Sponsors of the Cycle of Life project

We couldn't produce the lessons, or record the songs, without the support of our sponsors.

The supporting sponsors for Cycle of Life/Recycle Educators Handbook are the guiding organizations of the beverage recycling industries in British Columbia and Alberta.

Encorp Pacific (Canada) and Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation committed to three years of supporting funding to enable the Handbook to be promoted to schools throughout Alberta and BC.

Encorp Pacific (Canada)

Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation

Letter from Holly

This website exists because of a relationship between Artist Response Team (ART), and two of Canada’s largest recycling organizations: Encorp Pacific (Canada) and Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC).

In August 2005 we three created a Collaborative Strategic Agreement for three years.  We didn’t know exactly how to describe the legal agreement, so this was the title we came up with.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail.”

I feel this spirit has infused the events over the past four years that spawned the Cycle of Life project.  Here is my summary of how our sponsors became involved.

Chapter 1: Encorp Pacific (Canada)

Early in 2001, I performed at Ocean Point Hotel, with a choir of 30 children from Willway School, Abner Thorne (Cowichan elder), Karel Roessingh (pianist), and Jack Fleming (washtub bass-playing superintendent of the Saanich school district).  ART produced this show in support of the bid from Victoria to host the United Nations’ Children’s Conference on the Environment, planned for June 2002.  Neil Hastie was in the audience, as was Theo Oben, head of the UN Children’s Conference.  There was a magical performance in front of the big glass wall looking out into Victoria harbour, that culminated in me and the kids singing as we slowly climbed a curved staircase to the balcony above, while the band kept playing below.  After this event Encorp committed to be a sponsor for the Children’s Conference.  In June 2001 Theo Oben spoke at the Salish Sea Festival at Fort Rodd Hill, along with Environment Minister David Anderson.

Stephen was at Globe in March 2002, attending a seminar on some particular subject.  After the speakers had said their part, audience members were invited to ask questions.  Stephen asked, “What are your organizations doing to support education in schools around the environment?”

Stephen wasn’t entirely satisfied with their responses (an overly-restrained interpretation of his true feelings, on my part).  But he did tell me about Neil coming up to him afterwards and asking, “How would you encourage children to recycle their containers at school?” 

Stephen responded, “I’d connect recycling to something that children care deeply about, like bears and other endangered species.  Many children go to bed with a stuffed animal that they talk to as they fall asleep, but how many cuddle a pop can?” 

Neil said that Encorp would like ART to develop a handbook.

And so the Cycle of Life project was born.

Chapter 2: Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation

In fall 2002, Encorp sponsored our travel costs for ART to go out to Alberta, and give a performance at the national conference of beverage recyclers.  A choir from Queen Elizabeth School in Canmore travelled 50 miles, transported by their parents and music teacher, to the luxurious Delta Hotel in Kananaskis. 

The children and their chaperones were accommodated in an upstairs meeting room as a holding area; they ate their snacks.  Then we all proceeded downstairs, where they lined up in the hallway outside the conference hall, where delegates were finishing lunch.

Guy West was standing over against the accordion-folding wall that separated the lunch guests from the hallway.  All of a sudden, his two young children saw him, ran towards him, and flung themselves into his outstretched arms.  The force of their accumulated momentum pushed Guy into the accordion wall, which moved backwards.  Stephen saw what was happening and later told me he was concerned that accordion wall could come loose from its moorings up above, and injure people below.  Stephen stepped forward and extended his hand to Guy, who grabbed it, straightened back up with his kids hanging around his neck.

Then we did the show.  Delegates were impressed with the music, the children, and the fact that their parents were standing at the back of the room, and had driven 50 miles to come and enjoy their children’s performance. 

ABCRC became a sponsor, and the national edition of the Cycle of Life/Recycle Handbook and CD was created.  The result was an excellent learning resource that has been Provincially Recommended by the BC Ministry of Education for the new science curriculum.  It has been enthusiastically received by the educational community.

Chapter 3:  The collaborative strategic agreement

The unique partnership between ART, Encorp and ABCRC has come to be known as the Cycle of Life program—dedicated to sustainability education.  The concept is to pool our resources in order to take musical and ecological messages out to the broader public, and let the educational community know about the CDs and Handbooks.

I am deeply grateful for the support and the opportunity.  We all have a lot to be proud of. 

Thank you.