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Thank you for reading my recent article “April’s Story” by Gillian Shaw – Digital Life Writer of the Vancouver Sun
Merry Christmas Everybody!
I would like to thank everyone who has read the recent article “April’s Story” in the Vancouver Sun Newspaper by Gillian Shaw, Digital Life Writer
In my article in the Vancouver Sun which came out yesterday, Christmas Eve 2009, I reveal my personal journey of homelessness, struggles, poverty, my efforts to do Citizen Journalism and Mobile Media Reporting with AHA MEDIA and the volunteer mentoring of other folks in basic Media training in Vancouver Downtown Eastside
If you have not read my article in the Vancouver Sun, please click on the link
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/techsense/archive/2009/12/23/april-s-story.aspx
It has been a really tough year for us at AHA MEDIA and we are seeking donations of electronic gear and equipment so we may continue to build our community capacity to do mobile media reporting in Vancover and Downtown Eastside
FIDO Pay as You Go Phone Cards for cell phones,
Digital cameras,
SD memory cards,
Laptops/Desktops,
Video cameras,
Audio equipment
We are also looking for donations of warm clothing and food items for our friends and neighbors in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside at the LifeSkills Centre near Oppenheimer Park where we volunteer at
Wish List of Christmas Donations by members of AHA MEDIA and LifeSkills Centre
If you would like to donate FIDO Pay as you go Phone Cards, Electronic Gear and Equipment, Warm Clothing and Food to us at AHA MEDIA and for other folks in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, please email me
Email: Apr@live.ca or through Twitter or Facebook
Thank you very much and have a Merry Christmas! 🙂
April Smith of AHA MEDIA is very honored to be featured by Gillian Shaw – Digital Life Writer for The Vancouver Sun Newspaper on Christmas Eve 2009
By GILLIAN SHAW
23 DEC 2009 DIGITAL LIFE
As it comes time to wrap up 2009, I wanted to share the story of a journalist who has inspired me this year.
A citizen journalist – April Smith, who is making an impact not only for her work chronicling the news and stories of Vancouver’s inner city but also for giving back to her community by mentoring others.
April didn’t graduate from any journalism program. Hers was truly the school of hard knocks and her background one of hardship.
I first met April at WordCamp Whistler last January. She was a grad of the Downtown Eastside’s Fearless City Mobile project, which helped residents and artists of the neighborhood learn to tell stories through mobile media.
At the time April said the experience had been ‘life-changing.’
“I have moved from one side of the tracks to the other,” she told me.
The other side of the tracks was pretty ugly. It was a life of homelessness and struggling to survive on the streets.
April shares her story with eloquence and honesty that is all the more compelling because it is free of self-pity. Her optimism for the future is what comes through loud and clear.
You can listen to Vancouver’s CBC radio did with April. And you see her at work in an episode of With Glowing Hearts the Movie. She is @AprilFilms on Twitter.
WGHthemovie.ca -April Smith storyline from Andrew Lavigne on Vimeo.
The mentoring April received is being returned to the community many times over with the creation of AHA Media, a fledgling new media company started by April along with Hendrik Beune and Al Tkatch – AHA coming from the first letters of their names.
April is teaching and mentoring others in the Downtown Eastside, sharing her skills and enthusiasm in the hope of offering alternatives that will help improve lives.
April lives in a single room in the DTES and carries out her work and volunteering on a shoestring budget – no shoestring might be too generous to describe it. When I talk to April on the phone, I know that it’s using up precious minutes that she must buy to recharge her cell phone. I recently found out that the Nokia video phone that April was using in her work was borrowed and had to be returned. So I asked her what she needs to carry on.
While it has been a tough year for media organizations, not many list food and warm clothing on their wish list, but those are among the items AHA Media, which does volunteer peer training at the LifeSkills Centre near Oppenheimer Park, is seeking for its DTES neighbors.
The organization also needs: FIDO Pay as You Go Phone Cards for cell phones, digital cameras, SD memory cards, laptop and desktop computers, video cameras and audio equipment.
If you have any of these things kicking around, consider sharing them with others who will pay it forward many times over.
AHA MEDIA at the scene of Little Mountain housing complex fire in Vancouver on Wednesday November 10, 2009
AHA MEDIA responded to a tweet by Vancouver Sun on twitter who announced that
RT @VancouverSun Blaze breaks out at Little Mountain housing firefighters are battling a two-alarm blaze at t..http://bit.ly/aX4Az
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AHA MEDIA remembers when Little Mountain Co-op had an Art – In to raise awareness of the situation – “Artists and community members want to stop the demolition of the 224 homes at Little Mountain and have them re-opened for families in need of affordable housing”
Please see AHA MEDIA’s post of the Art – In dated January 12, 2009 http://tinyurl.com/yfpx8s7
AHA MEDIA arrived on the scene after the Vancouver Sun’s tweet on twitter and spoke to a reliable source onsite who said:
“The Fire had occured between 6pm – 7pm. Workers were finishing up for the day from cutting metal. and the fire happened…There is No Conspiracy Theory!”
Below are photos from the scene
AHA MEDIA asked if there was anyone hurt, the reliable source said “No!”
AHA MEDIA were very proud to be interviewed by Gillian Shaw, Digital Life and Technology journalist for Vancouver Sun Newspaper
AHA MEDIA were very honored and proud to be interviewed by Gillian Shaw, Digital Life and Technology journalist for the Vancouver Sun Newspaper 🙂
Gillian Shaw will be highlighting AHA MEDIA’s style of citizen journalism with cellphones that have built in cameras to help create new media and social media content.
AHA MEDIA is very proud to say that they will also be camera operators for the upcoming W2 Fearless City Mobile projects with Bright Lights and with CODE Live (part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad).
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Below is a photo of Bill Keay, Staff Photographer of Vancouver Sun taking photos of AHA MEDIA
In the following video, Bill Keay, Staff Photographer of the Vancouver Sun newspaper photographs April Smith together with Hendrik Beune, Peter Davies and Ken Glofcheskie of AHA MEDIA for an upcoming article in the Vancouver Sun about social media in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, written by Gillian Shaw, who is the Digital Life and Technology journalist for Vancouver Sun Newspaper
This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a Nokia N95 mobile cameraphone. April is passionate and skilled in making Nokia films by exploring mobile media production through the camera lens of a cellphone. For a better quality version of this video, please DM April Smith@AprilFilms on Twitter or Facebook.com/AprilFilms
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Below is a photo of Bill Keay, photographing April Smith
AHA MEDIA thanks Bill Keay, Staff Photographer and Gillian Shaw,Digital Life and Technology Journalist for the Vancouver Sun for their excellent work! 🙂
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