Hug A Bull....you know you want to. I know that Pit Bulls get a negative reputation, however, I…read morebelieve that it is the owner that instigates the band behavior. I know many pit bulls that are sweet hearts, especially one that lives a few doors down from me named Jake who is the biggest teddy bear....well pit bull but you get the idea. I saw these guys at the Pet Lover's expo last week. HugABull is a registered non-profit organization and a community of pit bull owners, advocates and enthusiasts. Their mission is to rescue dogs, provide public education, and build a community of responsible pit bull owners and supporters.

I saw these guys at the Pet Lover's Show. CDART volunteers respond in times of disaster and…read moreemergencies when domestic animals are in need of rescue and sheltering. I saw some of the videos during the presentation at the EXPO and it was cool. I love how the helping personality of the animals show, almost a more compassionate circumstances than human sometimes.

Great organization and staff! The society has helped my family with education, support and…read moreopportunities to connect with other families who are on the same journey with Alzheimer. I'm happy to help them as an advocate, donor, fundraiser and volunteer.

I wish I could recommend this organization. Unfortunately, I feel like they make decisions for…read moreanimals based on their own priorities rather than the animals themselves. I've brought several birds in with minor injuries and none have ever made it. Most recently, two young American robins. I had to keep these two for 24 hours. They were eating, pooping, and sleeping normally. I brought them in in great condition only be told the "animal's conditions were beyond our ability to help and we are saddened to inform you that they have passed away". It was a pretty automated response and, having rehabbed many birds of all ages myself, I don't believe that they were beyond saving for a minute. My one wish is that I would have just kept this last sweet, healthy pair and rehabbed them myself. If you have *any* other option for rescue, exercise it. They will likely euthanize the birds you bring to them.

Good and professional place to call and contact anything about the wildlife and drop off for found…read moreinjured or lost wildlife. They have helpline you could call if you found an injured animal and not sure what to do. They are friendly and helpful. Even after hours at 4pm you can still drop off the animal in the shed and fill out the form and leave it with the box/cage. Their will be staffs on site 24-hours and they regularly check the shed. A few parking in front of a house and the road leading to the house is pretty bad and bumpy so just be cautious at night or on bad weather days. Not hard to find and it's a place you can definitely trust.

BC Centre for Ability This Non-profit organization provides…read morecommunity based to enhance the quality of life for children, youth with special needs and adults with disabilities program. Registered Charity # 132004169 RR 0001 Main Office : 2805 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC V5R 5H9 Tel: (604) 451-5511 Fax: (604) 451-5651 Burnaby Office : 301 - 4460 Beresford Street, Burnaby, BC V5H 0B7 Tel: (778) 328-1625 Fax: (778) 328-1630 Richmond Office: 3368 Carscallen Road, Richmond, BC V6X 2H6 North Shore Office: 304 - 267 Esplanade West North Vancouver, BC V7M 1A5 This Non-profit organization needs our support regularly to continue their program for youth and adults with disabilities throughout British Columbia. Please also help the disabled people family to take care of their family member after work.

As an intern at Fored BC Society, I've had the opportunity to see firsthand how this organization…read moresupports environmental education across British Columbia. Their resources are thoughtfully designed, engaging, and highly informative, making complex topics about forests, wildlife, and conservation accessible for students of all ages. I particularly appreciate how the materials encourage hands-on learning and critical thinking, which makes it easier for teachers and parents to inspire curiosity about nature. For anyone looking to introduce children to Canada's natural environment, or to supplement classroom learning with interactive, credible, accurate, and well-structured content, Fored BC Society is an invaluable partner.

So far so good This…read moreestablishment is a not for profit organization offering various services as well as sponsoring Chinese themed events. I'm writing about the Chinese language school, kindergarten in Cantonese. My daughter has started it. It's basically immersion in Cantonese. I suspect the language school is the bread and butter of this organization. They start with the basic characters at this level. They offer two levels of kindergarten. One in which the characters are not as "difficult" and one in which it is much simpler. I went for the simple, just to get my daughter going. I never asked about simplified characters, and it appears that they teach traditional. I didn't see any simplified characters in the building. As far as I can tell, the instructor is trying to make it a fun environment to encourage interest. That's a good thing. Getting your kids enthusiastic about this stuff is extremely difficult. $180 per term. (Sept - Dec)

I was forced to attend this school as a child and it was one of the most dreaded parts of my…read morechildhood for many reasons. The school uses an "immersion" strategy to teach the language, meaning most of the teachers spoke only Chinese and zero English, and that the only way you could understand the teacher was if you already knew Chinese. There was no way for an absolute beginner to learn jack because all they ever hear from the teacher is white noise. A large portion of the teachers are nagging, miserable shrews who must not have been paid enough to take their job seriously, but still lack the compassion or empathy that even most poor people have; any good teachers that exist at the school are few and far between. They do not even try to respect the dignity of children, and seemingly have no problem using shaming and humiliation as discipline. My teacher would punish the students by making them sing a song in front of the class as a punishment for forgetting their bookbags, and she would also force students to stand up in front of the class and read a text, obviously getting mad if they didn't do it with enough enthusiasm. In contrast to most schools in the Western world, the school's outdated teaching system relies heavily on memorization and lectures with nothing even approaching active learning, which, for many people including myself, entirely removes the enjoyment from learning and destroys any remaining motivation of even the most strong-willed students. Whereas most schools let their teachers decide their assessment strategies, this school standardizes frequent written dictations and oral recitals, meaning that all students have to excruciatingly memorize and regurgitate the abstract, incomprehensible scribbles that are thrown at them often without knowing what they mean, only to forget them within hours because they're given new ones to memorize. People learning the simplified script may have an easier time with this than those learning traditional, but it would be better if the school used more engaging methods to teach the characters rather than just throwing characters at us and expecting us to somehow pick it up without explaining a thing in English. Maintenance of the school is virtually non-existent; the building is extremely rundown, obscene graffiti is scribbled everywhere on the walls and furniture, and students are given damaged fold-up tables in the place of desks (you can see them in an image on the Yelp page). I normally would refrain from making comments concerning the condition of buildings, because I've been taught not to judge things based on their appearance. However, after going to this school, it became evident to me that the building's neglect is a very accurate reflection of how this school treats its students. I would normally consider $250 per year a very low price for education, but in this case it's highway robbery because this school should be paying us to suffer through their services. If you want to enroll your child in a Chinese language school, I'm afraid you've got to look elsewhere unless you only care about the graduation diploma on cheap printer paper. And if you just need babysitting for your child for cheap, there are better, more humane services everywhere that do the job twice as good at half the price.

I recently volunteered at the urban orchard-in-progress on Great Northern Way. I won't go on about…read morethe organization and all the good things they do; rather I will simply treat it as any other outing and rate the experience. (I will, though, encourage you to visit their website and look into how you can help out.) After completing the generic volunteer application, I was contacted via email by the project coordinator. Volunteers were given a choice of days to work and told where to be, what to bring and what we would be doing. The onsite representative was able to answer my many questions (what kinds of apples will grow, how much water/dirt/sunlight etc., what kind of irrigation is needed...what can I say, I'm a curious person!) She is clearly invested in the project and has a lot of passion for it. It wasn't easy, shoveling dirt and filling the planters, but it was fun and I met some great people. There were about twelve people helping the night I was there, which, isn't a lot. There will be a need for help as the season goes along and I hope that people will read this and get inspired. It's fun to help out and actually see something grow from your efforts. The location is cool, too, as there are some interesting things going on, such as roof garden experiments and big future plans for the site. The experience was even better than I expected. The people were friendly, helpful and enthusiastic and the location is easy to access via bike, transit or vehicle. And, it's free!