Queen Elizabeth Rotary Club

 

I've put a few things about my nephew Brad on this blog.  I am so proud of him.  He was part of organizing and receiving the Guiness World Record. They planned it for months!   Here he is with the others who all did their part.  Heppells started this and potato give away.  All the other farmers who contributed should be commended.  Brad is part of the Queen Elizabeth Rotary Club.  They gave 30 skids of non produce food along with $100,000 of chocolate to the Ugly Potato Day again this year.  If you want to know more about Ugly Potato Day and you didn't see my blog yesterday, that will help you understand what I am talking about.

The Queen Elizabeth Rotary Club go to food businesses who have overstock.  The food overstock comes to their location with a truck and unload skids of items that are near sell by date, or they just can't sell. 

The members go to grocery stores in their trucks and pick up the items that aren't selling or near or at sell by date.  They bring it back to the location where the skids are and have a database of 182 people on What's App.  They let them know what is there and what needs to be picked up.  

I've seen skids of hams, packaged luncheon meat, potato chips, yogurt, spaghetti sauce, chocolate of every kind all in packaging ready to sell.  I saw four skids of wieners.  There was a sign saying, "no one touch, they are going to elementary schools for hot dog day"! Larger supermarkets have makeup and jewellery.  I've seen a huge box of these items including blue nail polish, face cream, mascara and earrings.  Note on that box:  "don't touch, going to a counsellor at ---- high school"!

The 182 driver volunteers come to the location, load up their vehicles and take the food to every area of Vancouver so people will have food.  They fill food pantries all over the lower mainland.  They are helping seniors and people who are working with low income that can't afford groceries!  Large skid items are taken to Gurdwara's, churches and other locations where they feed people for free.  A truck comes once a week from Mayne Island and fills it to the roof!  He pays all the expenses and helps people on the Mayne and other gulf islands!

It takes a village and there are so many wonderful people who help with this.  These people all have jobs and they do this in their spare time.  The food bank will not take anything that is close to sell by date so if they didn't do it, it would all go to the dump!

They broke the Guiness World Record!

 

Surrey’s Ugly Potato Day by Odd Bunch has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest donation of fruits and vegetables in 24 hours by giving away 246,528.61 kg (543,501 lbs) of produce.

Tyler Heppell started the event in 2022 with 12 people coming out to his family’s South Surrey farm to pick up free “ugly” produce that would otherwise be thrown away.

From there, it has grown to over 30,000 people attending this year’s world-record-setting event at Cloverdale’s Agriplex in Surrey.

Heppell said he felt “euphoric” as he looked around at all the people in the Agriplex.

“This was the hardest week of my absolute life. It stretched me in ways I have never been stretched before, and just this last hour, where we are given the Guinness World Record, had Tony Robbins come out and be here and experience it. I’m euphoric right now,” he said. “This is the fruits of my labour right here, 1000s of volunteer hours, not just mine, have gone into this, and to be here right now, I feel like I’m floating on a cloud.”

After weighing all the pallets and confirming that a new record had been set, an adjudicator from Guinness World Records presented Heppell, Divy Ojha, the founder of Odd Bunch and Evan Ehlers, the founder of Sharing Excess and motivational speaker Tony Robbins.

The record was previously held by the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau in Sacramento, California, which donated 224,064.2 kg (493,977 lbs) on September 7, 2016.

Robbins, who is a well-known motivational speaker, said he was “moved” by the event and expressed his gratitude for the volunteers and farmers who helped make it possible.

“If you’re receiving, I hope you receive the love that’s being put into that food because somebody’s donating that not for anything but for your well-being, and they love you,” he said.

Heppell said he is proud of the work he and many others have done to make this event possible every year, but what it really comes down to is being kind to people.

“I think that’s what this day is about: the small things compound, and it doesn’t matter if you have millions of followers (online) or 30,000 people coming out to your event, or if you’re just impacting one person’s life. It’s all the same,” he said.

On Saturday morning, rows and rows of bins full of fruits and vegetables, such as ugly potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and tomatoes, lined the floor of the Cloverdale Agriplex, ready to be picked and taken home. People were initially limited to filling two bags each.

25 farms donated the produce for the event, 70 percent of which came locally, including Tyler’s dad and Heppels Potato Corp., which donated over 200,000 lbs of potatoes. The rest of the produce came from farmers in Arizona. Anything left over will be donated to local food banks.

Heppell often encourages people on his social media accounts to buy local produce, which helps support local farmers.

“Us local farmers want to support our community because we know that our community’s in a hard time. Our farm has been around for 100 years, and our community has supported us,” he said. “And now that our community is in a hard time, we want to support them. But for us local farmers to be around, people need to support local. People need to buy BC products because everyone else is trying to ship into our market, and it’s really hurting our farmers. And that is why it’s so important to buy BC.”

Heppell was extremely grateful to OddBunch, which was the headline sponsor for the event.

For the past two years, pre-registration has been required for the free event to ensure the day ran smoothly. Attendees had to select from one of several time slots.

Heppell said they would like to be back in Surrey again next year, but they need a bigger venue as the event keeps growing.

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke attended the event alongside City Councillors Rob Stutt, Harry Bains, and Pardeep Kooner.

“It’s certainly a great gift to so many people, and you can see 1000s of 1000s of people literally are here to get the produce that they say is ugly, and I think it looks pretty darn good,” Locke said.

British Columbia Forest Fires

 

Right now, British Columbia is dealing with just over 100 active wildfires. The most recent official feeds show 101 active fires as of August 7, 2026, with roughly 290,000 hectares burning.  It was a shock when a forest fire started at Balcarra Park, very close to where I live.  I was not in danger, but I know others that live closeby.  Thankfully, it is under control but many other forest fires aren't.

Approximately 600 - 750 people in British Columbia have likely lost their homes so far in the 2026 wildfire season, with the number expected to rise as assessments continue!

Thank you to all the wonderful firefighters who are here from Mexico, Australia and New Zealand!  

Coles

Before Chapters. Before Indigo. Before online shopping.

There was Coles.

In 1940, brothers Jack and Carl Cole opened their first bookstore on Bloor Street in Toronto. What began as a small family business would grow into Canada's largest bookstore chain and become a familiar sight in shopping malls from coast to coast.

The Cole brothers didn't start with a grand retail empire. As young entrepreneurs, they bought used textbooks from university students at the end of each school year and resold them when classes began again in the fall. It was a simple idea that proved remarkably successful.

As the business grew, so did their vision. Coles expanded into selling new books, magazines and bestsellers, becoming a favourite destination for Canadian readers. For decades, a trip to the mall often included a stop at Coles, where the smell of fresh books greeted customers the moment they walked through the door.

One of the company's greatest innovations came almost by accident.

In the late 1940s, students were looking for help understanding difficult literary classics. The Cole brothers published a study guide that summarized and explained a novel in plain language. It was an instant hit.

That booklet became the first Coles Notes.

Over the following decades, millions of Canadian students relied on the distinctive black-and-yellow guides to better understand Shakespeare, Dickens, Steinbeck and countless other authors. The success of Coles Notes even inspired similar study guides in other countries.

The company continued expanding throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, opening stores across Canada. By then, the Coles name had become synonymous with books.

In 1978, the Cole brothers sold the company, but the name lived on. In 1995, Coles merged with SmithBooks to form Chapters, and in 2001, Chapters became part of Indigo Books & Music.

Today, many Coles stores still operate inside Canadian shopping malls as part of the Indigo family, carrying on a tradition that began more than 85 years ago.

For many Canadians, Coles wasn't just a bookstore.

It was where you bought your first novel, found the next book in your favourite series, picked up a birthday gift, or, if we're being honest, grabbed a Coles Notes guide the night before an English exam.

Prince George

 

Prince George is set to begin at Eton College in September, and the path that led him there traces back to a decision made by his late grandmother, Princess Diana, decades before he was born. While royal tradition had long pointed toward Gordonstoun in the Scottish Highlands, the school attended by both King Charles and Prince Philip, Diana deliberately broke from that mold when choosing where William would be educated.

Author Simon Vigar, who wrote the biography "The Four Wives of Windsor," tells PEOPLE the choice was "very much a Diana decision." Her father and brother were both Eton alumni, and the school's proximity to home was a practical factor too, especially given that Charles had not been happy at Gordonstoun. Despite their separation in 1992, both Diana and Charles were present when William started at Eton in September 1995. After Diana's death in 1997, the school became what royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith calls a "much-needed haven" for the grieving 15-year-old prince.

Now, thirty years later, William and Kate's eldest son is following that same trail. A source close to the family says George "always wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps." Founded in 1440, Eton has produced 20 British prime ministers and is known for both its academic rigor and its tradition of developing students for leadership, qualities the Wales family reportedly considered central to their final decision.

Clickbait and Facebook

Clickbait is a text, image, or video link with an exaggerated, shocking, or misleading title designed to entice users to click through a website.

This cruise is possible, however when you go onto the website, it's clickbait!  The Facebook page has nothing to do with travel.  I never read it before, it just showed up on my feed as "sponsored" or as I put it "unwanted".  I did "turn notifications off for this post".  Another one will pop up again under a difference name and I'm tired of this garbage.

I continue to see these posts showing travel.  I should have kept the one that said : Cruise from Vancouver to Sydney Australia in 14 days!   It takes Commercial container‑ship speeds (14–18 knots) 16–20.6 days of pure sailing time. Most cruise ships, with stops along the way take around 33 days. I've seen them as short at 27 days with very few stops. There was another one sailing from Vancouver to Italy!  You can do it, but in a few cruises with some stopovers.  More clickbait.

I've noticed other Facebook group pages with an interest or specific subject, show recipes and nothing to do with the subject of the page.  You can answer any post you read with your opinion.  When I read the "opinions" of some people, I see the hate in the world.  

I just checked my feed.  I see "Sponsored", "Follow", "Join" and my favorite "AI Content".  I get more of these than actual posts from my friends in the database.  It's so frustrating.  Also I get videos of people removing weird things from their body and pictures of health problems I don't want to see.  I tried to remove them but they keep returning.  It's disgusting.

False and misleading news.  So much advertising.  Hate posts.  I'm tired of the garbage on Facebook.  It's lost it's intent.  

 

BC Day in a Season of Smoke and Solidarity

 

Yesterday was BC Day.  BC Day is usually a time when we pause to celebrate the place we call home — its beauty, its diversity, its resilience. But this year, the celebration feels different. Our province is blanketed in smoke. Entire communities are under evacuation orders. Families are losing homes they’ve lived in for generations. The scale of the wildfires has reshaped daily life across British Columbia.

And yet, even in a season this heavy, something profoundly hopeful is happening.

Yesterday, Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar issued a statement that captured the spirit of what it means to be British Columbian — not just in good times, but in the hardest ones. He spoke about the arrival of wildfire personnel from Mexico, more than 100 arriving on August 3rd and over 200 more later in the week, who have left their own homes to help protect ours.

His words carried a reminder that feels especially important right now:

“Supporting our neighbours and communities, showing hospitality to our partners and taking care of each other. These are the values that make me proud to be a British Columbian.”

In a summer defined by loss, that sense of shared humanity is something to hold onto.

Wildfire response has always been a team effort — a network of people who don’t stop to think about borders or politics, but simply answer the call when someone needs help. Parmar emphasized that every person who joins the effort strengthens our ability to protect communities and forests across the province. It’s a truth we see every day in the faces of BC Wildfire Service crews, local volunteers, and now, international partners who have stepped forward without hesitation.

On BC Day, Parmar offered gratitude to wildland firefighters here at home and around the world — people who are spending their summer on the front lines so others can stay safe.

His message is a reminder that even in a season of fear and uncertainty, we are not alone. Help is arriving. Communities are supporting one another. And the values we celebrate on BC Day — generosity, courage, and connection — are being lived out in real time.

This year, BC Day isn’t just about pride in our province. It’s about gratitude for everyone who is fighting to protect it.

From the Guadalajara Reporter:

‘THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS DO’: MEXICO ANSWERS CANADA’S CALL AS WILDFIRES RAGE

As relentless wildfires continue to devastate vast stretches of Canada — with more than 900 active blazes burning from British Columbia to the Northwest Territories — Mexico has once again proven itself a steadfast ally. Jalisco proudly contributed its own elite personnel from the state’s Fire Management and Operational Units. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did not mince words when expressing his gratitude: “That’s what friends do when they face a crisis. This is our moment of need, and Mexico is responding.”