Gordon Head Lawn Bowling Club marks 50th with open house
The Gordon Head Lawn Bowling Club is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a community open house on Sunday.
Members of the public are invited to try croquet and lawn bowling, with refreshments served.
The club offers year-round sports programs, along with many indoor social activities. Lessons in croquet and lawn bowling are offered free of charge, with all equipment provided. Members of the club have the opportunity to compete in club and district tournaments, or just play in casual daily draws.
The club is open to all ages and abilities.
The open house runs 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 23 at the clubhouse, 4105 Lambrick Way.
• For more information, go to ghlbc.ca
A noteworthy donation
The Victoria Conservatory of Music has received a donation of $385,000 from a former piano student, one of the largest ever received from a living donor.
The conservatory plans to use the funds to create a new scholarship for advanced piano students at the conservatory — the Roy Barnett Scholarship in Advanced Piano.
The gift will be invested in perpetuity at the Victoria Foundation, with the annual disbursement used for supporting advanced piano students each year.
Music has been a lifelong passion for Barnett, who was a classical accordion player as a teenager.
After a career in business, he enrolled at the Victoria Conservatory at age 72 to play a new instrument, the piano. Today he enjoys playing a range of classical music, including Beethoven sonatas, Bach preludes and fugues, and Chopin etudes, all for fun.
“I want [the money] to play a significant role in the education and artistic development of piano students at the Conservatory — to enable them to continue their studies to their highest level, and to encourage them to aspire to a career in piano creating beautiful music for all to enjoy,” Barnett said.
• For more information, go to vcm.bc.ca/#sectionOne.
Aid for Ukrainian students
A Vancouver Island independent school is hosting a silent auction April 28 to support eight Ukrainian students who are coming to Canada to complete their high school education.
Brookes Westshore, in partnership with the government of Ukraine, is providing the Grade 9 students from Ukraine with full scholarships, allowing them to complete their high school education with an International Baccalaureate diploma.
The students who were selected have lost a parent due to the war and are internally displaced.
“Our aim at Brookes is to provide a safe haven for students to continue and finish their education with the hopes they have the opportunity to build a brighter future,” said Jerry Salvador, head of school for Brookes Westshore.
The auction is open to the public, with a number of items to bid on at https://bit.ly/41robe7.
To donate items for the initiative, contact [email protected].
The school has also started a fundraising page to accept donations at https://bit.ly/3N0Tusa.
Sweet music for moms
Treat your mother to a concert featuring rhythm and blues, Motown, gospel and soul favourites this Mother’s Day.
Victoria’s Sweet Soul Choir, a community choral group, is hosting a fundraising Motown Mother’s Day concert, with proceeds to benefit the Bridges For Women Society, which provides supports for women affected by trauma, violence or abuse, including healing, education and employment programs.
Tickets are $21.94 online and at the door. Children under 10 are admitted free. The concert starts at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13 at the First Metropolitan United Church, 932 Balmoral Rd.
• For more information, or to buy tickets, go to sweetsoulchoir.ca.
Book prizes for authors
Submissions are being accepted from local authors for the $5,000 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize and the $5,000 City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize.
The book prize, now in its 20th year, is awarded to a local author for the best book of fiction, literary non-fiction or poetry published in the preceding year.
The children’s book prize, established in 2008, is awarded to an author or illustrator of literature for children or youth.
“Our region is home to many talented and award-winning writers,” said Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto. “We’re excited to open the applications for these two awards and look forward to having the opportunity, later this year, to shine a light on the diverse voices and stories that enrich our lives and connect us with one another.”
The Victoria Book Prize Society is a volunteer-run organization that establishes the policy and criteria for the prizes, appoints the juries and administers the competitions. Two independent juries composed of representatives from the literary arts community assess the submissions.
Books submitted must have been published between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023. They must not have been submitted previously and must be a new work, not a reissue or a revision of a previous work.
The deadline for submissions is May 19. The awards will be presented at a gala in October.
• For more information, including submission forms and guidelines, go to victoriabookprizes.ca.
Shoeboxes of gifts for kids
Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief and development organization, has distributed nearly 400,000 shoeboxes, each filled with a variety of gifts for children, through thousands of churches across Ukraine this year.
The organization’s Operation Christmas Child program serves more than 100 countries. The program involves individuals, churches and community organizations packing shoeboxes with small toys, school supplies and hygiene items to be delivered to children hurt by war, poverty, natural disaster, disease and famine.
Nearly 10.6 million gift boxes were distributed in 2022 and the milestone 200-millionth shoebox was hand-delivered to a young girl in Ukraine in January.
Donors can “pack” a shoebox online from their computer or handheld device, selecting which toys and other items to include — as well as a letter and photo.
People can help by selecting Operation Christmas Child – Greater Victoria when they drop off their recyclables at all three Return-It Bottle depots: 655 Queens Ave., 3961 Quadra St. or 4261 Glanford Ave.
• For further information, go to samaritanspurse.ca/occ or contact [email protected] or 250-533-9107
Museum waives licensing fees
The Royal B.C. Museum has waived licensing fees for commercial use of materials on more than five million photographs and 30 kilometres of archival records in its collection.
The change means those looking to use photos, moving images, sound recordings, maps or documents for publications, film or television productions, or personal use can now do so without paying fees.
Processing fees, which cover the cost of digitizing and storing records, as well as the staff time required to prepare and share copies, will still apply.
“Removing fees for public domain materials is a positive step forward in increasing accessibility to the B.C. Archives and the millions of records housed here,” said Emma Wright, director of archives at the Royal B.C. Museum. “It helps to support authors, artists and filmmakers, who are creating and sharing compelling content about the stories of British Columbia. We’re really pleased that by reducing our fees, more people will be able to find and use these materials.”
The change is effective immediately.
• More information is available online at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/archives/services/reproductions.
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
