The final of a three-part series of family-centred MainstreamS programs, Creature Crafting will be led by Patty Kolesnichenko and hosted this Saturday, November 5 from 10-11 a.m., upstairs at the Kimberley Public Library.

The past two weekends, 55 people came out to experience the Stream Trailer and design future neighborhoods taking into account climate changes. Drawings of design ideas from the Climate Changes, Housing Dreams event last weekend are on display at the Library. It’s amazing what inspired minds come up with! Produced by MainstreamS, the goal of this family series is to explore aspects of our local watershed from different perspectives while having fun connecting as a group.

Creature Crafting is a very hands-on program, incorporating fun dress-up and crafting with the goal of ‘getting under the skin’ of macro invertebrates that live in streams. Macro invertebrates are organisms without backbones, visible to the eye without a microscope. They are sensitive to changes in their environment and for that reason are important in any kind of water monitoring program. If they are healthy and abundant, there is a good chance the water is healthy too.

They are also super interesting looking, ranging from quirky to funny, creepy to beautiful. Since they are pretty small in real life, tiny features become a lot more interesting by dressing up in human size. Then with clay and other materials, everyone will create their own version to take home. “As this other world comes to life, we realize these exotic-looking creatures exist abundantly in local streams,” said Kolesnichenko.

Patty Kolesnichenko will be facilitating the morning. Known and respected by many in this community already, she is a trained teacher with a BSc and over 20 years of experience in outdoor education. Also certified through Streamkeepers and CABIN (Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network), she is passionate about water. Seamlessly weaving a lot of information into these fun and creative activities, she is highly skilled at adapting the program to fit a wide range of ages, engaging small children to adults.

There will be complimentary refreshments and cookies baked by Erna Jensen of ‘de lights’ to fuel the morning.

MainstreamS has been working on water education in the Kootenays for the past 13 years and is launching a Streamkeeper program in Kimberley after years of successful projects in Cranbrook. The main focus is keeping riparian vegetation healthy in our watershed. Riparian vegetation grows on the banks of creeks and is vital in preventing erosion and retaining water on the land. The riparian is also a prime defense against extreme weather events such as prolonged rainstorms or days of rain on wet snow.

This program is made possible by funding from Columbia Basin Trust with assistance from the Fortis BC Community Investment Fund. With this generous support the program is free.

Registration is recommended. Contact Shannon (250-427-7981 or [email protected]) to sign up or with any questions.

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