EDITOR RENEE SUTTON

THE DAILY VOICE, FRIDAY, NOV. 28, 2014 5

Students
give gift
of time

The holiday season is a
time to give, and some
students are giving their
time by volunteering

By CHARLOTTE DREWETT

ing and with it comes sentiments

of family and kindness that causes
many people, students included, to do-
nate their time.

According to a Statistics Canada
Survey, Canadians aged 15 to 24 are
more likely to volunteer. Of that age
group, 58 per cent participated in vol-
unteer work in 2010. Once students are
out of school some may have more time
on their hands, like second year Langa-
ra business student Genevieve Fonta-
nilla.

Through the school year, Fontanilla
volunteers when she can find the time
between her full-time schooling and
full-time job. This holiday season she'll
be donating her time to The Boys &
Girls Club of Greater Vancouver be-
cause her brother used the program.

She will also be organizing a fund-
raising gathering on Dec. 14 in hopes of
raising $1,500 for the club.

Fontanilla said she understands that
students are busy but “if you have the
time I think you should definitely try to
volunteer.”

Lauren Chan, spokeswoman for The
Salvation Army, said the organization
does see an “upswing” of people get-
ting involved over the holiday season.
When it comes to students in particu-
lar, she said they’re usually involved
with sports teams or clubs that volun-
teer as a group.

“We find that a lot of students are
really energetic and enthusiastic so it’s
really great for us and a great repre-
sentation of our brand to have such en-
ergetic, positive people engage with
the community,” she said.

Kay Thody, spokeswoman for the
Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society,
said it’s common for non-profits to see
a higher level of volunteerism around
the holiday season.

Thody said the food bank is always
looking for volunteers, no matter the
time of year.

“A lot of people don’t necessarily re-
alize, exclusive of the holiday time of
year, just how important it is to be in-
volved in your community,” she said. “I
think the vast majority of people want
to help and maybe just aren’t clear on
what that might look like.”

Ti holiday season is fast approach-

CHARLOTTE DREWETT photo
Second-year business administra-
tion student, Genevieve Fontanilla,
will be donating some of her spare
time this holiday season.

Most wasteful time of the year

The festive season comes with excess amount of garbage and waste

CREATE

You can be
Find out how at mi

- _ n,
va is giving Pal tito _ Le
dog walking

(and sitting) Services,

=~ f

reenAngel to
aus) etrovancou

GARBAGE.

0.
ver.org

= metrovancouver
SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS FOR

A LIVABLE REGION

METRO VANCOUVER Submitted

One of Metro Vancouver’s holiday waste reduction

campaign posters.

66

People
make one
little step
towards
chang-

ing their
consumer
habits

ADAM KELLIHER

ENVIRONMENTAL
STUDIES

By JAMES GOLDIE

very year, the Christmas adver-

tisements seem to be appearing

earlier and earlier, so it only

makes sense that posters encour-
aging ways to reduce holiday waste
have also begun cropping up around
town.

Metro Vancouver’s annual “Create
Memories, Not Garbage” poster cam-
paign has started again, with messages
that encourage citizens to find non-
material gift alternatives such as pur-
chasing singing lessons or offering free
babysitting services.

When the campaign started in 2007,
posters showed images of garbage bags
with ribbons and tags that said ‘From

the Citizens of Metro Vancouver.’

“About five years ago we thought:
‘Why are we being so negative?’ ” said
Lena Zordan, communications special-
ist at Metro Vancouver. “So we decided
to create a new campaign that was
more joyful and funny.”

According to surveys conducted by
Metro Vancouver every January, the
campaign is a hit.

“The reporting back is quite strong,”
said Zordan. “People are saying, ‘Yeah,
I remember seeing something about
that, and yeah, I did make a differ-
ence.”

Adam Kelliher, leader of Langara’s
Earth Stompers environmental club,
said he thinks it’s a great idea. “This is
incentive to help people make one little
step towards changing their consumer
habits,” he said.

Kelliher suggested a number of gift
options not included in Metro Vancou-
ver’s posters, such as contributing to a
rainforest conservation fund or buying
a goat for a family in a developing
country.

If purchasing a tangible gift is a
must, Kelliher recommended finding
creative ways to reduce packing waste.

“Tt’s the end of school year, you’ve
got all your papers left over from all
your school work.

Throw some tape on that and wrap
some presents,” he said.

Other organizations are launching
campaigns similar to Metro Vancou-
ver’s.

This year The Society Promoting En-
vironmental Conservation (SPEC) will
be sharing a poster designed by one of
their members, Jacquie Rolston, advo-
cating the giving of recyclable and en-
vironmentally friendly Christmas
cards.

She pointed out that most people
wrongly assume that all wrapping pa-
per and Christmas cards are recycla-
ble.

“Not if you add plastic and metal and
large amounts of dye,” she said. “That
is not actually going to make a good re-
cycled toilet paper.”

Rolston said she approves of Metro
Vancouver’s campaign.

“T think there were a few ads last
year I had a quibble with,” she said, cit-
ing one which suggested buying a tab-
let for grandma.

“But overall I like it.”

Reducing waste

Is there any-
thing you’re
going to do to
reduce waste
this holiday?

INTERVIEWS AND PHOTOS BY JAMES GOLDIE

CARTER BOUDREAU

Chemistry

“No there isn't. ...
With most things,
it’s part of a tradi-
tion, you really
have a difficulty
in trying got curb
waste when it’s re-
lated to something
like that.”

CARRIE GRAVES

English literature
“Thaven't particu-
larly thought about
it. Pm pretty sure

it might come up
some time, but right
now Christmas is
far offin my mind.”

VANNA NGUYEN

Health sciences
“T always reuse

the Christmas
wrappings or the
holiday bags from
my friends who
gave me gifts. And
T reuse them to give
them to my other
friends.”

RAFAEL BEIRE

Fine arts

“Now I’m just try-
ing ... to reduce as
much as I can, the
use of plastic.”

Santa Claus comes in many shapes and sizes

There are many versions
of Santa Claus that come
from different cultures
from all over the world

By ORVIS NOEL

ry old man dressed in red and
white clothes stands on street cor-
ners during the holidays.

Around the world though, the notion
of Santa Claus can be very different,
scary even, from the Santa that North
Americans recognize.

The idea of Santa Claus comes from
many cultures and religions, such as
Christian, Pagan, Old Catholic, Scandi-
navian, Dutch, German and English.

The Dutch originally started the
North American version of Santa
Claus, called Nikolaas or Sinterklass .

From France, the most traditional
name is Pére Noél.

He rides a donkey called Gui, which
means mistletoe, to deliver gifts to chil-
dren.

A: here, a familiar big fat mer-

Langara student Melody Want said
she was not excited to see Santa, and
sees him as just a nice old man who
brings gifts and fills stockings with
chocolate.

Santa is believed to make a list of
children around the world based on
their behaviours (“naughty or nice”)
and delivers presents, toys and candy
to all the well-behaved children and
coal to the naughty children on Christ-
mas Eve.

Meanwhile, some young adults are
left to reminisce about the times when
Santa’s long-awaited Christmas pres-
ent was in the forefront of their minds
during the holidays.

“I was close to not getting presents
one year, I guess I was naughty,” said
Raven Ghangheri, a Langara student.

“T remember Santa Claus as just a
big fat guy in red and white clothes,”
she said.

In Holland, Santa has no elves: in-
stead he has slaves.

Sinterklaas, as the Dutch know him,
has no reindeers but he has a little
helper named Black Pete.

Black Pete charms children with
cookies, and horrifies visitors with his

Krampus, Santa’s dark sidekick

costume that includes blackface make-
up.

In China, Santa is known as Shengda
Laoren, while in England he is Father
Christmas, and in Germany, Christind],
the Christ Child.

Puerto Rico has an holiday similar
to the United States.

Children receive gifts from the Three
Kings’ Day, a celebration called the
Epiphany.

Children put grass under their bed
for the camels, and in the morning the

S64

in Europe, is believed to punish

bad children.

PHOTO COURTESY
OF RIPTHESKULL

Iremem-
ber Santa
Claus as
just a big,
fat guy

RAVEN
GHANGHERI

LANGARA
STUDENT