It just occurred to me that this is my 20th year as a Cherry Scout, 19th year as the scout co-ordinator. 2008 is the year we started posting on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. "Lifers" @Anne Eng , @Laura Blumenthal , @eteinindia (Mariko Izaki) are the only others I can see who joined the forums in 2008 and are still posting. I enjoyed seeing the forum handles of others who joined us for a while and then moved on. I particularly miss Joseph Lin, who started his list of cherry tree locations long before the festival began, and who left this earth too soon, in 2020. We still feature his photo on the Cherry Scouts - Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival page. Others joined later, but have become lifers. I get so excited when I see people return for yet another year sharing their own excitement for these blossoms. Maybe others have been with us all that time, but not as active forum participants. Many people reading this are on my vcbfscouts Mailchimp mailing list. If you're not on the list but would like to be, just start a conversation (click the envelop in the upper right), and tell me your name, email address, and the neighbourhood where you live or work, and importantly, ask to be on the mailing list. But people can't reply to those mailings, so we don't have conversations, except about cherries. So I'm posting this note on the forums, where you can reply with any thoughts you want to share about your connection to this festival and the cherry scouts over the years. I campaigned to have this (volunteer) job twenty years ago. It's a long time since I've come up with any new ideas. If you've been thinking you'd do things a little differently, now's a good time to step up. I'm willing to help anyone who's keen to take over all of it, or part of it.
