FAITHFUL REGULARS

JACQUI BIRCHALL
*Stanley Park Notebook*

Retired Vancouver educator, longtime Vancouver Folk Music, Film, and Jazz Festival volunteer, and seasonal resident in Mexico, Jacqui first moved to the West End in 1969, raised her daughter here, and settled permanently 18 years ago.
She is a happy West of Denman resident and living within steps of Stanley Park and English Bay says she feels like she lives in paradise!
“My favourite thing to do is to walk around Lost Lagoon early in the morning and of course at beaver sighting time! My ambition is to see the owls fishing there at dusk.”

Monika Forberger — MONIKA FORBERGER
*Listings Coordinator & Contributor*

Monika has been happily playing with words for many years, as an advertising copywriter, journalist and editor for radio, newspapers, magazines, newsletters and on line publications. She has been the managing editor for **www.entertainmentvancouver.com** since 2002, supporting the arts community in the Lower Mainland with information on current live entertainment events.
Monika volunteers for Knowledge Network, where she is also called upon for her editing expertise. As a former West End resident she's delighted to be able to contribute stories about her knowledge of this unique community and its fascinating history. She is currently working on her second novel, with help from some very talented friends in her writer’s group.

NATE LEWIS
Reporter & Associate Editor

Nate Lewis is a writer and student journalist from Vancouver.
Nate is in his second year in BCIT’s Broadcasting and Journalism program, and is gaining valuable experience with publications like *The West End Journal*. Nate’s areas of interest include environmental justice, city building and infrastructure, public policy, and sports and has worked as a freelancer, writing about the Vancouver Canucks for numerous websites.
Nate assists with editorial responsibilities for *The West End Journal* and subs for “Stanley Park Notebook” columnist during the winter months.

BETH LOPEZ
*Pots & Plants*

Beth started life in Ontario but came to Vancouver in 2001 to be near her daughters.
She retired from teaching French Immersion in 2012 and, ever mindful of that old adage that what we focus on grows, has been enjoying the fruits of her labors with her husband Richard in the West End ever since. Her current life is filled with gardening, tutoring, landscaping, cooking, tillage, sewing, cultivation, knitting, floriculture, embroidery, planting, beading, growing, and her newest skill — basket weaving using her homegrown sweet grass.

HENRY MacDOUGALL
*The Dragon’s Pen*

Born and raised in the west end, Henry has lived in downtown Vancouver all his life. His hobbies include music, programming, and creative writing.

He loves traveling, snowboarding, and (of course), the west end. He attends King George Secondary School, and loves to relax and read books in his free time.
Henry is excited to bring his voice to *The West End Journal* and have some fun while he's at it.

JAKE McGRAIL
Contributor

Jake is a writer and broadcaster born and raised here in Vancouver.

He’s a student in the BCIT journalism program after previously graduating with a Bachelor’s in English from UBC, Jake has been writing for about as long as he can remember.

He’s a big sports fan and has worked as a volunteer at outlets like AFTN and CiTR Radio, and is the main play-by-play voice for UBC Thunderbirds volleyball for Canada West TV.

Jake is excited to have the chance to cover local, community stories at The West End Journal and get to the know area a little better.

Kevin Dale McKeown — KEVIN DALE McKEOWN
*Editor & Publisher*

Kevin has been a West End resident for most of the past 50 years. A couple of years in Montréal, a couple of years in Williams Lake, but he always came home to the West End. He began his journalism career in 1969 with contributions to the old *West Ender* weekly, and served as that paper’s managing editor in the early ‘80s.
If you want to know more about *The West End Journal’s* editor, publisher, and chief cook and bottle washer, you’ll find a far too long bio **here**.

Joy Metcalfe — JOY METCALFE
*Joy’s Journal*

Joy has been involved in every facet of the entertainment business in Vancouver, as an actress, a producer, a promoter and as a broadcast/journalist. She was the unpaid publicist for Vancouver Little Theatre for 15 years at the York Theatre and appeared in several television shows including CBC-TV’s Sister Balonika. Along with Artistic Director John Parker, she helped to establish Actors Contemporary Theatre (ACT) in the old Colonial Magic Theatre on Granville and was involved in promotion of *The Boys in The Band*, *The Fantasticks* and Arthur Miller’s *The Prize*. Joy also served as the publicity director for the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre the Cave Theatre Night Club, The Ritz Dinner Theatre, SkyStage in Richmond, and the Georgia Hotel’s dinner theatre.
Joy covered the entertainment scene in her columns and photographs in the *Vancouver Courier,* *The Province,* *The North Shore News*, and *Hospitality Today* and for 16 years was the most-read columnist in *Vancouver Lifestyles Magazine*. Her broadcasting career of her twice-a-day live Joy’s Journal began on CKNW in 1987 and ran through to 2013, with scoops, rumours, stories and items becoming a daily fixture on the radio station and on cknw.com.
Her coverage of the high-society scene and her frequent tag-line prompted her to be dubbed “the gala-gala-do gal” and her enthusiasm for her subjects prompted the late Province columnist Lorne Parton to remark “Joy gets excited over the sight of grass growing!”
Joy has won numerous awards including The Canadian Consumer’s Woman of the Year, The Child Foundation’s Inspiration Award, Tourism Vancouver’s Lifetime Achievement Award, The B.C. Restaurant Hall of Fame Award, Variety Club’s Tent 47 Media Award and the International Variety Club’s Special Award, the first time ever presented in Canada.

JAMES OAKES
*Photo Journalist & Editor at Large*

Long-time Vancouverite James Oakes is a semi-retired journalist who loves to document West End scenes through the lens of his handy smartphone. After studying journalism at Langara College in the early 80s, he was hired as a cub reporter for *The West Ender* newspaper, under the editorship of Kevin McKeown. Over the next two decades, he reported for CBC television and radio in Vancouver and Toronto, including a two-year stint as a broadcaster in Québec City.
Returning to the west coast he worked as a freelancer for Canada Wide Magazines, and publicist for McKeown and Associates, whose clients included the Vancouver International Writers Festival. He also worked in corporate communications for the Loewen Group, Coast Mountain Bus Company and Langara College.
In recent years, James has been enjoying work as a landscape gardener, and since the summer of 2021 has been pitching in as assistant & assignment editor at *The West End Journal.*

Amanda Peters — AMANDA PETERS
*Design & Production*

Amanda is a Vancouver-based arts administrator, designer, visual artist, and otherwise wearer-of-many-hats. She provides consulting services in the areas of arts and cultural project management and communications, and also offers web and print design services as well as website administration.
Over the years she has had the pleasure of working with a number of arts organizations, including the BC Alliance for Arts + Culture (alongside Kevin Dale McKeown), and currently works primarily with the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance (GVPTA) as Associate Executive Director. Connect with her at **amandapeters.ca**.

Lucas Pilleri — LUCAS PILLERI
*Contributor*

Born in Montpellier, France, near the Mediterranean Sea, Lucas started his Canadian journey in 2013 in Edmonton, Alberta, where he completed a Master’s Degree at the University of Alberta. With the beautiful Rockies in his background, he worked for *Le Franco*, Alberta’s French newspaper, as well as *Francopresse*, Canada’s francophone news website outside of Québec.
After enduring a few endless winters, he finally left the Wild Rose County in 2017 to settle in Beautiful British Columbia. In Vancouver, he was the editor of *The Source*, a bilingual publication, and has been working for Radio-Canada, CBC’s French section, since 2019. He is also the editor in chief of *L’Eau vive*, Saskatchewan’s French bimonthly newspaper.
Curious and open-minded, Lucas writes about various topics, always on the lookout for good stories – whether that’s in French or in English.

JOHN STREIT
*A Closer Look*

John Streit has 20 years experience in journalism and is a former writer and producer with CityNews in Vancouver. Prior to this role, John was a producer and anchor with NEWS1130 radio and an anchor and reporter with CJIB in Vernon.
He was born and raised in the West End where he continues to live with his young family, including *The West End Journal’s* King George Secondary School correspondent Milan Streit.
John is currently a news anchor for Radio 980 CKNW.

AND OTHER FRIENDS AS WELL

The West End Journal owes a big shout-out and thank-you to a number of West Enders whose photos and posts often appear on our Facebook page, newsletter, and website. We salute their generosity and community spirit.