Great teachers
Investing in better learning spaces Page A5
NEWS: Rotary launches food rescue /A8 COMMUNITY: Teens rock national science fair /A12 SPORTS: Mud run fundraiser at Elk Lake /A26
Gray Rothnie
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Saanich Legacy Foundation looks forward Beach volleyball, Little Spirits projects on legacy agenda Travis Paterson News staff
Don Denton photo
Parade Day
A Saanich Fire truck drives past city hall during the annual Island Farms Victoria Day Parade on Douglas Street. Other Saanich participants included the Reynolds, Lambrick Park and Spectrum marching bands. Spectrum placed first in the Canadian Band Class.
Re-defining a place without a space Camosun Community Association back on track ‘for now’ Travis Paterson News staff
All is well for the Camosun Community Association, one of Saanich’s smallest, a month after the past president and board sent out an S.O.S. But it will take time and a community effort to lurch the association forward from its current existence, says
new president Heather Parker. “Our neighbourhood faces a number of challenges but it’s a promising area,” said Parker, who takes over the president role after spending most of the past six years with the association. “We’re healthy, for now.” Parker is also the director of the City Harvest Co-op where she lives on Haultain Street. She knows first-hand that the biggest challenge facing Saanich’s most southerly nook is its identity crisis. Shaped like a cubist panhandle, the Camosun neighbourhood juts out of Saanich into a peninsula surrounded
by Victoria and Oak Bay. Though the neighbourhood is somewhat expansive – it extends north from the Royal Jubilee Hospital to Derby Road and Cedar Avenue through the Shelbourne and Richmond Road corridors – it is without a community gathering place, Parker says. It all leads to a lack of involvement from local residents. “One of the biggest obstacles to having a vibrant community association in this neighbourhood is it doesn’t have a hub available to us.”
Music in the Park will return this season with an eightconcert schedule, thanks in part to an $8,000 grant from the Saanich Legacy Foundation. The non-profit, registered charitable society matched its previous year’s grant to the Music in the Park series and is a key partner in two Saanich projects, the Lambrick Park Beach Volleyball Courts and the Little Spirits Garden at the Royal Oak Burial Park. “The foundation is proud to continue its sponsorship for 2015,” said past-president Fred Haynes. The Saanich councillor stepped down prematurely from his term as SLF president to avoid any conflict, should the SLF approach council for funds. “The Little Spirits Garden is a touching project and we encourage the public to join us in this ongoing campaign,” Haynes said. The garden will preside atop the slope at Royal Oak Burial Park, commemorating the losses of infants and pre-natal children. “We’re in the good position that we’ve allocated our 2015 funding, so we move into a holding pattern for the rest of the year,” Haynes said. “Unfortunately it also means we’re unable to assist anyone else.” Last year the 16-year-old foundation granted funds to the Strawberry Festival and LimeLight, the Victoria Therapeutic Riding Association, Alpine Victoria, Success by Six, Ballet Victoria and the Coffee for Kids program, which helps children and families in the Dominican Republic with medical care, clothing and other supplies. The numbers aren’t certain yet, but SLF is a considerable player in helping create the new four-court Lambrick Park Beach Volleyball Court project at Lambrick Park secondary. The complex is still awaiting it’s final approval but looks to be on track. “The sand will come from the de-commissioned outdoor courts at UVic’s Ian Stewart Complex and is extremely
PLEASE SEE: Camosun Community, Page A7
PLEASE SEE: Looking forward Page A4
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