It is official, the London Photo Walk is now part of Communities in Bloom the London, Ontario edition.

After speaking with a number of people on the Communities in Bloom organizing committee it was decided that the London Photo Walk would make a great addition to Communities in Bloom.

Communities in Bloom (CIB) is a Canadian non-profit organization committed to fostering civic pride, environmental responsibility and beautification through community involvement and the challenge of a national program. Celebrating its 15th edition in 2009, the Communities in Bloom program is dedicated to promoting the value of plants, trees and green spaces in urban settings, and encourages Canadian communities of all sizes to improve quality of life through community engagement and sustainable development.

- CommunitiesinBloom.ca

As part of a national and provincial competition, cities (such as London) area evaluated in such categories as tidiness, environmental awareness, community involvement, heritage conservation, urban forestry, landscaped areas, floral displays, and turf & groundcovers resulting in earning annual bloom ratings, criteria award recognitions and winners.  For more details about the overall Canada wide initiative please check out CommunitiesinBloom.ca.

London’s CIB initiative is all about celebrating the Forest City through the various activities, organizations and people that believe in London and believe it to be one of the best cities in Canada which to live.  With the support of local sponsors, CIB London is all about London, Ontario and what it has to offer both it’s residents and visitors.  Sometimes we take things around us for granted, Communities in Bloom is all about recognizing these things and celebrating them.

Here at London Photo Walk we were happy to officially join this initiative as celebrating London is what this Photo Walk is all about.  Getting Londoners out exploring the city and taking pictures of it are just a couple of ways in which Londoners can be engaged in the place they call home.  The London Photo Walk looks forward to contributing to the CIB initiative and helping everyone celebrate this great community.

For more information about Communities in Bloom London please check out www.londoncib.com .  For more information about the London Photo Walk please head over to the About page.

London Photo Walk has been approached by a community group in hopes that we can help support them with a youth photography project that is to take place this summer.

Christine Li, a Youth Outreach Worker with the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre is currently working on organizing a youth photography project based upon the highly successful PhotoVoice project.

For those not familiar with the PhotoVoice project, the main mission is to bring about positive social change for marginalized communities through providing them with photographic training with which they can advocate, express themselves and generate income, ((Mission Statement via PhotoVoice.org)) the GCCRC is looking to start a project with similar ambitions in the London neighbourhood of Glen Cairn.

Titled the Speaking Lens, this project hopes to encourage and help local youth identify both the strengths and weaknesses of their community in order to help celebrate the neighbourhood they call home.  Along side of this celebration of community the project also aims to teach teens about basic photography and what “makes a good shot”. ((Christine, if I am way off or need to add something to this description please let me know.))

What the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre and Christine Li are looking for are the donations of roughly 10 point and shoot digital cameras that the teens engaged in the Speaking Lens project can use in order to be fully immersed in the project.  Fancy cameras are not needed, simply basic point and shoot digital cameras (that still work) that you may no longer have a need for.

I know personally that I have an old digital camera sitting at home that does not get enough use by myself and would be better off in the hands of someone who could do meaningful work with it.  Once I can dig it up I will be sure to pass it on the the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre so that this project can be one camera closer to happening.

If you do have a camera you would like to donate I would be more than happy to meet up with you to pick it up on behalf of the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre, or perhaps you would like to come out for the next London Photo Walk and we can meet then.

To donate a camera please contact Kevin Van Lierop at:

Kevin Van Lierop
vanlierop (dot) kevin (at) gmail (dot) com

For more information about the Speaking Lens project please see the following video. ((The video is dated from about a month ago but the information is still very much relevant.))

Video is courtesy of Greg Fowler and From My Bottom Step

By Paul Mcgrath - http://paulmcgrath.ca

Thanks to Paul McGrath of Paul McGrath Designs – http://paulmcgrath.ca we now have an Official logo and Mascot!

We would like to know what we should call him/her! So send us your ideas and check out Paul’s other Works on his web site:

http://paulmcgrath.ca