Councillor Jenny Gerbasi
Aug 25th, 2015
 Dear Friends,
  
Here are the topics in this e-newsletter:
 
1. Mayor's National Summit on Racial Inclusion
2. Marbles at Mayfair Recreation Centre
3. Chair Your Idea
4. South Osborne Sidewalk Festival
5 Pembina Active Living Picnic at St Norbert Market
  
1.  Mayor's National Summit on Racial Inclusion
 
The Mayor's National Summit on Racial Inclusion has been announced!
 
When: September 17 & 18, 2015
Where: Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Info & Registration: www.1winnipeg.ca 
  
ONE: The Mayor's National Summit on Racial Inclusion is a partnership led by the City of Winnipeg and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. In joining forces, we will encourage all Canadians to take action against racism. We believe we will be able to contribute to the national dialogue with positive solutions to help bring us all together as ONE.
  
The focus of the inaugural ONE Summit is to begin the process of building an extensive network of leaders and thinkers dedicated to generating ideas of inclusion that can ultimately be embraced by individuals and organizations across the country.
  
"To encourage profound change, the ONE Summit has got to be more than a discussion group," said Winnipeg Mayor, Brian Bowman. "It has got to identify initiatives that are already working and develop new and sharable ideas to encourage respect and tolerance across our nation."
  
Join us opening night - Thursday, September 17th, for a free-of-charge panel discussion featuring Giller-prize winning author, Joseph Boyden, who created the story behind "Going Home Star", the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's production about Indian Residential Schools.

His keynote will be followed by a discussion with civil rights leader and personal friend of Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Gerald Durley from Atlanta, Georgia along with Manitoba Treaty Commissioner James Wilson, and Nigerian-born comedian and speaker, Aisha Alfa.
  
Workshops will be taking place all day on Sept 18th.
  
Online pre-registration is required:  www.1winnipeg.ca 
  
Hope to see you there!
  
2. Marbles at Mayfair Recreation Centre
 
You may recall seeing large, colorful spheres on Portage Avenue over the last few years. Now some of these wonderful marbles have moved and can be found at the Mayfair Recreation Centre, located at 40 Mayfair Place.
 
The Marbles were produced by local artist Erica Swendrowski during her stint as the Artist in Residence with Community Gardens with support from the Winnipeg Arts Council, the City of Winnipeg and the Downtown BIZ.
 
For more information on this wonderful project and its artist, please click here.
 
 
You may have noticed that the marbles have plants growing in them which add to our beautiful greenspace. A special thank you is owed to the neighbourhood children who have been working with our Community Services staff to care for the plants over the summer.
 
I encourage you to stop by the recently rebuilt Mayfair Recreation Centre and visit these wonderful works of public art.
 
marble picture  
 
3.Chair your idea
 
I am excited to have been asked to be a "celebrity chair" of  "Chair Your Idea".  The launch is on August 27th at the Forks at the Buskers Lookout at 1200 noon  at which time I will be announcing my idea !   What is your idea?

Chair your idea logo  
DO YOU HAVE A CREATIVE URBAN DESIGN IDEA FOR WINNIPEG? SHARE YOUR IDEA AND SEE IT REALIZED IN 2016!

Available to all Winnipeggers, CHAIR YOUR IDEA is a crowdsourced and crowdfunded open competition that seeks to generate 1000+ urban design ideas and $30,000+ to realize the winning idea.

For a $25 registration fee participants are asked to submit their creative initiative in 140 characters or less [Twitter length] and contribute one WHITE CHAIR for public use to mark their submission.

The chairs are placed in public locations throughout the city and cared for by participating local businesses for the duration of the three week competition period. The accumulating chairs and the creative new ideas associated with them will allow Winnipeggers to take a seat in the newly claimed public spaces, take part in the urban design discussion, and exchange thoughts on how to make our city even better.

The campaign will launch on August 27th with release of 'celebrity chairs', sample ideas and chairs dedicated and by well known Winnipeg personalities and community leaders. 

At the end of the competition period the winning idea[s] are selected by a high caliber jury and the campaign will culminate in a downtown BLOCK PARTY Saturday September 19, 2015 as part of the Winnipeg Design Week. At the event, taking place in a prominent location, the 1000+ chairs will be gathered for a final spectacular display of Winnipeg innovation, pride and spirit, and the winner[s] of the competition are announced. 

We know great ideas can come from anyone. We invite you to 'take your seat at the table' and join the conversation about urban design in our city.


  4. South Osborne BIZ sidewalk festival
 
The South Osborne BIZ will be hosting their annual sidewalk festival soon!
 
When: August 29th from 12 noon to 5 pm
Where: outside the Fort Rouge Leisure Centre located at 625 Osborne Street.
 
The festival promises great activities such as games, live music, street performers,a farmers market, and much more.
 
As usual, I will have a table set up to meet and greet and I hope you will stop by and say "hi". I will have free City of Winnipeg Bike Maps and a brand new fridge magnet for you as you can see here below:
 
fridge magnet
For more information, please visit the South Osborne BIZ facebook page here  or email my office at jgerbasi@winnipeg.ca .
   
5. Pembina Active Living Picnic on August 25th
 
Pembina Active Living (PAL) is hosting its annual picnic!
 
Where: St. Norbert Farmer's Market, 3514 Pembina Highway
When: Tuesday, August 25th, 11:30am-3:00pm
RSVP:  Alanna Jones ed@pal55plus.com  or  204-930-6931
 
The picnic is always a blast, and this year's theme of "grooving to the sixties" will be no different. This event offers live music and entertainment, a flea market, a barbecue, and activities such as Chair Yoga and Dancercise among many more! There will also be a raffle for a full three seat sofa and love seat set that will occur at 3 PM at the picnic- tickets are $5.00 and can be purchased in advance by calling Roma at (204)-256-5430.
 
All funds will go towards a future home for the PAL- I encourage you to come out and support this wonderful group, and have some fun grooving at the picnic while you are at it!
Thank you for your interest in civic issues!
Jenny

Jenny Gerbasi
Councillor Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry