Hi everyone! Hope you had a wonderful week and enjoyed some time outside during the brief sunny breaks. We are so thankful for all the hard work and amazing efforts of the road crews who restored a section of Redrooffs Road in record time. Albeit a little bumpy in sections, the culvert seems to have been widened and the banks reinforced to prevent this type of washout in the future. Drive carefully and slowly over this section.
The Halfmoon Bay Branch of the Sunshine Coast Healthcare Auxiliary had a very successful Bake & Plant Sale at the Trail Bay Mall last weekend. Moira said, “We sold out before our end time of 3 p.m. and took in an outstanding $2,400! Thank you so much to our wonderful volunteers and community who helped support this fundraiser.”
Sending out a huge thank-you to all of the volunteers who maintain the trails in and around Halfmoon Bay especially after a weather event. This group has a notification site that allows them to post sightings of trees down on the local trails and whoever is available attends to the site. Rand Rudland, president of the Sargeant Bay Society advised that, “for the general community, they are asked to report downed trees to hbcitizens9167@gmail.com or mail@sctrails.ca.” The emails are monitored by Elise Rudland (director with the Halfmoon Bay Environmental Society and the Sargeant Bay Society) at which point Elise posts the information to the group’s notification site. The group responds as quickly as possible to remove debris and ensure the area is safe. “Once the damaged area has been dealt with, a note is sent back to the group stating that the issue is resolved or it needs additional attention with more helpers.” All volunteer hours are recorded and the Sunshine Coast Trails Society maintains the stats. Thank you to this amazing group of volunteers: Rand, Guy, Dan, Jeff, Randy, Tim, Peter, and Andy. Thank you also to Elise for monitoring and relaying to the group. For information and better understanding of the trail system – which trails are sanctioned through a memorandum of understanding with the Sunshine Coast Regional District and under BC Parks – and all of the unsanctioned trails, contact Elise at eliserudland@gmail.com. Visit the sctrails.ca website for more information, which includes trail maps, projects, events and how to donate.
Rand also wanted to share that, “The Sargeant Bay Society had to put our educational programs on hold for the past two COVID summers, but we hope to be back again next summer in some fashion.
“Last month, a group of 13 volunteers filled a large trailer provided by BC Parks with Himalayan Blackberry and Nootka Rose cuttings in our regular program of invasive species control and trail maintenance on the berm at Sargeant Bay.”
At the present time, volunteers are dealing with the flooding and the nearly washed-out fish ladder that has required urgent placement of rip-rap to stabilize the site. This was done by Clark Hamilton Enterprises on short notice two weeks ago. “Now we are dealing with a second more extensive washout that will require more rock and fill to be placed so the fish ladder can remain functional for the spawning runs of chum and coho that have started to arrive. BC Parks has taken on the task of co-ordinating this larger repair.”
The HBCoA Help For Families fundraiser is in full swing and runs until Dec. 22. The money collected goes towards three primary initiatives for the families of the Halfmoon Bay Community School. Holiday Hampers are filled to the brim with warm clothing and other holiday gifts and will be delivered to selected families. Shoe Boxes are filled with special gifts for the youth in the community and the School Breakfast Program provides breakfast and lunch items so that no child goes hungry throughout the school year. Your eTransfer donation can be sent to hbcacommunications2021@gmail.com with the subject line “Help For Families.” Or send a cheque, made payable to the Halfmoon Bay Community Association, to PO Box 1646, Sechelt, BC V0N 3A0.
If you have any ideas for column content or have a community event or story you would like to share, please send ideas and suggestions to cindy.kisser@telus.net.
Be safe, be gentle, and always be kind.
