August 16, 2021
Prairie Mountain Health Advisory Council created Our Stories of Resilience – Patching Our Quilt, an online platform for people to upload, contribute and share their successes during the pandemic. One hiking group, who call themselves The Ramblers, shared a photo of an outing. Photo supplied.
Story by Shelley Boettcher
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, people quickly changed the way they work and interact with others. We cooked our favourite dishes. We got outside and hiked and walked and rode our bikes. We sewed and learned new crafting skills. And we joined online meetings for work and for fun, as a way to keep up with friends and family around the globe.
And we coped, showing how resilient Albertans could be during a difficult time.
As a way of celebrating these successes, the Prairie Mountain Health Advisory Council (HAC) decided to find a way for people to virtually share their success stories of resilience throughout the pandemic.
They created Our Stories of Resilience – Patching Our Quilt, an online platform for people to upload, contribute and share their successes during the pandemic.
The overarching theme, Patching Our Quilt, refers to the idea that, when our diverse stories are patched together, they create one strong, warm and comforting story of strength during difficult times.
Prairie Mountain HAC member Sheena Taggart came up with the idea after realizing people were getting tired of online meetings.
“I was sitting in a Zoom presentation and, as we were chatting about it, I thought, we’re all just kind of Zoomed out,” she recalls. “Why can’t we do something different?”
HAC members and others were invited to contribute to eight “patches” or categories: Learning through Change; Pets and Resiliency; Cooking through COVID-19; Connecting to the Outdoors; Documenting the Pandemic; Resilience through Difficult Situations; Neighbours Helping Neighbours; and A Year of Living Differently.
“There is so much doom and gloom in the world,” says Lori Bayne, vice chair of the council.
“We wanted something that was uplifting: the sharing of people’s resilience, their stories, their experiences. We thought, ‘why don’t we find a way to capture that?’”
Contributions to each have varied as council members and other Albertans have shared their stories.
A recently retired woman, who had plans to travel extensively, took up quilting to cope with isolation and to learn something new. She connected with the online quilting community and has since made friends around the world.
Another shared an upbeat story about her hiking group, nicknamed The Ramblers, which has brought physical fitness and friendship to a range of people from young families to octogenarians.
Still others shared favourite recipes: cookies and memories of a childhood in Switzerland, salt cod fish cakes from Newfoundland.
Members of the Prairie Mountain HAC — which serves the western edge of the province along the Rocky Mountains and includes municipalities such as Calgary, Cochrane, Banff and High River — say they hope that, down the road, other Health Advisory Councils may decide to build on the concept to create their own programs.
Bayne adds: “It’s a platform that they could use to develop something unique and different for their own needs.”
For now, however, Bayne and her fellow HAC members are simply happy that their own project has turned out so well.
“I’m thrilled to see the diversity of stories that we’ve brought together — and I’m thrilled to see the teamwork that took place between AHS staff and the council, and even our friends and family.
“We can all talk about the down side to COVID-19 — but this was one of the positives.”
Find out how you can participate in Patching Our Quilt. Also visit Together4Health, Alberta Health Services' online platform where Albertans can get involved and have their say on various healthcare topics.
