BC's biggest pumpkin

• Yes (tell us which!)
• No, but I grow some summer ones
• No, I don't garden

Today’s approx. read time: 5 minutes

Islander Kerri van Kooten-Perras took 1st place in Langley this weekend with a 1,152lb (523kg) Atlantic Giant Pumpkin named Walter. For comparison, that’s two or three times the weight of typical adult male bears.

Walter is the biggest she’s ever grown—in 2017 she placed 3rd with a 1,074-pounder—but won’t be returning to the Island for a victory tour.

“Walter has now settled into his new home at Coastal Blacks Pumpkin Fest,” [pictured above, right] van Kooten-Perras said. “He has met some new barnyard friends and is looking forward to all his visitors."

BC actually had an even bigger pumpkin

Even the massive Walter has nothing on another giant pumpkin grown by a BC resident this season. Dave Chan from Richmond placed 5th at the Safeway World Championship in Minnesota, with a 1,632-pound behemoth.

But even that was no match for the new world record of 2,749 pounds—2.5 times the weight of Walter, and comparable to a youngish female hippo. That new record was set at the same competition by a pumpkin from near San Francisco.

Victoria’s post-secondary nursing program is grappling with under-enrolment this fall, despite the high local demand for health-care workers. A group of students, with the support of some instructors, are arguing that unpaid practicums are discouraging people from enrolling and causing BC to lose people to other regions.

They argue that these required stints of practical experience should either be paid, offset by tuition waivers, or replaceable with paid work that students have found in the in-demand industry.

The students say—as they also said last year—that many of them are being burnt out juggling high-pressure practicums, studies, and the jobs that are often needed in such an expensive region and short-staffed industry.

Educators have been calling for reform, too

In the summer, Capital Daily’s feature on nursing education looked at the reasons why some educators say the program needs to change in order to keep people from leaving the industry.

Read that story here.

The Globe and Mail’s list of Canada’s 500 top-growing businesses for 2023 features these locals:

• 16th – Certn a Victoria background-checking company. Its yearly revenue grew a reported 2,045% to between $25M and $50M, and it now has 435 employees.
• 47th – Alpha IT (Nanaimo): IT, cybersecurity, and web development services. 870% growth.
• 107th – DeeBee’s Organics (Victoria): Organic freezer pops. 439% growth.
• 140th – Premier Cloud (Victoria): Cloud services and solutions. 341%.
• 405th – First Light Technologies (Saanich): Solar-powered outdoor commercial lighting. 84%. 

More on this story, and other local tech news, at Victoria Tech Journal.

Which two words spell each other backwards and are described by this clue: Pan’s bell fixed the mitten

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