Games & Activities

If you or someone you love is battling breast cancer, you know each day brings a rainbow of emotions—you may feel fearful or fierce, hopeful or helpless, cautious or courageous.

Whatever you're feeling, no matter your age or your stage, a positive attitude is an infinitely powerful tool for healing. Inkspirations for Breast Cancer Survivors was created by Beverly Vote, a breast cancer survivor, to help you destress, recharge, and renew so that you can awaken your hidden healer within.

Over two decades ago, Beverly Vote was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 38. With a bleak diagnosis and few resources, she felt helpless and overwhelmed. In 2006, she founded Breast Cancer Wellness Magazine to empower and encourage other women like her.

'We are all so unique and one healing size does not fit all,' she explains. 'Coloring is a great healing tool to relax and let our feelings flow without being critical or judgmental about what is being released.' Take time to unwind and release your stress and emotions. Reflect on the healing images and be inspired by the uplifting quotes and affirmations from fellow survivors and thought leaders. With heartfelt illustrations from renowned artist Ann-Margret Hovsepian, Inkspirations for Breast Cancer Survivors offers you a calming, creative, and restorative break.

©2017 HCI Books. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Inkspirations for Breast Cancer Survivors: Coloring Designs to Awaken the Healing Hero WithinBTITLE. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.

Fort York (first established 1793)
How could a fort located at the centre of a city possibly defend it? Enveloped as it is today by the modern metropolis, it’s difficult to imagine that Fort York was once strategically located at the entrance to Toronto’s protected bay on a rise of land that afforded sweeping views of the fledgling town and the great lake beyond. The War of 1812’s Battle of York saw British, Upper Canadian, and First Nations combatants engaging American troops who ransacked York — then the capital of Upper Canada — before eventually being defeated. Since that important 1813 battle, Fort York has spent most of its life as a peacetime garrison. The only real threat to its walls has been urban development!
The arrival of railways isolated the fort from the city, and track-widening destroyed its northern bastions. A proposal for a streetcar line to be run directly through the garrison was rejected, and the line was rerouted to spare the fort’s remaining structures. After the army moved out in 1933, Fort York was opened to the public as a historic site, but heritage status didn’t protect it completely. In 1958, Frederick Gardiner proposed dismantling Fort York and moving it south to make way for his elevated expressway. Taking a cue from soldiers defending the fort in the past, historical societies petitioned the city to change the plan. They were successful, and today the Gardiner Expressway narrowly misses the fort, rising extra high at that point to maintain access for visitors. Though shoreline extensions have marooned Fort York inland, views of Lake Ontario can still be had through gaps between the high-rises that have sprung up in recent years around the garrison.
Beyond welcoming visitors, school groups, and summer camps, Fort York is now the site for several large public events, including the Nuit Blanche arts festival, concerts, and the annual Na-Me-Res traditional outdoor powwow that celebrates Native history with traditional dancing, arts, drumming, and feasts.