Official Community Plan

It is time for Gabriola to review the Official Community Plan. The review will be made up of a 15 person volunteer group who will look at both the OCP and Land Use Bylaws. There were 29 applicants in total with 15 members appointed by way of Local Trust Committee motion on Friday November 13th. The full membership of the Volunteer Review Committee is as follows:

Carly McMahon
Bill Pope
Tom Kirchmayer
Kees Langereis
John Peirce
June Harrison
Daniele Rudischer
Adam Velsen
Sara Brockelhurst
Susan Yates
Melanie Mamoser
Kathryn Molloy
Robert Ferris
Lisa Webster-Gibson
Randy Young

I am excited to have been chosen to be on the review committee. It will be exciting and a fabulous learning experience.

Raising Timber

A timber frame raising took place at the Gabriola Commons, the result of a huge volunteer effort. The timber frame structure was donated by the Island School of Building Arts and will house farming equipment at first. The plan is to finish the building using a number of green building techniques such as strawbale, cordwood and rammed earth and alternative power. This will be an interesting project to observe, complemented by a recently built cob wall.

We Rode to Conquer Cancer!

What an amazing event to be a part of! The Conquer Cancer ride from Vancouver to Seattle was a life changing experience. The ride consisted of 1701 riders whose combined efforts raised $6.9 million for the BC Cancer Society. Waking up at 5 am on Saturday morning we prepared to leave from Guilford Center at 7:30. The ride meandered through White Rock and across the USA/ Canada border. We continued through Washington state stopping at the many pit stops that were arranged for us along the way. Lunch was provided by the amazing and supportive volunteers in a beautiful park in Lake Stevens. Continuing along to Mount Vernon, 132 km from the start, where the busy crew of volunteers had set up a tent city for the over 1700 riders and many more crew. A wonderful dinner was provided and many stories of survival and loss from cancer were shared. After a good but short night sleep we prepared to depart from Mount Vernon at 7:30 am. Day two was incredible winding through Washington State up to Lake Samish and towards our final destination, Seattle. We continued along Lake Washington to the University and the finish line. We accomplished over 260 km in 2 days and I can't wait to do it again. See you next year in Seattle! If you are interested in doing this ride or joining the volunteer crew visit www.conquercancer.ca for more information, or talk to me, I am organizing a Gabriola team for 2010.