Streeter: #Who’s Your Fahder?

By: Lorelei Kenny & Morin Mawhinney

Humans of New York started with just an ordinary guy and his camera. Now, you have to work hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of this project. However, if you haven’t heard of it, basically, the photographer, Brandon Stanton, approaches strangers on the streets of New York, he interviews them, snaps a picture, and posts these “glimpses of people’s lives”, as he describes them to his blog. Inspired by this concept we’re giving it a go here at UPEI. Over the past few days The Cadre has strolled around campus and asked random students, “Who’s your fahder?”, a colloquial expression amongst islanders often spoken in an effort to build a relationship off of common connections. As PEI and UPEI continue to diversify, the answers given to this common PEI question become more and more unique and intriguing.

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Ian Campbell: “My fahder is Kevin Campbell, he is the manager of Traffic Operations for PEI Transportation and Infrastructure renewal. He is the biggest Montreal Canadians fan you’ll meet. I’d describe him as an original Canadian Hipster, for sure. None of the children in our family have ever seen his upper lip, he’s always had facial hair. He’s a big family and he raised five kids. He’s a quiet man, but filled with wisdom, if you get anything out of him. He’s an inspiration to me because he is probably the hardest working man I know, and for this he doesn’t get enough recognition, so thank you dad.”

 

Kate Morris: “He is very controversial, and he thinks he’s always right….haha”

 

Erin Mcneill: “My fahder is Paul McNeill, and he inspires me everyday because he is a single parent and he works his butt off. We travel lot together as a family, his family is from Scotland, so we’ve gone there, and other place too.”

 

Leif Sirum: “My fahder is Mr. Sirum, he is from Norway, as am I. He’s a petroleum engineer.  When we lived in the Middle East we would sail together, it was super fun…now there’s a happy memory! He had a little mid-life crisis and bought an old Volkswagen Beetle. He loves his kids to death, no matter what, and that’s inspiring. I want to love my kids half as much as he loves us.”

 

Chelsea Feng: “My fahder is my father? (laughs out loud) My parents, when they got married, they were so, so, poor – they had nothing. He was trying to start his own business but he just kept losing money. As a kid we lived in a horrible house, the conditions were really bad, and my father made like 10 Korean dollars per month. I really admire my father because he didn’t give up, and eventually he made it! Now the situation is much better for our family, and here I am studying Canada. So I feel that my father is a great man. He has inspired me to do what I want to do and to do what I love and never give up.”

 

Drew Beaupre: “Phil Beaupre is my fadher. He has been a businessman his entire life, he majored in business at York and owns a Tim Hortons in Ontario. He’s Catholic, he’s hilarious, he’s a pretty cool guy. He isn’t very emotional, unlike me, I’m super emotional. He tends to keep his emotions pretty private, like he wouldn’t just be like, I love you, or give me a hug or anything like that. But he shows his love through his actions. For instance, Ontario to PEI is a very long drive, and when I first moved out here, he drove out here with me to help me move and get settled. Sometimes our relationship is a little bit if-eee, but it’s gotten a lot better. We are both really abrasive so when we disagree it quickly turns into a yell-fest. However, as an adult I have come to understand our differences, and I have become very proud to be his son. It’s been quite a journey with him.”

 

Sarah Murray: “Mike Murray is my fahder. He’s a really big science nerd just like me. He studied Biology at UPEI, so we definitely have a lot of similar interests. He’s the only other science person in my family, so he kinda just gets me.”

 

Jessica Watts: “Donny Watts is my fahder. He’s picked me up from many all-nighters, and has always gotten me and my friends home safely. A memory that sticks out to me is when I was five, and I had an appendicitis. He was in the middle of a meeting, and he ran out of it, rushed me to the hospital and didn’t leave my side the entire time. So ever since I was little I alway knew if I ever needed anything I could count on him. He’s a real beauty. ”

 

Kayla Schut: “Mike Schut is my fahder. He lied to me a lot when I was growing up. Stupid little things, it was funny though. For instance, my dad told me that molasse candies were poisonous, so I grew up with this irrational fear of them. On Halloween, I would sort through all my candy and give the molasse candies to him, all along he just wanted them cause he liked them, and I didn’t figure out what he was doing until I was like fifteen. But yea, that pretty much sums up my dad, he loves to mess with me. It’s all in good fun…it builds character.”