All posts by Anastasia Avvakumova

Community

2023 Cortes Social Profit Gathering

Originally published by the Cortes Foundation

A woven tray of fresh flowers is making its way around the circle of 50 or so participants in the Social Profit Gathering held mid-June on Cortes Island, BC. Co-organizer Manda Aufochs Gillespie (Cortes Island Community Foundation, Folk U), has kicked off the day with an address to this land that has continued to provide for human communities since time immemorial. Everyone is invited to take a colorful bloom and connect to this place by holding a piece of it. The other invitation is to co-create the day ahead, building onto the scheduled agenda with collective knowledge, ideas and experience.

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Business

Friday Market vendor profile: Thaddeus Conrad

The selection of products Thaddeus Conrad carries at his table reflects his eclectic interests, knowledge base and travels.

He makes some of his own herbal medicines, such as tinctures and topicals. “I import organic arnica butter from India and I make a tiger balm,” he said.

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Arts

Cortes Literacy book club gets off the ground with eReader grant

CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

A grant of eReaders from Rakuten Kobo has translated into a monthly book club on Cortes Island where readers use both print and digital media to access titles.

Late last year, 20 Kobo eReaders came under Cortes Literacy’s stewardship. Through the partnership, a regular book club is now being held: readers have access to the devices and subscriptions to the Kobo Plus book library included with the grant, as well as public library’s offerings.

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Clothing

Small island community Darn Tough on sock warranties

Cortes Island is a noteworthy location for the number of annual warranties claimed through the Darn Tough brand of socks, which are guaranteed for life.

Although the 2022 claims total was only 21 pairs for the island, per capita this is 24.75 times higher than the Cities of Vancouver, North Vancouver and West Vancouver combined. Cortes and Quadra Islands together added up to 43 pairs claimed under warranty in 2022, which is the same number as all of Campbell River, said Carly Murdoch in the warranty department of the Canadian distributor, Interex Industries.

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Business, Community

Friday Market vendor profile: Twigroot Botanicals

Twigroot Botanicals is a young business, steadily building a reputation for high-quality body care products that began with a garden.

”I wanted to do something different because there is so much skincare out there,” said Cortes Island-based owner and formulator Tamlyn Collingwood. “My preference is to only use herbs that can grow in our climate and in particular, in my garden here.”

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