Local Community Initiatives
CIS contributing to our local community ...
Children's Field Trips
The CIS annually hosts a visit by the primary students from the Russian Bilingual Program at the Twin Rivers Elementary School, Castlegar, BC. Volunteers facilitate a workshop with the students about Doukhobor pioneers and their lifeskills such as carding and spinning wool, knitting, weaving, etc. The children are always excited to take home a piece of wool which they carded themselves. These activities are an extension of the regular Social Studies curriculum in their school.
Castlegar Arts Council
The Cultural Interpretive Society is a member of the Castlegar Arts Council and participates in Art Walk, an annual event held in Castlegar during July and August. Art Walk offers the CIS an excellent opportunity to publicly profile Doukhobor fibre arts.
In 2008, as the community celebrated 100 years of Doukhobor life in British Columbia, our Art Walk display focused on linen items, a fabric of choice for the new B.C. residents as they grew the flax locally and manufactured the fibre into linen clothing and household linens.
For Art Walk 2009, the CIS display will feature the intricate and artistic items created by talented women that were carefully prepared for the traditional Doukhobor hope chests.
Selkirk College Foundation - Festival of Trees Gala
The Cultural Interpretive Society helps support post secondary education in the West Kootenay Boundary region by donating creative items to the annual pre-Christmas event, the Selkirk College Festival of Trees Gala Silent Auction. The Gala, a Selkirk College fundraising event, includes an elegant dinner, dance and silent auction held at Mary Hall, on the Tenth Street Campus in Nelson, B. C.
Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital
The Quilters of the USCC Cultural Interpretive Society at Brilliant donated a beautiful butterfly quilt to the 3rd floor of Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail, B. C. The quilt represents a ray of light with lighter fabric in the upper right corner transitioning to darker tones in the lower left. The quilt also features butterflies, which suggest that like butterflies, quilts fill the world with colour. The quilt hangs in the family conference room of the medical floor. Nurse Bernice Crockett (far right) gratefully accepted the quilt from designer Val Samsonoff (right), Mary Pozdnekoff (left), who did the sewing with Susan D'Andrea (absent), and Eileen Kooznetsoff, Chairperson, CIS. All agreed that the quilt will be a beautiful and comforting addition to the family conference room.
