Every quarter, we share a little update with our funders, the Village of Pemberton, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and the Lil’wat Nation, who each contribute $4000 a year to power this website. You can download the whole report, if you’re interested: Wellness Almanac Q2 2018

Here are the highlights from the last three months.

• 7000 views in the three month cycle,
• over half our posts this quarter shared out local events or news, supporting 30 different community groups and organizations

• 90 posts were generated by 19 different contributors
• another 13 community members took the reins of instagram.com/thewellnessalmanac to share a week in their lives

• the instagram community grew by 13.5%

• Our widest reaching Facebook post reached 30% of the region’s population – 1588 people learned of Levi Nelson’s IDEA art award, a success that was subsequently reported in the Pique.

• We were unsuccessful in our application to the Community Foundation of Whistler for $4000 to support the Wellness Almanac with a monthly e-newsletter, out of a concern of “lack of organizational capacity to carry out the initiative.” We were invited to reapply, with a strategy for building organizational capacity. Food for thought, and I throw it out to the community: how does a grassroots initiative build organizational capacity? What might that look like? And would a monthly e-newsletter, recapping highlights from the blog, instagram and upcoming events, be of use to you?

I never really know how to sum up what we’ve been doing, or what to highlight as “a success.” The things that resonate for me seem so personal, and kind of emotional. The numbers suggest ongoing relevance and growth, but I’m more heartened when I read people’s stories, when I gain a deeper sense of the people around me, especially as my life gets busier and busier and the community seems busier and busier and real connections seem harder to make.

I just feel strongly that it’s important to have a place for community conversations – to begin, to explore ideas, to sound things out.

A recent chat with a friend, and new resident, really stopped me in my tracks. We were talking about the posts from earlier this quarter, about it taking 200 hours to make a friend. “This community seems so friendly,” she observed, “and community-oriented, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that everyone is actually quite lonely.” She wondered if we’re really able to talk to each other, and feel heard.

I thought: that takes a lot of courage – to really talk. And really listen. My sincere hope is that the Wellness Almanac – this blog, on Facebook and instagram – are safe spaces to initiate that… and that it overflows out of the inter web and into the real world.

Is that lofty? So much so I almost delete it. Are we accomplishing it? Who knows? How can one measure that? All I can manage is my own intention. And trust there’s some magic or power in that.

Your feedback, ideas, suggestions, comments, story ideas, photos, and takeovers are always welcome. Suggest someone for a takeover. Suggest a series. Contribute a post. Send your events/news. Give a shout-out to someone in the community.

Here’s to summer.