This past spring, two members of the Ottawa Bahá'í community, Linda O'Neil and Heather Harvey, were thrilled to be part of the celebrations for the 80th Anniversary of the much beloved and prolific Bahá'í publishing company, George Ronald. Invitations had been sent out around the world to authors, book distributors, editors, illustrators, and others who had contributed to George Ronald over the years, and about 80 gathered for two days of events in a small village just outside of Oxford, England.



"I was so honoured and excited to be invited," said Heather Harvey, past manager of the Ottawa Bahá'í bookstore. "I had some money put aside from a trip that was cancelled at the beginning of the pandemic and couldn't think of a better way to use it."

Linda O'Neil added, "I was thrilled to meet Bahá'í authors I had long admired, such as Katherine Jewett Hogeson who wrote the recent biography of Horace Holley, and Earl Redman who has published many volumes of Bahá'í history."

The weather was gorgeous, roses were in bloom, and about 80 participants spent two days together listening to details of each other's projects and attending a presentation on the history and operations of the company. Not only were new friends made, but people who had only met on Zoom or by email were able to get to know each other in person.

George Ronald (GR) was founded in 1943 by a Bahá'í actor, David Hofman, who loved storytelling and was looking for a way he could be of service to the British Bahá'í community, even while he was busy most evenings and weekends on stage. When the company began, there were only occasional publications, but in 1947, the business was set up full time. In the beginning, books of both general interest and on Bahá'í topics were published. When, in 1963, David Hofman's service to the Bahá'í Faith took him to the World Centre of the Bahá'í Faith in Haifa, Israel, his wife Marion Hofman took over leadership of the company, and over time much of the editing and publishing work of the company has been done by women. more ...




September 21, 2023

ROBSI Summer School Finds New Home

What do you think of when you hear the words ‘summer camp’? In the Ottawa area, children from Bahá’i families and their friends think of ROBSI (Rideau Ottawa Bahá’í Schools Initiative), a weeklong sleepover camp experience which has been in operation since 1986.



For the youngest camp group, referred to as the Junior/Senior Program (ages 8 to 13), this means making new friends as they swim, canoe, participate in arts and crafts and Bahá’í children’s classes, sleep in rustic cabins and eat together in a large dining hall. Spending a week in a Bahá’í-inspired community setting far from the distractions of the city and surrounded by the beautiful Canadian outdoors, they learn about themselves, the virtues needed to be better people and ways they can contribute to making this world a better place. And of course, there is lots of fun to be had, like singing silly camp songs by the evening campfire, eating themed dinners like the ‘shipwrecked spaghetti dinner’ using awkward kitchen utensils such as spatulas or whisks they’ve randomly chosen without seeing them first. Science contests and experiments are a part of the fun as well: the ’great egg drop’ is an amusing event where each group must safely drop an egg from a considerable height using a plastic ziploc bag, a meter of masking tape and any materials they find in nature.  more ...





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