SPONSORED BY THRIFTY FOODS
Karen Lutz has always been a fighter for the concept of “community.”
When she was a teenager, she taught kickboxing.
And when she aged out of foster care, she used that sport to keep herself afloat financially, teaching it to the kids in her Lower Mainland neighbourhood.
But she found she liked the mentorship aspects of that more than the sport itself and soon found herself running preschools and children’s programs. These days she runs the StrongStart program at Sandowne Elementary.
Everywhere she goes, she builds community. Whether it’s in her little portable behind an elementary school or in her neighbourhood. Last summer, she organized a block party where residents of her neighbourhood could come together and learn about each other, after which she formed a Facebook page for them to keep in contact virtually when they couldn’t get together in person.
She formed a partnership with Greenways Land Trust to bring her little community at the StrongStart program out into nature to learn about ecosystems and keep them pristine.
And her sense of community isn’t just about her local one.
Karen’s idea for the “Rainbow and Unicorns Colouring Kindness Act,” where people from our community – and many others – coloured unicorns and rainbows for a little girl in the Lower Mainland who was battling leukemia, bringing together communities all over the Island with one little girl in Richmond.
“I don’t really feel like I do much, I just present an idea and everyone seems to be eager to jump onboard,” she says.
“I just believe, honestly, that the more connected a community is, the safer that community is. I also believe ailments and violence begin with inner loneliness, and that inner loneliness is about people not being connected to their community.”
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