The Ruby Lake Lagoon Nature Reserve Society held a party to end all parties Sept. 25, raising $15,000 for the Iris Griffith Field Studies and Interpretive Centre.
The gala evening of music, dance and world-class food launched the lagoon society's new legacy program, which will immortalize donors with laser-engraved tiles lining a wall at the entrance of the centre.
The society still needs to raise about $200,000 to build the centre, which has a total budget of $950,000. Society president Michael Jackson has been busy applying for grants from large charities and said he's confident that money will be forthcoming.The federal government's softwood lumber fund is supposed to provide $275,000, and about $475,000 has been donated from individuals and organizations, said Jackson.
Dinner at the Ruby Lake Restaurant, doubled in size for the occasion by a large tent covering the parking lot, began with champagne and chilled oysters. The chefs of Team B.C., the 2004 Canadian Culinary Champions led by former World Culinary Champion Bruno Marti, served up a multi-course dinner featuring venison, prawns, salmon, lamb and cheeses, each dish accompanied by its own wine. The chefs worked at half a dozen mini-kitchens throughout the restaurant, where guests watched as their food was prepared and garnished by some of the best chefs in the world.
Aldo and Giorgio Cogrossi, proprietors of the Ruby Lake Resort, have created a splendid new outdoor stage, named the Spirit of the Rainforest Amphitheatre, which is built around a towering fir tree and uses reclaimed materials from the site, such as roots, logs and boulders.
The 250-seat amphitheatre saw its first performance, an energetic and acrobatic show of Brazilian drumming, singing and dance, on the afternoon of the lagoon society fund-raiser.
From the amphitheatre, Jackson led a walking tour past the lagoon to the planned building site for the Iris Griffith centre. A flock of mallards took off from the lagoon while a vulture circled above, giving a taste of the biodiversity of the 10-hectare Ruby Lake Lagoon Nature Reserve.
In order to avoid disturbing the nesting habitat for waterfowl, Jackson explained, the centre will be built away from the shore of the lagoon on a site that was cleared and drained by a previous landowner.
"We are aiming to take this back and make it into a more natural wetland again," said Jackson. "It's deliberately not on the lagoon, because the lagoon is too sensitive."
Jackson pointed out fallen trees that will be salvaged for timber to construct the 4,500-square-foot centre.
"Part of the idea of this building is to use materials from as close to the site as possible," he said. "We are going to go all out to make this the greenest building on the Sunshine Coast."
The centre will draw its power from geothermal, hydro and solar sources. It will house interpretive displays describing local ecosystems, from the mountains to the ocean. A laboratory, lecture room, auditorium and library will serve students from local schools as well as university-level courses. Outdoors, pathways and possibly a forest canopy walkway will offer a low-impact look at the nature reserve.
An observatory on top of the building will provide brilliant stargazing, said Jackson, because there is almost no extraneous light. To give a taste of that experience, the Sunshine Coast Astronomy Club set up telescopes on the shore of Ruby Lake. Throughout the evening, guests stopped by for an up-close look at celestial wonders such as the nearly full moon or the Andromeda galaxy, seven million light years away.
