Park Board Elects New Chair, Vice Chair

December 14, 2004 (No. 87) - Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Eva Riccius was elected as the organization's new Chair at last night's public Park Board meeting. Ms. Riccius succeeds Commissioner Anita Romaniuk who steps down as Chair after serving one year. Commissioner Lyndsay Poaps was elected as the new Vice Chair. She succeeds Commissioner Loretta Woodcock who served this past year as Vice Chair.

An ecologist by training, Eva Riccius works for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and holds a Master of Resource and Environmental Management from Simon Fraser University. She is currently Chair of the Park Board Planning and Environment Committee and serves as liaison for the Vancouver Food Committee/Task Force, the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association, the Vancouver Aquarium Association, the Stanley Park Ecology Society and the Hastings Park Conservancy. She also served as a member of the City's Southeast False Creek Advisory Group. Over the years she has been involved in a wide variety of community initiatives. She co-founded the Vancouver Fruit Tree Project in 1999, volunteered for Evergreen and Farmfolk Cityfolk and served on the board of Your Local Farmers Market Society.

Lyndsay Poaps is an educator and facilitator who currently works for Check Your Head (CYH), a youth-driven organization based in Vancouver that she co-founded in 1999. Ms. Poaps is Chair of the Park Board's Culture and Recreation Committee and serves as liaison for the Cool Vancouver Task Force, the Family Services/Youth Justice Committee, the Peace and Justice Committee, the Neighbourhood Matching Fund, and the Vancouver Field Sports Federation. She has focused on issues of youth engagement and empowerment in community building and decision-making. She has also worked with the Sierra Club of British Columbia as the coordinator for the Lower Mainland and served as co-chair of the British Columbia Environmental Network.

The Park Board's Procedure By-law calls for an annual election of Chair and Vice Chair.

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Contact: Joyce Courtney, Manager of Communications, at 604-257-8699

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation maintains 200 parks and 40 major facilities throughout the City of Vancouver. The Park Board's mission is to provide, preserve and advocate for parks and recreation services to benefit people, communities and the environment.

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