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Blogging from ‘the best city on Earth’

Creator of SurreyIsTheBomb.com shares his passion for his city, dispels misconceptions
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Scott Graham

On his way to the liquor store – after the crushing defeat of the Vancouver Canucks by the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup playoffs last year – Scott Graham saw something on 88 Avenue that made him stop in his tracks.

It wasn’t the violent images of cars on fire and malotov cocktails splashed over the screen of televisions and the Internet; that would come later in the evening.

It was a family – a man, a woman and three children – standing on the street, waving their Canucks towels to a chorus of honks from passing cars.

The moment of calm was brief. Minutes later, word of the Stanley Cup riots came pouring in.

“Everything starts happening downtown and social media just goes nuts blaming the whole thing on Surrey,” he said. “I called my friends, who were at different pubs watching the game in Surrey, and they said everything was fine, so why were we being blamed?”

Angry with the way his city was being portrayed, the Fleetwood resident went home and began writing a post on his popular food blog, What’s For Lunch BC.

“I’ve been living here since I was nine and I think it’s the best place to live. I normally don’t write about anything other than food but I had to get it out. I went and starting writing a post on my food blog and that’s how it all began,” Graham said.

Graham wrote about the skewed – and often negative – vision of Surrey the rest of Metro Vancouver has.

“How is Surrey getting blamed for a riot in Vancouver? The answer is simple, people don’t understand Surrey, especially people who live on the ‘good’ side of the bridges and tunnels,” he wrote. “What did I see last night? I saw my hockey team lose, I saw people in a pub in Surrey upset but not angry and I saw a family standing on the side of the road an hour after the game had ended waving their Canucks towels and cheering to cars passing by. That is what Surrey is to me, my home, a misunderstood place that has always treated me well and a place where I’m proud to raise my daughter. I’m from Surrey, the best city on Earth.”

The blog post was linked on various social media sites, including in a Tweet posted by Miss604 blogger and Surrey native Rebecca Bollwitt, and quickly began to get comment from a range of followers.

“It got huge attention. I had a friend whose children go to Clayton Heights, and at the parent-teacher conference my blog post was brought up. People young and old were reading it. I thought it was pretty cool,” Graham said.

Following the positive feedback, Graham decided to start a blog all about his hometown, with the result being SurreyIsTheBomb.com

Since its inception, the blog has become a go-to site for those who want to know about all things Surrey – a passion of Graham’s he credits his father for sparking.

“My dad never understood why everyone always put Surrey down, we’ve lived in Edmonton and Ontario and this has always been our home. He is the person who kind of instilled this whole anti-hating Surrey thing in me,” Graham said.

The blog’s content covers events, issues, and reviews from Whalley and South Surrey, West Newton and East Clayton and everything in-between.

More often than not, Graham even includes White Rock – officially not a part of Surrey since April 15, 1957 – and which he refers to as “our little cousin.”

“This is really a blog that’s all about Surrey. Sometimes you find that the blogs concentrate on one certain neighbourhood, which is fine, but I wanted to cover the whole city,” Graham said.

When he’s not writing about events and issues, Graham is tasting the gastronomical gems the city has to offer and posting it on What’s For Lunch BC. Although that blog covers all of Metro Vancouver, Graham said some of the best places to dine are right here in his community.

“It’s great to find places that are amazing and doing their own thing, and they’re right here in my backyard,” Graham said, noting he has made a section of Surrey and White Rock restaurant reviews on SurreyIsTheBomb.com

Despite having these two online projects, among others, Graham doesn’t doesn’t plan on slowing down.

The jack-of-all-trades also works for Beer Thirst, which imports craft beer, and has formed Surrey Beer Club to raise funds for Surrey Memorial Hospital. Kicking off Aug. 16 at Big Ridge Brewing Co., the club will meet throughout the year to taste a variety of brews while collecting money for the hospital with raffles and draws.

The club’s formation was Graham’s way of giving back to the hospital for the exceptional care his daughter, Hayley, received after being born more than three months premature in February 2010.

“We went to Surrey Memorial after my wife Lyndsey began to experience some pain. They were like ‘OK, something is wrong here and we’re not equipped to deal with we’re going to get you to to Royal Columbian in an ambulance right away,’” Graham said.

Lyndsey spent two weeks at Royal Columbian on bed rest before Hayley was born at one pound, 11½ ounces.

Eventually, after blood transfusions and tests, she was transferred back to Surrey Memorial, where she spent three months before coming home on Mother’s Day in 2010.

Graham and his wife held a fundraiser for Variety Club on her first birthday, raising $4,000 for the organization.

And now, through Surrey Beer Club, Graham hopes to continue his philanthropy work, while drawing people from all over Surrey and the Lower Mainland to enjoy a brew or two.

“It’s so important to give back, and it’s great to be able to do it while highlighting all the awesome stuff my city has to offer,” Graham said. “I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”