As a photographer, Topham understood that the loss of these archives means the loss of identity. To that end, he started a unique project, Liberia ’77, to give back to the country that had shaped his family memories so profoundly.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But with her country’s newfound independence came a lack of security for Mikhailov and her family. Eventually, they made the difficult decision to leave.

Four months after arriving in Canada, in 1996, Mikhailov opened a video rental store in Vancouver where she sells Russian movies.

“I wanted to have something here in Russian, something that would remind me about my homeland,” she said.

Mikhailov talks about how nostalgia for Ukraine led her to become a businesswoman in Canada.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“The graduation rates are fairly abysmal and school completion rates for students who complete high school are shockingly low relative to non-aboriginal students,” she said.

11 VSB candidates participated in an education panel held at Britannia Secondary School Nov. 1.

As of 2009, 47 per cent of Aboriginal students enrolled in grade eight in British Columbia completed grade 12 compared to 81 per cent of non-Aboriginal students.

“We could do better,” said Bacchus, adding that the school system “has not done a nearly good enough job in understanding the needs of Aboriginal students and teaching them and supporting them in ways that are as effective as they need to be.”

The VSB is trying to address concerns by working with community groups to expand Aboriginal specific curriculum including starting an Aboriginal focused school by 2012. It is also committed to working within the provincial Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement, which establishes educational goals for B.C.

‘Exciting time’ for Aboriginal community

School board candidate Ken Clement, the first elected Aboriginal person in Vancouver history, said the city is “behind” in Aboriginal education and economic development.

“With the many families moving into the city, we’ll never improve the quality of life if we don’t improve the educational aspirations of all Aboriginal families.”

Vancouver has the third-largest urban Aboriginal population in Canada.  The 2010 Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study (PDF) found that when first generation Aboriginal residents of Vancouver were asked why they first moved to the city, at the top of the list, with 35 per cent, was their desire to pursue an education.

Related: Students on the idea of an Aboriginal focused school

Christine Smith, executive director of the Vancouver Aboriginal Transformative Justice Services Society, said it’s an “exciting time” for the Aboriginal community. To have an Aboriginal school where students feel comfortable celebrating their culture will be “amazing.”

She added that the VSB needs to make sure that success is measured not only in terms of academics but also based on a recognition cultural education.

“Without a strong culture and without understanding of what culture means to our people, we’re always going to be in that never never land, not getting out of the whole area of racism, systemic discrimination,” said Clement.

Aboriginal focused school

Some concerns were raised including the possibility of segregation, the age range of students, the inclusivity of non-Aboriginal students, the location, and the repercussions for Aboriginal programs in all other schools in the district.

Blakey hopes to foster stronger relationships by meeting Aboriginal people outside of the school board.

September 2012 has been set as the date for the opening of the Aboriginal  focused school. Smith said the date is “optimistic” adding, “I don’t think it’s going to open in September if you want to do it properly.”

Louise Boutin, a first-time VSB trustee candidate, said the the programs are good but she is concerned about accountability.

“There’s a lot of talk about doing things,” she said. “These are good programs… but who’s responsible? Who are the people that need to come to the table and take responsibility for the program?”

Allen Blakey, VSB incumbent candidate, said the graduation rates and success rate of Aboriginal students in our system is “directly dependent on what our society does to eliminate poverty among First Nations people.”

To improve the success of programs, Blakey added that it is important to acknowledge the history of residential schools, which created a “sour view of education.”

For Clement, all he wants is “to have successful students just like anyone else.”

“It’s taken over a hundred years but we’re slowly getting there and I hope it won’t take another hundred years.”

Halloween is when "kids get a peek into the adult world."

Terrified, blood-curdling screams have been heard coming from the warehouse at 8934 Shaughnessy in Vancouver lately. They come from children and adults alike, and hang in the crisp October air over the industrial street off Southwest Marine Drive.

The screams are music to Brad Leith’s ears. The Vancouver Film School teacher has spent 12-14 hours a day since the beginning of July turning the low-slung building into the Dunbar Haunted House, an elaborate labor of love that had become a fixture of Southlands over the past eight years.

But in that time, the haunt had grown too popular, and the screams too loud, for Leith’s residential neighbours.

He estimated that some 15%-20% “didn’t mind it, kinda tolerated it, maybe gritted their teeth a little bit.” Then City Hall came calling. It was time to move.

Humble haunted beginnings

When Leith, Gideon Flitt and Sakura Iwagami moved into 6478 Dunbar Street in 2004, they put up a modest Halloween display outside their new home and seven trick-or-treaters came over. The following year, the roommates invested a little more effort into it and had 100 visitors.

A donation box was introduced at the suggestion of a trick-or-treater in 2006, and more than 500 people showed up on Halloween night and hundreds more in the week leading up to it.

Leith started the haunt to get involved in the community and later, contribute to charity.

The haunt has grown and is now two weeks long, with “amusement park size” line-ups and as many as 12 people directing traffic out front. One of only two haunted houses in the Lower Mainland (the other one is in Surrey), last year, more than 100 volunteers helped make it the biggest one to date.

According to Leith and girlfriend Annamaria Spanier, who’s been co-hosting it with him since 2006,  roughly 17,000 people came to the haunt, which took three months to set up and raised $67,000 through donations.

Many of Leith’s neighbours loved it, among them Julie Prutton, who called it a “great event.” Some, such as Roger Schauer and Tam Stewart, were part of the show, dressing up as zombies, vampires and other Halloween figures.

Leith believes they’ve been crucial to the haunt’s success, as he thinks one of its biggest draws is the “emotional workout in a controlled environment” people get being spooked by live actors.

Not everyone’s workout is purely emotional, however. Every year, a frustrated guest would punch one of the spooky volunteers.

One spook too many

As the haunt increased in size, Leith started to feel that some of the neighbours were loving it less. Indeed, Frank Schulte, who lives next door, said he appreciated the effort they put into the house, but felt it was turning into an invasion of he and his wife’s privacy. There were simply too many people lined up outside every night.

With increased exposure came pressure from City Hall to get permits, largely due to the fact that this stretch of Dunbar Street has poor lighting and no sidewalks, which meant that most years, the line-ups were a wet and muddy affair.

Leith wasn’t terribly surprised by the municipal attention. “As soon as someone complains, or as soon as you get more interest or popularity, you’re gonna get on the radar.”

He tried to find a short-term lease all over Vancouver, to no avail. He ended up renting the warehouse in Marpole, for $45,000 a year. That means that for the first time, he and the gang are charging at the door — $10 for general admissions and $5 for kids under 12.

In order to match last year’s charitable donations, they’ll have to bring in about $100,000 this Halloween. Leith hopes the effort they have put into advertising online and via signs posted around the old location – never mind the time and money spent undergoing the city inspection and obtaining all the necessary permits – will pay off.

Barbaric B.C.

"Zombies are great; you just buy the cheapest clothes possible and dirty them up."

This year’s theme is “Barbaric B.C.” Victims of horrific chainsaw massacres are dressed as tree huggers, a bloody drag queen salutes her visitors.

The pathway throughout the warehouse splits into a classic Vancouver bike lane, a subtle dig at the mayor, according to Leith.

One area is dedicated to the B.C. smart meter controversy and another — Leith’s favourite — is filled with zombies dressed in Canucks jerseys smashing store windows.

What does the future hold for the Dunbar Haunted House?  They’ve signed a three-year lease on the warehouse and are hopeful that Vancouverites will keep coming over for a scare for many years to come, or “as long as people enjoy it and we can afford it.”

The Dunbar Haunted House is located on 8934 Shaughnessy Street. It is open on Sundays to Thursdays from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m.-12 a.m. until October 31^st.

On Saturdays and Sundays, the house is open from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. without the live spooks, a more child friendly environment. General admissions are $10, $5 for children under 12.

Follow @theDunbarHaunt on twitter for updates and information on line-ups.

Now, she is a contractor for a Vancouver sewing co-op, Common Thread, comprised of mostly marginalized women who have been re-purposing 2010 Olympic banners into tote bags and book covers.

Cho sews on an industrial machine purchased from VANOC.

Working with Common thread makes Cho feel good and useful, she said, adding “it helps me with daily life and independence. I learn something new and can get paid work too.”

Common Thread has earned over $100,000 in sales from products made of Olympic fabric and banners, giving contracts to more than 16 people in the peak of its production.

“We were really looking forward to the Olympics being over so that we could get those banners,” said Jenette MacArthur, vice president of Common Thread.

The cooperative combines five local social enterprises: the Kettle Friendship Society, the Afghan Women’ Sewing and Craft Co-op, Sewing with Heart, Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS) and Eastside Movement for Business & Economic Renewal Society (EMBERS).

Local partnerships

Cooperative general manager Melanie Conn said not only did they get the banners donated, they were able to purchase 11 industrial sewing machines from the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) at a reduced price to replace the basic domestic machines they had used in the past.

“Without access to the equipment we would have needed to raise funds to buy the equipment since it is crucial for the production of high volume contracts,” she said.

The tote bags made from 2010 Olympic banners.

After purchasing the Olympics’ industrial sewing machines, Common Thread needed to find a rent-free or low-cost space to house them.

Susan Braverman, president of International Flag and Banner, a Vancouver-based flag maker and retailer, offered the cooperative space at her Powell Street location.

“When we’ve talked to people – except for Susan – they think why would you operate a business with people who require flexibility? You don’t want to hear about their problems,” said Conn.

“You want people who you can count on every day, no personal issues — that’s it,”

Braverman said Common Thread has had a positive impact. “These are people who for whatever reason aren’t able to work in the mainstream work environment and so they are contracted to sew,” she said. “I think it makes them feel good — they get to come to work.”

The co-op’s current project is to make tote bags for the International Year of the Cooperative (2012) out of a variety of banners including: Pacific National Exhibition 100 year anniversary banners, local Business Improvement Association’s colourful street banners, and official signage from the National Capital Commission.

The United Nations resolution 64/136 (PDF) has declared 2012 the International Year of The Cooperative.

More than environmentalism

MacArthur, who is also the coordinator of a self-esteem and employment program at the Kettle Friendship Society, said people are responsive to their products because of the co-op’s commitment to both environmental sustainability and social enterprise. The co-op uses only donated banners and event fabric for its merchandise.

“The women come from all walks of life,” said MacArthur, adding that this program assists people with barriers to employment, which range from mental health to new immigrant issues.

Those who work on contracts for Common Thread are able to work as little or as much as they want, in a variety of locations — even at their homes. “People in our production unit thrive in flexible work environment,” said Conn.

“For the women it’s successful because it’s really like my program in general, it boosts people’s confidence,” said MacArthur.

“I mean once you know that you’ve never been able to sew and now you’re actually in a factory with other people who are doing the same work, and you’re making money, it just builds their self-esteem.”

Enthusiasts say the court at Grandview Park is the first in the world built specifically for bike polo. The court is part of $2 million in upgrades for the park.

The site is still under construction, but the Vancouver Park Board pledged a phased opening for the park as its various components are completed.

UBC journalism students Farida Hussain, Jacqueline Ronson, Lena Smirnova and Carrie Swiggum report on the bike polo enthusiasts behind the drive for the court.

Video produced by Dana Malaguti and Sam Eifling

Kathy Davidson with Keri, 3. Kathy is pregnant with Lisa, and wears a 1995 Bon Jovi tour shirt. Source: Kathy Davidson

Rock and roll used to be a symbol of everything parents thought was wrong about teenagers. But for Keri Davidson, 17, a common interest in 80s rock music brings her and her mom closer together.

“It’s pretty much the only thing we have in common.”

Keri and her mom Kathy Davidson, 40, both love Bon Jovi.

Once a symbol of rebellion, rock music is now mainstream. Teenagers actually like the music that came out of their parents’ generation, and this could be a reason for less perceived inter-generational conflict, according to a 2009 report from the Pew Research Center.

Kathy could never share music with her parents the way she does with her daughters Keri and Lisa.

“Thinking of the music my parents listened to, I don’t like it at all,” said Kathy.

She fell in love with Bon Jovi at age 13 when she first saw him on television in 1983. The band’s good looks earned the adoration of Kathy and her girl friends.

“We used to get the Teen Beat magazines and we used to cut all the pictures out and put them on the wall,” she said.

Delaney Cowling, Angela Cowling, Kathy Davidson, Sidney Cowling and Lisa Davidson wait for the Bon Jovi concert

Mother-daughter teams

Kathy was pregnant with Lisa, now 14, when she saw her first Bon Jovi concert in 1995. She still has the ticket stub.

Kathy took Lisa to her first Bon Jovi concert Friday at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

The mostly female line up outside the venue was peppered with mother-daughter teams. One daughter admitted that she only came because her mom bought her a ticket.

Others had clearly surpassed their mothers as fanatics. Delaney Cowling, 16, has all the band’s CDs, including their solo projects and a signed CD she earned by advertising for the band as part of the Bon Jovi Street Team.

“Anything you want to know about them, she knows it,” said Delaney’s mom Angela Cowling.

Delaney’s sister Sidney Cowling, 14, couldn’t wait for the show.

Angela, Delaney and Sidney would return the next night to do it all over again.

That evening in Victoria, Tami Tate, 45, tweeted about her plans to come for Saturday night’s performance.

“Off to YVR tomorrow to take my 74 year old Mom to Bon Jovi. Bucket list item for my mom. How cool is that? I want to be like that at 74!!”

Related: Grandma at the Bon Jovi show

‘This guy is really hot’

Kathy introduced her daughters to Bon Jovi a few years ago when she showed them an old VHS from the 1989 New Jersey Tour.

“I said to the girls, ‘you gotta watch this, this guy is really hot!’”, Kathy said. “They just got hooked after that.”

Now Keri seeks out Bon Jovi music, information and merchandise, just like her mom did 27 years ago.

“I look for shirts and CDs, and anything i can get my hands on.”

Sidney Cowling, 14, made a countdown chain leading up to the Vancouver concert. Source: Angela Cowling

Keri said she likes sharing her love for Bon Jovi with her mom, but she doesn’t follow her parents’ music taste blindly.

“I like heavy metal bands and they don’t. They think it’s too loud and angry.”

She said her friends are into popular artists like Rihanna and Nicky Minaj, but she prefers to listen to her dad’s old music collection on the record player she got for her 16th birthday.

Kathy said she enjoys reliving her teenage years through her daughters.

“It takes you back to that time again, and you feel like you’re doing it all over again.”

And while Kathy said that the band has only gotten better with age, she admits that her renewed interest in Bon Jovi is really about having fun with her daughters.

“I just really enjoy spending that time with them and having them be excited about something that I was just as excited about.”

She said her girls are mostly interested in going to the concerts because they think Bon Jovi is hot. That was all that counted when she was 16, too.

“They probably don’t care who they’re with. But one day they’ll realize. One day when they’re older and they have their kids, they’ll see it.”

Dorothy "Dot" Moore, 104, still looks forward to her future.

By Kate Adach

Dorothy Moore may have tapped into a key ingredient to longevity, she just doesn’t know it.

“I couldn’t tell you what happened!” the 104-year-old said, laughing as she considered how to explain her age. “I’ve had a really good life in every way.”

Dot, as she prefers to be called, chooses to reflect on the positive, rather than the negative in her life. She could say that she has been twice-widowed and recently lost her daughter-in-law.

But she doesn’t.

“I think it’s an awful waste of time to be complaining,” Dot said, shaking her head in disapproval. “It really is. That’s all I can say.”

Instead, the centenarian smiles when she thinks back. In fact, she is nearly always smiling.

“I’m very, very lucky,” Dot repeated during multiple visits. “It’s all really a lovely story.”

It’s this positive outlook that some psychologists believe may have contributed to Dot’s vitality. Subjective well-being – that is, optimism, life satisfaction, resilience, adaptability, positive emotions, and related traits – is increasingly understood to have a positive influence on health.

Happiness research

Recent studies show these same traits could also affect longevity.

I think it's lovely to love people: Dot Moore

“Happy people live longer,” concluded psychologist Dr. Ed Diener in his latest article by the same title, published in the March issue of Applied Psychology. Dr. Diener has written extensively on happiness research.

In his recent article, he reviewed over 160 published studies that, together, provide “clear and compelling” evidence people with a positive attitude can live longer than those without, all things considered.

“The mechanism by which that happens is not well understood,” Dr. Norm O’Rourke, a clinical psychologist in SFU’s gerontology department, said. “We have to figure out the why’s and how’s of that association.”

Although Dot recently began using a walker and is slowly losing some of her hearing and memory, her friends and family say that she is the same optimistic woman she always was.

Despite that good genetics are “two-thirds of the equation,” Dr. O’Rourke said, it seems Dot also had the necessary temperament to aid her long-term aging.

Listen: Dot’s wisdom on using time wisely (0:20)

‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he’

When Dot’s first husband passed away, she wouldn’t allow their daughter Wendy, then in her early 20s, to be self-pitying or to move back in with her.

“She said ‘no daughter of mine is going to be an old maid’,” Wendy Lindmeier, 73, recalled. Dot told her “you’ve got to be with your friends and I’ve got to be with mine.”

"Dot's outside looks like her inside - beautiful," a friend said.

After Dot’s second husband died 39 years later, “she had her grieving period,” Lindmeier said, “but … taught us that death is a part of life.”

Dot’s future-focused outlook demonstrates a healthy level of resiliency, Dr. O’Rourke said.

Widows who move on effectively after the loss of their partners “are those who continue to look forward.”

But Dot has not only accepted change, he pointed out, she has also asserted a level of control over her life and her happiness.

And she has done so throughout her life.

Dot lived independently until she was 102, a fact that amazes gerontologists like O’Rourke.

What is even more remarkable: her decision two years ago to move into an assisted care unit. She didn’t need coercing. In much the same way, Dot decided in her 80s that it was time to stop driving.

At 96, she jumped at an invitation to take a spin on a friend’s motorcycle. “Mother’s favourite expression was ‘I don’t want to go to the grave wondering!’,” Lindmeier explained.

And at 98, Dot decided she didn’t want to continue volunteering at the local seniors’ centre. “She said to me once ‘I can’t do it anymore’,” Lindmeier recalled. “She said ‘I’m so tired of these seniors complaining all the time, so many of them are so fortunate … it just pulls me down’.”

Sense of empowerment

It takes someone who feels really confident about themselves and their life circumstances to make a choice like that, Dr. O’Rourke said.

In a phenomenon known as downward social comparison, Dr. O’Rourke explained, “some people actually seek out others who are doing worse than they are to feel better about themselves … It’s interesting, this is kind of the opposite.”

Wendy visits with her mother at least four times a week.

In many ways, Dot has demonstrated an empowering sense of self-efficacy, he pointed out. The SFU professor has not met Dorothy Moore, but from his understanding of her, some of her decisiveness represents a healthy way of “managing her world.”

And it’s this command over her happiness that seems to be particularly unique – an approach to life that she passed on to her children.

When her daughter was in her late 20s and living in California, Dot would send her letters and cards of positive affirmations.

“Just little things, little quotes, and I do the same for my daughter,” Lindmeier said. “She loved Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking.”

“Mother used to say ‘as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,’ Lindmeier said. “And she really believes that, and I do too.”

Still more time for fun

It’s still unclear to psychologists exactly how positive mental states affect the body physiologically.

Understanding the physical mechanisms at work is very complicated, Dr. O’Rourke said.

I can tell from Wendy what kind of a mother Dot was: Friend Connie Riley, 76.

Yet, evidence that a positive outlook influences not only health, but longevity, continues to mount.

In his recent article Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health and Longevity, Dr. Diener concludes that “happiness” predicts longevity in healthy populations, though it may not cure illness in sick populations.

Still, the case for positivity, or “happiness”, as an aid to quality of life for those who are ill and of extended life to those who are well, is so compelling, he writes, that policy makers should add subjective well-being to the list of public health measures.

For Dot, her enthusiasm for life makes a case of its own.

“Here am I! Still! Still!,” she marveled. “Doing things the way I always did and enjoying a simple life which I always did.”

Listen: Wendy shares a lesson from her mother (1:23)

And true to her optimistic nature, she does not fear her own death.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, with near-perfect posture, Dot reflected on the end of her life.

“When the time comes, I’m ready for it,” she said. “And I feel my family is too. We’ve had a good life.”

“But I’m in pretty good condition,” she continued with a laugh as she glanced down at her crossed legs. Her wrinkled hands gestured to herself. “Everything’s alive and I don’t have any aches or pains.”

“And I still have time for fun,” she said, “so that’s the main thing.”

Tami Tate and Bev Turkington at Saturday's Bon Jovi concert in Vancouver

Bev and Tami have been Bon Jovi fans since 1983. Source: Tami Tate

Bev Turkington took Bon Jovi’s famous lyrics to heart when she went her first rock concert at age 74.

Related: Bon Jovi: Now or never and forever

Listen to her and her daughter, Tami Tate, talk about the show.