Small hands shoot up, reaching for Christine Miller.

"I remember you from Beavers!" one boy shouts as other children whisper the name "bear lady" between each other.

Miller leans forward and smiles. "It's good to see you again."

On Tuesday, June 15, the Bear Aware community coordinator was at Carisbrooke elementary holding a presentation on bears for the young students.

About 150 took part in the early session, sitting in rows in the middle of the school gym.

"We try to be proactive and not reactive," explains Tony Webb of the North Shore Black Bear Society, who was also at the event. "We're hoping the information from these children will trickle up (to the parents)."

At the core of Miller's message is to dispel the fear of black bears who wander the woods on the North Shore, and to teach the children how to reduce conflicts with the animals.

She opens up the talk asking: how many students have seen a bear this year?

More than half of the hands shoot up.

What were the bears doing? Miller asks.

"Eating plants. Chasing a bird. Eating out of the garbage," the kids answer.

"Ugh, we're going to be talking lot about garbage, you didn't know you were coming to a garbage presentation did you?" Miller says.

Miller's presentation starts out with photos of baby bears in the wild. Each progressive slide shows bigger and bigger bears, and ends with a black rascal darting out of a frame with a white garbage bag between its teeth.

This, Miller says, is where advocates don't want the bears to end up: associating people with easily accessible food.

"We don't want to be inviting bears into the community for lunch," Miller says while a slide of a black bear coyly sitting on a park picnic table is projected onto a giant screen.

It's a particular concern when the bears go into hyperphagia, when they have to consume large quantities of food in preparation for hibernation, eating up to 20,000 calories a day.

"That's 40 hamburgers and 40 ice cream sundaes every day for several months," Miller says in comparison. "If they're just moving from one green space to another, that's not a real problem to us. If they find garbage between that green space, that's a concern. They (the bears) become a nuisance."

Miller finished off with the key steps to take if the children ever bump into a bear, telling them to stay calm, speak softly to the bear and slowly back away instead of running.

The job of removing a bear from an area lies with BC Conservation Officer Service, who had Simon Gravel in attendance at the presentation.

"As a conservation officer, I protect the environment and I protect the bears because they are part of the environment," Gravel told the kids.

Gravel showed his arsenal of devices to manage bears, from making noise like shouting and clapping, to bear bangers, tranquilizers, rubber bullet and, in extreme cases, a bear trap.

Webb hoped the presentation would instill respect for the bears in the children, instead of fear. "As we say, give bears our respect, not our garbage."

For more information on bears, or to report a bear sighting, call the North Shore Black Bear Society at 604-990-BEAR (2327).