For 20 years, the Seaside Centre has been a place where the community comes together, whether it be for all candidates meetings discussing the issues of the day, for more festive gatherings such as holiday markets, art exhibitions, author readings, and weddings.
On Sept. 29, a group gathered under the building’s signature wooden arches to cut cake and celebrate the venue. Among them were Clark Hamilton and Trudy Diening who were “instrumental” in the fruition of Seaside Centre. Hamilton and his crew built alongside the Timber Framers of North America volunteers who Diening invited to the Coast. Those volunteers travelled to the Coast on their own dime and donated about 5,600 hours — worth approximately $140,000 at the time — to the project.
The Seaside Centre was part of the Gateway Project by the Sechelt Downtown Business Association, and began as an idea in the 1990s and was built in the 2000s. The project hit a few roadblocks, particularly when the land originally offered for the site was no longer feasible. When a grant, already extended once, was about to expire, the project’s future was in question. Eventually, an agreement was reached to establish the current site. It was in September 2002 that a gala dinner fundraiser successfully raised more than $24,000 for the Centre.
