Spandex-loving volunteers and participants are expected to descend on Royal Athletic Park on Saturday for the Victoria Dodgeball Championships, one of the largest dodgeball tournaments of its kind in Canada.
This is the 10th year of the event, which has attracted as many as 89 teams in past years. Each team can have between six to 12 players. Teams can compete in three different divisions — a competitive division for the serious dodgeballer, a recreational division and a corporate division open to teams from local businesses and organizations.
Proceeds from registration support the City of Victoria’s Campership program, which subsidizes the cost of summer camp for children from financially disadvantaged households. On average, the tournament makes it possible for 340 children to attend camp every year.
While dodgeball can be a serious sport, this tournament is more relaxed, with teams winning prizes for best costume or for just participating. A foam ball, which hurts less than a regular dodgeball when a person gets hit, is also used in games.
There will be food vendors and entertainment throughout the day.
The cost per player is $30. Registration for teams is open until Wednesday. The Championships is open to dodgeballers 19 years and over. Teams must have a minimum of two male and two female players on the court to start each game. To register, call the Crystal Pool and Fitness Centre at 250-361-0732 or in person at 2275 Quadra St.
Admission is free for spectators, which is expected to number 500. The tournament runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Royal Athletic Park, 1014 Caledonia Ave. For more information, go to victoria.ca.
Turning the tables for animal welfare
A bolt of inspiration, a bit of elbow grease and a spot of paint on some old furniture will mean thousands of dollars in donations for an upcoming animal welfare fundraiser.
Hillside Centre has recently undergone a major renovation and expansion, which included upgrading the food court. It found itself with hundreds of used tables and chairs. But rather than send them off to the dump, Michele Paget, marketing director for the shopping mall decided to recycle them instead.
“I painted one up in my spare time to give people an idea of how they could look,” she said. “They make a fun summer project for creative people.”
She must be on to a good idea. Since she put a picture of the up-cycled table on Facebook two weeks ago, she has sold out of the small two-seater bistro sets, raising over $1,200 for the Paws for a Cause, a fundraiser for the B.C. SPCA that takes place Sept. 7.
She still has tables with two seats attached for $25 and 36-inch round tables with four chairs for $35.
The tables and chairs aren’t the only furniture she has recycled. All the food court’s garbage and recycle bins were donated to the group organizing this weekend’s Dragon Boat Festival.
The dining sets are cash and carry. They are on display at the mall’s Guest Services office, found near the Shoppers Drug Mart/ Sport Check entrance to Hillside Centre, 1644 Hillside Ave. For more information, go to the Hillside Centre site on Facebook or spca.bc.ca.
Exhibit commemorates First World War history
Saanich Archives has installed a public exhibit at the Gallery at the Cedar Hill Arts Centre in honour of the 100th anniversary of the First World War.
Saanich at Home and Overseas 1914-1918 is a collection of photographs, letters, documents, artifacts and poetry showing the impact of the war on the municipality and its residents. One of the exhibits, a hand-drawn Roll of Honour, includes the names of 335 Saanich men and women who served in the war.
Many of the poignant historical items are on display for the first time.
The exhibit is part of Saanich Remembers, a multi-year project that began in 2012 and will continue until 2018. The project has partnered with the University of Victoria’s A City Goes to War project and many of the documents and images can also be viewed at the university’s website.
Artist Elizabeth Litton will be working on a First World War-themed painting on-site on Wednesday.
Free viewing. The exhibit runs until Aug. 26 at the Arts Centre at the Cedar Hill Recreation Centre, 3220 Cedar Hill Rd. For more information, go to saanich.ca.
Salmon derby is all about the fish
Expect excellent salmon fishing for Westview Marina’s Tahsis Salmon Fishing Enhancement Derby, set to take place Aug. 22 and 23. Apart from catching dinner, winning prizes and bragging rights, anglers will also help support the continuing cost of raising and releasing salmon back into the environment.
Last year’s derby raised just under $30,000, for a cumulative total of more than $150,000 over the past 10 years.
Proceeds from the annual event benefit the Tahsis Salmon Enhancement Society, which undertakes fish husbandry and several stream restoration projects in the area. The society will use the funds to raise and release 500,000 chinook and 250,000 coho salmon fingerlings in 2015.
Funds will also help the Nootka Sound Watershed Society defray the cost of producing over 4.3 million chinook salmon fingerlings at their Conuma Hatchery this year.
Tickets are $60. Weigh in for the derby at 8 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday. There is a buffet dinner and live entertainment starting at 5 p.m. on Friday and a barbecue at 4 p.m., followed by an awards ceremony at 8 p.m. on Saturday at the marina, south Maquinna Drive, Tahsis. For more information, go to westviewmarina.com.
Help Liberian families ravaged by Ebola
Liberia Christian Outreach Society, a non-profit Christian outreach society with its head office in Victoria, is looking for public support to help them buy supplies to stop the spread of Ebola in the 15 villages they serve in Liberia.
The society has been working in the South African country for the past eight years as Village Ministries, digging wells and running vocational schools for ex-child soldiers and women affected by the recent civil war.
With the outbreak of Ebola, the society and other non-govermental organizations in the African nation of 2.5 million have been asked by the Liberian government to help with education and providing hand washing supplies to the people in the interior villages.
The goal is to create and distribute kits for families consisting of a supply of hand soap, disinfectant and a hand-washing bucket with a faucet.
Each kit costs approximately $22.
To ensure supplies get there safely, Helen Fletcher, the co-founder and international co-ordinator for the ministry, will personally send the donations to the local pastor — no one else will be involved in the buying of supplies and renting a truck to get into the interior villages.
To donate online, go to the society’s website, click on the “Donate” button and select Liberia Christian Outreach Society on the drop-down menu. The society can issue Canadian and American tax receipts. People can also donate at any Coast Capital Savings branch to the Ebola Liberia account (11000 3639 499). For more information, call Fletcher at 250-595-2881, 250-480-6848 or villageministries.net.
Walk for Peace raises more than $30,000
The Gordy Dodd Walk for Peace, which took place in the last week of July, raised more than $30,000, which includes $28,000 donated by the Telus Victoria Community Board and donations from Telus employees which were matched by Telus, for programs at Victoria Hospice.
The majority of the Telus funds will be used to support the Touchstones counseling program at the hospice. The no-charge initiative that helps children, between five and 12 years old, deal with the loss of loved ones, such as parents, grandparents, siblings and friends.
“Children and youth are connected with almost every obituary in the newspaper,” said Mischelle vanThiel, CEO of Hospice. “They have lost a beloved grandparent, parent, friend or sibling. The Touchstones program helps them realize that it is OK to be sad and helps them to understand about grief.”
Children can feel isolated when their friends and schoolmates are not experiencing loss at the same time they are. Parents are dealing with their own grief and are sometimes ill-equipped to meet the emotional needs of their children during the end-of-life process. The eight-week drop-in program, with weekly group sessions with a trained counselor, gives grieving children a safe, supportive environment to explore and understand grief, death and dying.
For more information, go to victoriahospice.org.
Housing society finds a new home
The Threshold Housing Society, which provides long-term transitional housing for youth at risk of becoming homeless, has found itself with a new home as well.
The society revealed that an anonymous benefactor had recently donated a four-unit apartment building, located in the South Jubilee area, to them.
The society has received support and endorsement by the South Jubilee Neighbourhood Association to transform the four-plex to house up to eight vulnerable youth. But the structure needs a massive renovation in order to bring the building up to code and to ensure its sustainability for the future.
HeroWork, a volunteer program that performs Radical Community Renovations for non-profits, are set to complete an extensive renovation of the site in early October.
The property will be used to house clients of the society’s Safe Housing for Youth program. For more information, go to thresholdhousing.ca.