First there were howls, then siren calls and as of April 3, the purr of vintage engines.
As the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has ratcheted up on the Sunshine Coast over the past three weeks, so has the community’s efforts to hail the health-care workers and other first responders on the front lines.
The latest show of support came on Thursday, April 2, when members of the Coaster’s Car Club gave a drive-by salute to frontline workers in Sechelt. The cars mustered at the Lighthouse Pub parking lot before cruising past the Sechelt fire hall on Trail Avenue, RCMP detachment on Teredo Street, ambulance station on Wharf Avenue and up to Sechelt Hospital.
“It was a really good outing. We did it in such a hurry – we just found out about it Monday and we just sort of talked about it and talked about it and everybody said let’s do it!” said club president Ken Begg of the near-spontaneous event.
This was the second rolling salute for the hospital in the same week. On Tuesday, first responders blared sirens and flashed lights in a three-lap tour of Sechelt Hospital at 7 p.m. This time around, Sechelt Hospital Foundation executive director Jane MacDonald thanked the car club for “sharing so many smiles and helpful honks,” and sent back “reciprocal high-fives and virtual hugs from the entire health care team here at the hospital.”
After the parade, a few of the 20 cars also toured the parking lot of the Shorncliffe long-term care facility.
As with the howls, which can be heard emanating form windows from Pender Harbour to Gibsons each night at 7 p.m., the Coasters are hoping to turn their drive-bys into a tradition.
“We were thinking of doing it every Thursday until the end of the month,” Begg told Coast Reporter. That includes visiting long-term care facilities on the Sunshine Coast – which the club usually does anyway in the summer.
