Vancouver’s healthy lifestyle is legendary, with our love of yoga, the Grouse Grind, the Gran Fondo, and all things vegan being well established.

Here’s a handful of other ways we’re taking care of our physical, mental, and environmental well-being.

Best reason to forage with someone who knows one mushroom from the next

Foraging is all the rage among chefs and home cooks, but here’s a stark reminder why, when it comes to searching for mushrooms, it’s best to go with a pro.

Amanita phalloides, also known as the death cap mushroom—and the world’s deadliest—could be growing in your front yard. Vancouver Coastal Health has got our back; on July 4, it issued this tweet: “A toxic death cap mushroom has been seen in Vancouver. Eating them may lead to liver & kidney damage or death. Please watch out for them.”

Cooking, freezing, or drying the fungus does nothing to dilute the potentially fatal effects of amatoxin, the mushroom’s toxic compound.

The Vancouver Mycological Society has identified more than 100 locations in the Vancouver region where death caps have been found.

https://twitter.com/VCHhealthcare/status/1146886677442584582?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1146886677442584582&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.straight.com%2Fnews%2F1263251%2Fhealth-authority-warns-worlds-deadliest-mushroom-found-vancouver

Best new fundraising and awareness run

Butterfly Run Vancouver

After she lost her son Wilder in 2017, Kimberly Lockhart began looking for a memorial walk or run to raise awareness of infant and perinatal (pregnancy) loss. Coming up empty and yearning for a sense of community, she started one herself.

Modelled after the Butterfly Run Ottawa/Gatineau, the Butterfly Run Vancouver takes place for the first time on October 5. It’s already sold-out, which speaks to just how needed this kind of event is.

It’s estimated that one in four women will experience miscarriage or pregnancy loss and that one in six Canadians experiences infertility—yet these topics remain largely taboo.

Besides being a source of support for people who can relate and who wish to honour their child’s memory, the run will also raise funds for the B.C. Women’s Health Foundation.

Best reason to wear purple

October 10 is World Mental Health Day. It also happens to be the date that Port Coquitlam teen Amanda Todd died by suicide, in 2012. She had developed mental health issues after being bullied, cyberbullied, and extorted.

Over the past few years, you might have noticed B.C. Place, Canada Place, and the Olympic Cauldron, among other spots, aglow in purple (Todd’s favourite colour) on that day.

The annual Light Up Purple initiative, which has been recognized across Canada and in other countries in Todd’s memory since 2014, aims to increase awareness of mental health issues and offer support and hope to people facing things like depression, anxiety, and bullying. The 15-year-old girl’s mom, Carol Todd, is hoping the purple movement will continue to catch on, not just at landmarks and public structures but in individuals’ own lives.

“Many have asked ‘What can I do?’” Todd writes at lightuppurple.com.

There, she shares suggestions like: Wear something purple. Open the discussion about what mental health is. Talk about wellness strategies. Change your outside lights to purple for the day. Use purple on your Facebook page. Light a purple candle. Have a purple bake sale. Take a selfie or a group photo holding a #lightuppurple or #worldmentalhealthday sign.

Best local effort to end ocean plastic waste

The Ocean Legacy Foundation

Founded in 2014, the nonprofit organization recently launched EPIC, a plastic pollution emergency-response program. The acronym stands for education (skill training for community members), policy, infrastructure (such as recycling systems for a plastic circular economy), and cleanup (hands-on removal of plastic pollution to create a cleaner, safer place for people, plants, and animals to live). The organization has participated in shore cleanups throughout British Columbia and in other parts of the world. To date, volunteers have removed over 70 metric tonnes of mixed plastic, foam pollution, and Japanese driftage from local and international coastlines. Info on how to plan a shoreline cleanup is at epic.oceanlegacy.ca/.