Two years after it was first proposed by Dr. Charles Helm, the Health in the Geopark project has had its first fruits in the form of educational modules for students.
Helm says the idea was a hard sell. “We tried so many avenues to get funding,” he says. “We went the health route, and they said ‘no, there’s too much geology here.’ Then we went to the geology funding sources and they said ‘no, there’s too much health here.’ This was so unique and unusual and novel, people couldn’t wrap their heads around it.”
Fortunately for the project, they were able to get $10,000 in funding from the District of Tumbler Ridge. “It has taken longer than we hoped, largely due to Covid,” says Helm.
“It’s one thing to have a Geopark,” says Helm, “but it’s another thing to try and translate that into a healthy community. And that is what this is about: making use of this incredible blessing of this Geopark on our doorstep, The Portugal Geopark there is trying to do something along these lines, otherwise this is pretty much it. The UNESCO Global Geoparks Network says this is a real important concept for them. They want to see this happen in all Geoparks across the world. But we pretty much the only one—with a bit of help from Portugal—that is doing this.”
Helm says the combination of a healthy living focus within the Geopark is globally unique. “What we’re actually doing in little Tumbler Ridge is being a global leader in this way.”
Manda Maggs, Executive Director for the Tumbler Ridge Geopark, says the bulk of what the funds were used for was developing a teacher’s resource guide for school-aged kids.
These resources are free and available for any educator who wants to use them.
The material has been presented to the local schools, and one local teacher has tested the materials last year. The expectation is more teachers will be using the resources in the future.
And it’s not just for the local schools. “If you’re a parent teaching your kids at home, or if you’re the kind of person who just likes to supplement their own knowledge, there’s lots of great stuff here,” says Maggs. “There’s a whole curriculum guide that explains how this ties into the BC Curriculum. There’s social studies and science…there’s lots of pages with QR codes which lead to more resources online. There’s 360 degree video of locations like the Shipyard Titanic, for people who don’t live here, or aren’t able to get out there, or even as a primer before you take your kids there; they can look at the video and see what they can expect.”
Last month, there was a conference of all the Global Geoparks, and this information was presented there as well. “We have shared it with the Canadian Geoparks network and the other Geoparks in Canada are wanting to take this up for themselves,” says Helm. “Once we’ve done that, we’re going to share it again with all the Geoparks across the globe. So we are not just doing this for Tumbler Ridge. It’s letting what we’re doing here act as an inspiration for the rest of the world.”
Maggs agrees that this is work that will be of a global significance. “The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals really talk about things like food, healthy living, equality, which includes the quality and health access,” she says. “So it is a priority for us as a Geopark, but nobody’s doing it, which is kind of unusual.” She says that having someone like Helm, whose interests all intersect in this one project have made it possible for Tumbler Ridge to take the lead. “We were kind of uniquely positioned to take the lead on this,” she says. “I have commitments right now from three of the other Geoparks in Canada. They want to learn more from us, they want us to put together a workshop to find out how they can adapt this to their communities.”
Helm says the timing for this couldn’t be better. “We are emerging from Covid, and across the world people are wanting to be doing things like this and getting going.”
Maggs says that mental health is a big part of it. “Nature deficit disorder, and anxiety and the feelings of frustrations people are having could be made better by getting out there into nature.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
