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Riders raise awareness about prostate cancer.
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Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • T U E S D AY, M AY 1 5 , 2 0 1 2
■ M AN I N M OTION A NNIVERSARY C ELEBRATION
Above: Rick Hansen joins Special Olympics athlete Betty Colk as they enter Heritage Park during a celebration stop on day 264 of the Rick Hansen Relay on Sunday. Left: Hansen dances with some of the medal bearers later at the event. The relay, which started in Newfoundland on Aug. 24, 2011, is in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Rick Hansen’s Man in Motion World Tour. The relay features more than 7,000 participants who carried and passed along a medal, one person at a time, by walking, running, wheeling, and more across Canada. Go online to theprogress.com to see a video of the relay and celebration. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Paramount group hopes to offer vintage film house experience Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Friends of the Chilliwack Paramount have a new name and a bold new direction. The Chilliwack Paramount Film Society was incorporated on May 7, by a group of community members who believe the historic Paramount building should be saved from demolition, said spokesperson Laura Reid. The move to incorporate was partly to cement their credibility and commitment, and to better reflect their desire to offer a “viable and sustainable historic cinema setting,” to show films, said Reid. A business plan set to be unveiled at a community meeting Monday night included the idea to transform the old Paramount
building into a refurbished repertory-type theatre, offering 600 seats for patrons to screen vintage, independent, alternative or nonmainstream films. “A chance to see vintage films is something that we feel is missing in Chilliwack,” said Reid. The first-run film market is wellserved in the area, but not so much the type of niche films they’re considering with the proposal. “But we’re not trying to compete with existing venues in any way,” she said. The group’s research shows that some film festivals fans, for example, will travel a fair bit for the experience, meaning the potential is there to attract crowds from across the Lower Mainland, and not just Chilliwack. Continued: FILM/ p12
New Chilliwack UFV campus is ‘only the beginning’ Robert Freeman The Progress The new $45-million UFV campus opening in Chilliwack’s Canada Education Park is just the beginning, officials said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday. “There’s so many more possibilities for the future,” an elated Chilliwack MLA John Les said after the event attended by provincial, municipal and UFV officials. “Some of the things that we will be able to do here — I haven’t got them all imagined yet,” he said. “But there’s room here for lots of imagination to take hold and really build something excellent for Chilliwack.”
UFV President Mark Evered praised Les and former UFV President Skip Basford for having the vision 10 years ago to form the city/university partnership that led to the new campus and UFV’s $21-million Trades and Technical Centre, also located at the Canada Education Park. The RCMP Pacific Region Training Centre, Canada Border Services training centre and the BC Justice Institute also make their home at the education park. UFV’s 30-year plan for the campus involves construction of a dozen more buildings forming a quadrangle with classroom space for about 7,000 FTE students. But that’s just half the 85 acres
that UFV owns at the park. “We’re not done yet,” a jubilant Evered told the crowd. “There’s one million square feet to build.” Les recalled an otherwise “bucolic” day in 1997 when he learned as Chilliwack mayor that CFB Chilliwack – a major driver of the local economy – was going to be closed by the federal government. “That was indeed a shock,” he said. The city “flirted” with a number of ideas to replace the loss of jobs and tax revenues, but Les said some kind of educational development was on his mind from the get-go. Continued: UFV/ p11
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