Funds confirmed Two Nanaimo schools receive playground upgrades. PAGE 11 Set sail Yacht club hosts annual Cutty Sark Snake Island to Nanaimo regatta. PAGE 22 Love of jazz Singer incorporates French into Canada Day performance. PAGE 3
Late goals secure win PAGE 29
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2012
VOL. 24, NO. 25
MASKED MAN
www.countryclubcentre.com
Thieves spoil riding plans for students BY TOBY GORMAN THE NEWS BULLETIN
RACHEL STERN/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Christofer Ciccone, 4, takes a closer look at the La Diablada mask on display at the Latin American Society of Nanaimo table during Nanaimo’s Multicultural Festival held in the Old City Quarter Saturday. The event featured an international food fair, entertainment, music, demonstrations, and interactive and educational booths.
awmbas www.rawmbas.ca
#101-572 STEWART AVE., NANAIMO
250-591-2114
Mike Lunsford and three of his friends received less than southern hospitality during their first night in Nanaimo last week. Having spent 11 days on the road beginning in their home state of Arkansas with Nanaimo as their destination, the group wanted to celebrate graduating from the University of Central Arkansas with a mountain bike vacation while topping off their education with a sevenweek exchange program at Vancouver Island University. “We’d heard a lot of great things about riding here, and at Mount Washington and Whistler, and this is where we wanted to come,” said Lunsford, 22. After arriving on the 4 p.m. ferry on June 15, they did a quick orientation drive through town before visiting the campus, where they learned a room at the student residence wasn’t yet available. To continue with their adventure and strict budget, the group decided to save some money and sleep in their Toyota 4 Runner in the Travel Lodge parking lot on Terminal Avenue. With luggage under a tarp on the roof and four top-end mountain bikes locked with two locks on a rear bike carrier, they fell asleep at about 10 p.m. “I woke up at 5 a.m. and the truck was moving like there was a really high wind or something,” said Lunsford. “Then it sort of occurred to me that someone was trying to get our bikes. I woke the other guys up.” The four exploded out of the truck as a man was riding away on one bike. Justin, the bike’s owner, ran him down and pulled him off. Lunsford’s bike was already gone. The locks had been cut clean by a sharp instrument. ◆ See ‘THEFT’ /4
Rawmbas Restaurant coming to Nanaimo’s North End soon. Check out our menu on facebook.
Winner of Best Vegetarian Dish “Bite of Nanaimo” 2011