Author: Michael Marrapese

1930 – 2019

One of the original founders of Community Alternatives Society along with her husband Tom Bulman, Jan was born in Fernie, B.C. on February 24, 1930.

Building community, and engaging in social action were always paramount to Jan, as was her constant mission to bring a woman’s perspective to the Christian experience. She was active in the United Church throughout her life and served as staff to the BC Conference for social justice in the 1970s, as well as being co-chair of the BC and United Church’s 2-year Conference on the Family.

Jan brought this core commitment to social justice as a social worker and in her many working and volunteer roles – as staff for TRACY of BC, support staff for Vancouver Coastal residential care, participant in rallies and walks for peace, old growth forests, aboriginal rights, women’s rights and healthcare. This carried through life in CAS where she was a founder and business manager for Muffin Works, a founder of Isadora’s Restaurant on Granville Island (both CAS initiatives), and as a committee member of the Land Trust of BC.

Jan was always upbeat, a positive force with a can-do attitude. She inspired the sense that anything was possible.  She was always someone to be reckoned with, though you would not know that upon first meeting her. Jan loved social events and and co-op celebrations where she gladly led the singing and played piano or guitar. This satisfied her desire to build community by having people participate and enjoy being together. Outside of the co-op she managed to find time to join a choir, and played with a bell ringing group.

With this abiding interest and passion for community events and celebrations, Jan became the unofficial archivist and often taped events on a hi-8 mm camera. Because of her passionate belief in the vision of sharing lives in this urban “village”, she wanted to communicate to the more mainstream world what this way of living was all about. She wrote an essay for a book on intentional communities, (Shared Visions Shared Lives) called “Love Puddlers and Social Activists”.

1947 – 2020

Marc Suess was a man of many names that represented the many and particular incarnations he underwent at different points in his life.  He had a brilliant and creative mind and a huge heart for people, and the environment, and was inherently comfortable exploring the connections between the earthly and universal realms.

Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, Marc arrived in BC in 1975. As with many people of his age, he sought new models on which he could pattern his life. This seeking spirit brought him and his wife to Salt Spring Island where he was part of building the Salt Spring Centre of yoga.

As part of the centre with like-minded people, he co-founded a theatre group, Centre Stage, which produced and hosted all kinds of art and performances for the island residents.

His next incarnation was in 1988 when he became Dancing Bear and founded the Dancing Bear Story Theatre. He became known for his 40 ft, multi-coloured, inflatable, patchwork whale he named Gaia Belle, which was in fact a portable theatre where Dancing Bear could perform original stories for children.

The Dancing Bear story theatre took his to schools and festivals around the province and soon he relocated with his family to Vancouver. He met an old friend at some community event who was a member of CAS. When he visited the co-op he immediately felt a connection with the community. Serendipity was his modus operandi, and he trusted in knowing that the Co-op was a place for the next chapter of his life.

What interested him most about community were the connections with like-minded people and/or anyone that enjoyed conversations about humanity and the divine. Always searching for a new question to answer, Dancing Bear had a vibrant inner life where he delved into the ordinary and the esoteric. Marc was the community’s philosopher, truly one of a kind.  Marc was a deep thinker, weaving together beliefs from his Jewish heritage, Yogic thought and ideas from explorations into goddess culture, sacred geometry, and numerology.

1943 – 2010

John McBride was what is referred to as an “old soul”, and this quality made him very unique with a lifetime of community service that formed the enduring legacy he left behind. He was also what is considered an “A type” personality with a tremendous vigor to make things happen.

In 1976, a small group of progressive, engaged citizens formed “Community Alternatives,” a non-profit society dedicated to putting some of these new ideas into practical form. Founder Jan Bulman explains how it happened: “two innovative educators, John McBride and John Olsen, attracted the critical mass necessary for a viable group, through writings, workshops, partying, and know-how about group development.”

John grew up in North Vancouver, and maintained life-long friendships with his school friends \. He was a dynamic teacher at Lord Byng and Templeton high schools and at the Native Education Centre, BCIT/VCC Hospitality Management, and SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development. He published curriculum on international development, urban studies, and prejudice and discrimination, and was a pioneer in use of simulation in education. He participated in the conscious exploration of `intentional community’ in the 1970’s and 80’s with Community Alternatives Co-op and Fraser Common Farm in Aldergrove, and co-founded and co-managed Isadora’s Co-op Restaurant on Granville Island.

He treasured his opportunity to come alongside First Nations communities during the last 20 years, working in adult education in community economic development and management, and the cultural context to support entrepreneurs. John had a fierce commitment to local democracy and played a role over many years as a delegate for False Creek Housing Co-op in False Creek South Neighbourhood Association, committed to planning and making a positive impact on the liveability of neighbourhoods.

John knew how to relax and find joy as a passionate player of sports, games and cards. He was a great cook and placed much importance on routinely celebrating over a meal. With a love of outdoors, he spent time mountain hiking, white water canoeing, ocean kayaking, and travel, all the better done with friends. He built a home on Saturna Island and very much appreciated the friendships there. He enjoyed immensely his poker pals of 30 years, his competitive croquet partners and friends of 25 years, and singing with friends in community and gospel choirs in the last 7 years.

 

1930 -2018

Bett Lauridsen had grown up in a small (population 800) Manitoba town where there was a real sense of community – something she felt was completely lacking in Vancouver. In CAS she knew she had found the community she had been seeking. She and her two sons were among the original residents of CAS. They were still laying the carpet when they moved in.

As an accomplished health care professional Bett spent 27 years with the Victorian Order of Nurses and Vancouver Health Department, after which she became manager of the STAT Centre (geriatric unit) at VGH. After retiring in 1995 she immediately became manager of the newly created Commuter Centre where she created the hospital staff shuttles which had carried over 2.5 million passengers and saved the health authorities hundreds of thousands of dollars. She was very proud of this success story.  The Commuter Centre was eventually named in her honour.

As well as being a nurse clinician, Bett was an energy healer, and a mediator. She lectured provincially on the expanding role of nurses, and presented at a number of national conferences on the challenges of caring for an aging population. She managed somehow to find time to serve on the board of the RNABC and Conflict Resolution Society of BC.

Along with 2 other members of CAS, Bett was a co-founder of Muffin Works, a small business to provide employment to mentally challenged people. Her son was someone who found employment there, learned new skills, and was able to move towards independence through this successful business.

Bett was able to balance her busy work and volunteer life and home life as a single parent with spending relaxing time in her flower garden. She also became a passionate and accomplished weaver of tapestries of stunning west coast scenes. A believer in (and practitioner of) in lifelong learning, Bett was always taking new challenges, learning new skills and reinventing herself.