded from extreme weather conditions during the winter and have access to fresh food and water. Frozen ground makes foraging a challenge for chickens, so Mansfield feeds them pellets and kitchen scraps. “Anything else is supplemen- tal, they mostly just use the ground for dirt baths this time of year,” she said. At age twelve, Mansfield sent Mayor Gregor Robertson a letter and a chicken drawing, pleading for a bylaw to permit chickens in the city. When the bylaw passed, her family turned the old playhouse into anew chicken condo. “Tt feels like they are hibernating in the coop where it is warmer, but they seem happy.” The Vancouver Humane Society is skeptical about the city bylaw to allow backyard chickens. “It is a big responsibility and not to be taken lightly,” said VHS Communications Director Peter Fricker, “but we recognize that there are people out there who have invested a huge amount of time and resources to try and do it properly.” Mansfield is attentive to her chick- ens’ needs, including keeping them fashion forward. “Those sweaters sound really cute, the chickens look pretty feathered and warm already, I might have to try it.” 66 It feels like they are hibernat- ing in the coop where it is warmer, but they seem hap- py CORDELIA MANSFIELD CHICKEN OWNER Humble start no barrier In parkour The Vancouver scene has been growing strongly beyond its niche commu- nity beginnings By SEYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI ore and more people are taking Mi: leap, as parkour shifts from a niche sport into the main- stream. Since its humble beginning over one decade ago with only 50 to 100 people randomly meeting each Sunday to play, parkour now has near 600 weekly users at the Origins Parkour. Alyssa Serpa works in the only indoor dedicated facility in the city, and is a professional traceur who made her start at the SFU campus in Jan. 2009. Since then, she cannot stop herself from enjoying parkour, increasing her confidence step by step. Serpa said that being interested is the only barrier to start this sport. Now she is in complete control of her body, free of fears. “Not everybody is socialy comfort- able to parkour outside,” said Serpa. Although “any public space that has elevation changes is good for parkour.” However, instead of public places like the seawall, people like her can use the Empire Fields and Plateau at Hasting Park, or some of the community gymnastic facilities. Jared Davis, trainer at Origins Parkour said that this sport changed into a big community in the city, even before this facility started to work. “We have the life that we love and we can share it and it is fantastic,” Davis said. Vancouver is the host of the North American Parkour Championship that started three years ago. Dustin Wales, political science student at Langara College, who started this sport last April, said parkour is way better than going into a gym to do a workout, and it is much more fun “You've got to use all different parts of your body in different ways, and it is good for efficiency of your movements,” said Wales. Art that explores mother earth A Vancouver studio diplaying student art helps educate on our rela- tionship with earth By VINCENT MATAK replacing your textbook with a paint- brush. That’s the premise behind the Artists in the Classroom program at ArtStarts, a not-for-profit organiza- tion and art gallery nestled in Downtown Vancouver near Richards and Robson Street. The program gets students from kindergarten through Grade 12 at B.C. schools to make art related to their curriculum in effort to engage them more in the learning process. Works produced as part of the I: you want to do better in school, try program are then curated and exhibited at the organization’s in-house gallery. “We're showing that the seed of creativity is planted when you’re young and really important growing experience and learning experience happen when they’re exposed to arts,” said ArtStarts Communica- tions Manager Siobhan Rich. “[Students] also go back and tell their parents what they had learned and look around the neighbourhood and identifying those things.” Their latest exhibit, Common Ground, centres on the relationship between students and their biological environments, said Juliana Bedoya, gallery manager at ArtStarts, who curated the exhibit. “But it also addresses the ancestral knowledge of plants and native pollinators and how also the first peoples that lived in the land also interacted with their local surroundings and understood the natural world,” she said. It includes paintings, prints, zines, banners and installations, which are produced using natural, biodegradable materials like milk- paint and watered-down soil. “What we try is to feature the creative process that also happens in the classrooms,” she said. The organization is funded by the City of Vancouver, the provincial and federal governments and through private donations and sponsorships. It organizes the program ~ which is lead by local, professional artists in conjunction with teachers - through $13,500 worth of grants provided to schools. They also provide art programming for families and teachers. VINCENT MATAK photo A piece showcases the relationship between soil and