Citizens and businesses are rolling up to help make the Town of Sidney’s new skate park a little special.
Last week, Sidney Mayor Steve Price offered thanks to Coast Capital Insurance Services for donating $5,000 toward the new park, now under construction at Tulista Park.
“It’s just a wonderful community gesture,” said Price.
Meanwhile, Price said, the local Lions service club has committed to fundraising to construct a sitting area where parents and other spectators can relax and watch the skatepark athletes do their stuff.
The new $700,000 skatepark is set to open on July 2, part of the town’s dual celebration: 150 years for Canada and 50 years for the Town of Sidney.
The park will replace the old skatepark near Mary Winspear Centre, being retired to make way for the town’s new firehall and emergency-services building.
The new skatepark has drawn huge interest from citizens young and old.
In 2015, before any decision was made on replacing the old skatepark, the town sought feedback from local schools. And when the councillors agreed to build a new one in April 2016, young people crowded the chambers and cheered the final vote.
Even the nearby Victoria International Airport has agreed to donate $5,000 to install a bronze statue of a skateboarding bulldog at the park.
“It’s going to be a real interest point of the new park,” said Price.
Barbecue and music will aid sunset market
On Sunday, April 23, the Oaklands Community Association, with the help of Hoyne Brewery on Bridge Street, will stage an afternoon of barbecue, live music and craft beer.
The fundraiser for the Oaklands Sunset will be from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the site of Hoyne Brewery, 2740 Bridge St.
Money raised will go toward hosting the 10 summer weeks of the annual Oaklands Sunset Market.
Phoenix Bain, events co-ordinator for the Oaklands Community Association, said staging the market requires money to rent the space next to Oaklands Elementary, conduct cleanup and food safety, and ensure security.
Together, they make the market a place for the community to gather.
“We really focus on creating a space for the community to come and meet their neighbours,” said Bain.
The Oaklands Sunset Market runs from June 28 to Aug. 30, every Wednesday evening.
Stelly’s has $25,000 to spend wisely
Students, teachers and administrators at Stelly’s Secondary School are putting their heads together to figure out how to spend $25,000 in windfall prize money.
The Central Saanich school won the Staples Superpower contest this month, one of 70 schools recognized by the office-supply company for commitment to their local environments. About 700 schools nationwide entered.
The prize money can be spent on whatever technology the school chooses. The contest is won on the basis of a school’s activities and efforts on behalf of the environment.
Alice Kaedves, the school librarian who filled out the forms to enter the contest, said ever since the award was announced, the Stelly’s community has been making requests. Students want iPads. Teachers want them to get new laptop computers.
“This school has no iPads at all,” said Kaedves. “And we have only enough laptops for one classroom, and they are about six or seven years old.
“We are in a dire shortage of not just more, but also newer,” she said.
She said the money is huge, more than the school’s yearly budget for learning resources, from textbooks to computers.
Kaedves said she expected the school will come together in the coming weeks to figure out what it has, what it needs and what it might dream about.
“With an out-of-the-blue windfall, it’s nice to have some things in mind that the kids just really want to use,” she said.
Stelly’s, said Kaedves, is like no other school she has ever encountered. From its regular beach cleanups to its global perspectives programs, the school works hard make a difference. It was enough to impress the contest judges.
Yet she thinks Stelly’s students and teachers often don’t realize how special they are.
“There are so many things that the school has and does that are up and beyond anything you find at any other school,” said Kaedves. “But the interesting thing about Stelly’s is the reaction: ‘Really, you mean other schools aren’t doing all that too?’”
“They really don’t toot their own horn here as much as they should,” said Kaedves.
Habitat gets a hand from student carpenters
Carpentry students at Vancouver Island University are putting their hammers where the heart of their community lies as they build houses for Habitat for Humanity.
Working with hammers and no nail guns, the students work with Habitat to build homes for people in the community who can’t afford to enter the housing market.
Habitat awards the homes to applicants who qualify based on a rigorous approval process. Payments are established based on income.
Applicants must agree to put in a minimum number of “sweat equity” hours. That can be helping on the building site or volunteering with an approved community group.
VIU entered the partnership with Habitat for Humanity five years ago, and so far has worked on five homes.
Langford pitches in for Wounded Warriors
Injuries inflicted by the stresses of the battlefield can be invisible. But people raising money and awareness to help will be easy to spot, thanks to Langford.
With a $10,000 donation raised by the City of Langford from members of its development community, the 150-odd Canadian cyclists riding in Wounded Warriors Vimy 100 Battlefield Bike Ride will all be wearing new jerseys.
The donation was presented on Monday to Scott Maxwell, executive director for Wounded Warriors Canada. It’s a national charity established to raise money for wounded veterans, emergency workers and their families, focusing on mental health.
Maxwell said Wounded Warriors is grateful for the support from Vancouver Island, and Langford in particular.
He said about 10 riders in the Vimy bike tour have signed up from the Victoria area, most of them veterans or first responders.
“The whole team from British Columbia has just been exceptional,” said Maxwell.
He said the Vimy 100 Battlefield Bike Ride is Wounded Warriors’ biggest fundraising event, with every rider contributing or raising a minimum of $4,000.
The team will head over to England for a June 9 departure from London to the Channel port of Dover to ferry over to France. Then, it’s a trip through Dunkirk, on to Passchendaele, the Somme, the Flanders Fields of the poem and down to Vimy Ridge for June 16.
“It’s an experience of a lifetime,” said Maxwell. “But it’s a lot of work.”
“They are riding bicycles for six days straight, over 600 kilometres,” he said. “They train hard for it and go through a lot, mentally and emotionally.”
Ahoy, sailors, boaters and bargain hunters
On Saturday, April 22, the Maritime Museum of British Columbia will stage its annual Massive Marine Garage Sale at Ogden Point.
The primary goal of the event is to raise money for the Maritime Museum, but it has become a staple in the local boating community, too. It’s an event sponsored and approved by the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.
It provides a chance for boaters to recycle marine items, as well as pick up a few things they need themselves.
The Victoria Model Shipbuilding Society will be there, demonstrating radio-controlled models in an outdoor pond.
The Massive Marine Garage Sale is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 22, at Pier A, Ogden Point. Parking is free. Admission is $5 and free for kids under 12.
The Maritime Museum of B.C. is at 634 Humboldt St., having relocated from its previous site in Bastion Square.
For more information, check out mmbc.bc.ca.
Volunteers keeping observatory open
The skies remain open for business at the Centre of the Universe, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory.
Thanks to committed stargazers, the Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory now field several teams of volunteers who are keeping programs alive and well at the observatory on West Saanich Road.
“The skies are still open,” declared Ben Dorman, chairman of the Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory.
From 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, Earth Day, April 22, the observatory will host a fundraiser to keep the skies over Victoria open for public viewing.
In 2013, the federal government in a cost-cutting move ended the public-outreach program at the federal research institution. Subsequently, interested citizens and volunteers have stepped in to keep the summer Saturday nights at the observatory a going concern.
Volunteers ranging in age from 13 to 40-plus years old are doing tasks ranging from programming computers and leading presentations in the planetarium to working in the gift shop.
With the exception of July 1, Canada Day, and one weekend in September, the observatory will be open on Saturdays, April 29 to Sept. 23.
Tickets are available at earthandfriends.eventbrite.ca for the Earth Day event.
