Our Community in Review PART 3
of 5 ~ 1994-1999
Your Community Newspaper since 1982
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30th Anniversary Series
Tuesday, July 31, 2012 The Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Community in Review ~ 1994 Car thief earns 118 days custody
TOP STORIES • January, 1994: Gordon Ireland takes over from Ken Kimmel as the general manager for the Parksville Chev-Olds Generals. • February: About three dozen Raging Grannies gathered on the railway tracks in Nanoose Bay to stop a VIA Rail train on Feb. 16. The Grannies wanted a ferry terminal built in Nanoose Bay and passenger traffic to be tied into a double-tracked train system to remove some of the traffic from the highway.
If having too much time on your hands is a reason to commit crimes, the courts were more than willing to help with the problem. That was the message Judge Peter Doherty gave to a young offender in Parksville Provincial Court in May. “Defence argued you had too much time on your hands,” the judge said. “The court will give you some structure.” The youth, caharged with several counts of theft for what Crown Counseil Jeff Johnston called “a spree of motor vehicle thefts” the previous August, was sentenced to spend 118 days in open custody.
• March: Nanoose Chief Wayne Edwards said an archaeological find on the Craig Bay development site is “very exciting.” • April: A proposed housing development near the French Creek estuary has area residents concerned. Vancouver-based land owners prepared the develop the 40 acres of land northwest of the estuary and to build more than 260 housing units. • May: A scarlet fever outbreak in District 69 subsides after 30 cases were reported.
RDN gives sewage cash
• June: District 69 became one golf course richer June 12 with the opening of Glengarry Golf Links in Qualicum Beach. • July: Forty-five thousand people showed to the 1994 International Sandcastle Competition in Parksville. The previous year had drawn only 35,000. • August: The Queen’s Baton arrived in Nanoose Bay in colourful, traditional native style. The official baton was flown in to coincide with the Tribal Journeys event for the Commonwealth Games. • September: Al and Mary Palmer’s fight to turn Jedediah Island over to the province as parkland is gaining momentum. • October. Island Pubishers, parent company of THE NEWS, announced it has purchased The Arrowsmith Star. • November: What is probably the worst fire in Parksville’s history is being called accidental. Five Parksville businesses were gutted and another four damaged. • December: The local SPCA has a place it can call home on the Alberni Highway.
Vancouver’s Doug Sawyer lines up teammate John Watson during the 19th World Croquet Tournament in Parksville.
Teen wins beauty pageant A Parksville teenager exhibited a brilliant smile when the judges in the Miss Parksville-Qualicum Beach and District competition on May 28. Alison Duncan, a Grade 11 student enrolled at Ballenas Secondary School in Parksville, was named the winner of the annual pageant, which was sponsored by Quality Foods. The victory was no easy feat for Duncan, as she found herself up against some serious competition from the other seven contestants Alison Duncan shows her winning who were entered in the pageant. form at 1994 pageant.
The Regional District of Nanaimo approved a $13.4 million loan for upgrading the French Creek sewage treatment plant. The loan authorization was contingent on receiving matching funds from both the provincial and federal governments under the Liberal infrastructure program. The loan brought the amount of debt being held by the RDN to $23.9 million.
Church turns 100 The logs at St. Anne’s Church are more silvered now, and the building has settled a little more comfortably into the lush, green landscape, but essentially it looks just like it must have when it first opened, 100 years ago in July. One of the first preachers who used the site was Rev. Charles Cooper, who was responsible for the spiritual welfare of people of Englishman River, French Creek, Errington, Little Qualicum and Nanoose Bay. At the time, all supplies had to be brought in by boat.
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30th Anniversary Series
The Parksville Qualicum Beach News Tuesday, July 31, 2012
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Community in Review ~ 1995
City man shot dead
TOP STORIES • January, 1995: Parksville Residents Association holds it first meeting. They will be looking at all the issues concerning Parksville residents, most of which are related to growth. • February: School District 69 submits specifications for a new secondary school in Qualicum Beach.
Parksville RCMP began a probe of an incident in November which saw a 43-year-old city man shot to death at his home. The body of Larry James Hansen was found at his Accacia Street home. Police say the man died after suffering a single gunshot wound. Police and forensic experts raced to the scene and an autopsy was conducted. That wasn’t the only foul play in the area. Also proceedings began against the man accused of killing Helen Dunlop, 79, who was found strangled to death at her Corfield Ave. home in 1993. It was believed that a shoelace was the murder weapon used in the killing. Charged with her murder was Delmar Warren French, 28.
• March: North Island Wildlife Recovery Association has a rare visitor — a burrowing owl. These owls are very rare on Vancouver Island. • April: Members of Nanoose First Nation and their supporters begin a blockade on the Craig Bay Estates development on the outskirts of Parksville. • April: District 69 copes with tragedy after the suicide deaths of two young people who attended Oceanside Middle School. • May: Qualicum Beach was alive with chili lovers and ice cube watchers, as the second annual Fire and Ice celebration hit the village. The event attracted about 5,000 people. • June: The water spray park in the community park in Parksville is closed after an estimated $15,000 damage caused by five vandals. • July: A surcharge of 20 per cent will be charged to out-of-town swimmers at the Ravensong Aquatic Centre. • August: Shaw Cable packs up their office and relocates to Nanaimo. However, the move frees up more time for the station to be out in District 69. • September: At the RDN board meeting on Sept. 12, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, French Creek, Lantzville and Nanoose Bay decide to go together in the referendum for the $49 million regional water supply system. • October: A sod-turning ceremony occurred Sept. 28 for the new $9.7 million Springwood Middle School in Parksville. • October: A B.C. Supreme Court jury began to hear details of the 1993 murder of Helen Dunlop. Delmar Warren French, 28, is charged with first degree murder. He was later found guilty and given 25 years in jail.
A conservation officer tags the ear of a sedated cougar which was treed, tranquilized and removed unharmed from Springwood Park.
The News shrinks The Parksville Qualicum Beach News downsized its pages in November from its former broadsheet format. The size of the paper was reduced by two inches in height. The move came as the price of newsprint soared and the supply of newsprint dried up. “Newsprint costs havwe more than doubled since Feburary of 1994,” said Island Publishers vicepresident Manfred Tempelmayr. Most major newspapers had already made the convrersion to a smaller format in response to the price hike.
The move, he added, was made to protect the consumer from having to bear the brunt of the increased costs and help reduce the demands on British Columbia forests. The change was not expected to impact page design or layout and would make the paper easier to handle, as well as reduce the amount of wood fibre used to produce it. The reduction in newsprint supply came after Fletcher Challenge and MacMillan Bloedel announced plans to reduce the amount of newsprint they produce in order to make more premium grades of paper in their facilities.
Unplayable lie at the Morningstar golf course was the sight that greeted golfers venturing out after a windstorm ripped through the area.
Congratulations Parksville Qualicum Beach News! on being an outstanding community newspaper for 30 years! We appreciate your past and ongoing support and promotion of our recreation and parks facilities and programs. Oceanside Place Arena 250.248.3252 Ravensong Aquatic Centre 250.752.5014 See our website for more information www.rdn.bc.ca/recreation
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30th Anniversary Series
Tuesday, July 31, 2012 The Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Community in Review ~ 1996
TOP STORIES
More interest in elections shown in Qualicum
• January, 1996: Trustees for School District 69 took a stand against amalgamation with Port Alberni’s board of trustees. Chair Lesley Tombs said local trustees will find ways to trim their budget and agreed to meet with the City of Parksville and Town of Qualicum Beach to see what services could be shared as cost-savings to all partners. Education minister Art Charbonneau says this district will amalgamate with or without its input.
When local organizers held election forums in District 69 this year, there was a marked difference in terms of the level of interest shown between voters in Parksville and those in Qualicum Beach. Some 500 of Qualicum Beach’s 3,337 electors showed up at the Qualicum Beach all-candidates forum on November 5. At the event, angry voters grilled the candidates on the issues of growth in an around the town. In marked contrast, at a similar event in Parksville held a day earlier, only 100 people showed up.
• February: Owners of the Island Hall in Parksville see their plans to develop the site fizzle. Public opinion was mixed on planned retail outlets, open space for public use, residential buildings on the beach and taller buildings. • March: Paul Reitsma tops the polls and fellow Liberals elect him as their representative for this constituency. It’s now to Reitsma to wrest the Parksville-Qualicum seat away from NDP MLA Leonard Krog in the upcoming provincial election, slated for May. Reitsma sais he will continue on as mayor.
Oil spill proves messy, expensive
• April: After months of uncertainty, Education Minister Paul Ramsey says School District 69 won’t be amalgamated with any other district. • May: Parksville mayor Paul Reitsma unseats Leonard Krog as MLA for ParksvilleQualicum by 511 votes. • June: Qualicum Beach mayor Jack Collins announces he won’t run again in November’s municipal election. Councillor Bill Luchmeijer says he’ll seek the job. • July: The French Creek sewage plant opens its $13 million expansion, but local residents say odours wafting from the facility are as bad as ever, prompting numerous studies and remedial measures — to no avail. • August: Problems with the district’s 911 emergency phone system are leaked, bringing to light serious technical flaws that have been dispatching the wrong fire departments on emergency calls. • September: A heavenly treat is witnessed by thousands as the last total lunar eclipse of the century brings a humbling glow to the evening skies.
Krog wants CFMETR closed Parksville-Qualicum MLA Leonard Krog wrote a letter to the Minister of National Defence, asking that the testing facility at CFMETR at Nanoose Bay be put to peaceful purposes at the end of its tenure. Krog said in the letter that there is strong support for the conversion of that facility to peaceful uses more consistent with pbulic values, goals and needs. The move got full support from members of the Nanoose Conver-
sion Campaign. “There is no doubt about the values he states in his letter, said Michael Candler, a spokesperson for the group. Candler had been invovled in a push to convert the facility to peaceful purposes for the past dozen years. He said the facility was a product of the Cold War and should be allowed to die a natural death when the term ended. The facility remained open.
An act of vandalism cost Parksville in excess of $2,000 after a valve line leading to the bottom of a furnace fuel tank was kicked off in March, leading to the discharge of about 250 gallons of fuel across the property. The fuel ran into a storm drain, ending up at the McMillan Street outfall. About 160 gallons of the spilled fuel was vacuumed up by a truck and about 40 more gallons were soaked up by absorbant pads. “I suspect we lost in the area of 40 gallons into the ocean, said Bob Davies, the environmental emergency response officer for the Ministry of Environment. The costs related to the wages for those working on the spill, as well as incidental expenses.
Potholes in Coombs The winter was a difficult one for roads in District 69, hammering them with potholes. This fact was brought out by a dozen Coombs residents, who tathered on Winchester Road to pledge support for the long battle with government to get the road permanently repaired. Longtime resident Nick Kroot said nothing had been done with the road in the past 30 years, leading to its sad condition.
30th Anniversary Series
The Parksville Qualicum Beach News Tuesday, July 31, 2012
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Community in Review ~ 1997 TOP STORIES February: Parksville-Qualicum MLA Paul Reitsma rallied citizens for a rally to get the provincial government to reverse its recent decision to close the Parksville court house. He said said that loosing the service would mean not only the lost jobs but would leave a big gap in the area’s services. March: Local MLA Paul Reitsma had his hand slapped in a very public way Thursday for dipping into the trough aboard a B.C. Ferry. The Vancouver Province newspaper ran a column revealing that he had been using his MLA ferry pass to pay for dinners at sea “with alarming frequency.” April: An Easter Sunday fire at Tigh-NaMara Resort destroyed about 16 waterfront units. The Parksville fire department responded around 8 p.m. and called in Qualicum Beach and Nanoose Bay for help. April: Reaction to the new town hall taking shape in Qualicum Beach appears to be generally unfavourable amongst citizens, while town officials continue to defend the $3 million project. May: A major flooding of Horne Lake saw two campgrounds submerged and dozens of recreational cabins threatened by rising waters. The water was up to four feet above normal due to heavy rains and melting snow. July: Canadians across District 69 joined those across the country in marking Canada’s 130th birthday with big celebrations in Parksville and Qualicum Beach August: Parksville’s politicians agreed to send a letter to the premier’s office asking him to consider carefully the significance of carrying through with his threat to force the closure of the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental Test Range in Nanoose Bay. September: A movement to stop the proposed closure of French Creek Elementary School is gaining momentum as parents and residents begin to mobilize themselves. December: Parksville’s historic water tower has been saved for posterity after an anonymous donor read an appeal for help in its rescue in the pages of the PARKSVILLE QUALICUM BEACH NEWS.
The Horne Lake campground was severely flooded by extremely heavy rains and melting snow in 1997. In other parts of District 69, homes were destroyed and other property was severely impacted.
Wolf traps do their job
Wolf traps set up in the Boorman Road area west of Qualicum Beach were taken down after two male wolves were killed by conservation officers while caught in the traps. Lance Sundquist, the acting regional enforcement manager said the traps were removed because there was no more reported wolf activity in the area. The traps were laid because of a dog killing in April and another in-
cident in which a wolf tried to lure a dog from the safety of its property. The trapping didn’t go unnoticed, with some local residents expressing their opposition to the use of the traps. Mae McKenzie, president of the Association for PRotection of Fur Bearing Animals in District 69 called the move unfortunate. “We have to learn to live with these things in our area,” she said.
Hitchhiker sexually assaulted
A 15-year-old boy who was hitchhiking from Parksville to Qualicum Beach in July was sexually assaulted, leading to charges against a GOld River man. Members of the Oceanside RCMP detachment said the boy had been picked up near the Ea-
glecrest subidvision by a man in a pickup truck,. The driver went to a secluded area, where he produced a knife and proceeded to sexually assault the youth. The suspect was later located at a Qualicum Beach motel and arrested.
This seal popped up on the beachfront by the QUalicum Beach Chamber of Commerce building. The little fellow was tuckered out but soon safely on its way.
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30th Anniversary Series
Tuesday, July 31, 2012 The Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Community in Review ~ 1998 Disgraced MLA calls it quits
TOP STORIES
• January: Parksville Chrysler was named as the Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year, while Parksville Mohawk won the nod as best small business.
• February: A woman who robbed a corner store in Qualicum Beach by brandishing a syringe of blood that she said contained the AIDS virus was sentenced to a one-year conditional sentence.
• March: French Creek residents were complaining about a stink coming from the sewage treatment plant, but new odor-fighting gear was costed at anywhere from $350,000 to $1 million. • April: Pilot George Clark and is wife were lucky to walk away after the T-28 warplane they were flying landed with its wheels still up during Airport Appreciation Day. • May: The days of dumping garbage for free at the Regional District of Nanaimo dump ended this year. Free dumping days were eliminated, but the fee on other days was reduced to battle illegal dumping. • June: An apartment fire left dozens of people homeless in Parksville in June when a blaze ripped through a three-storey apartment building on Moilliet Street. • July: The first sandcastle weekend in 17 years without the annual sandcastle competition had business owners calling for something to replace it. • August: A woman who robbed a corner store in Qualicum Beach by brandishing a syringe of blood that she said contained the AIDS virus was sentenced to a one-year conditional sentence. • September: Leonard Krog lost the 1998 byelection in Parksville-Qualicum North Nanaimo to fish farmer Judith Reid. • November: Police busted a huge pot farm in Errington, with millions of dollars of marijuana consigned to the flames. • December: A $30 drug debt led to a beating of a Parksville teenager by four other youths.
Firefighters battle a blaze that engulfed the entire upper floor of a 32-unit apartment on Moilliet Street in Parksville.
Gen. Money’s medals returned to the town When Qualicum rounding the train staBeach celebrated Herition, which had been tage Week in 1998 they called Heritage Park, did so in style — with would now be known the return of some very as General Money Meprecious artifacts from morial Park. local history. Much of the genThose artifacts were eral’s significant herithe military medals tage is still visible in GENERAL MONEY from Brigadier General Qualicum Beach, in Noel Money, who was particular the Memoone of the key figures from the rial Golf Course, which he played a town’s past. vital role in starting up. As well, the The medals, circa 1900, were 1915 house on the Brown property welcomed back to the community was his former abode and Money from their former home of a Victo- donated the land upon which St. ria collector by members of town Mark’s church currently sits. council and the Qualicum Beach Born in Montreal in 1867 and Historical Society. educated in England, Money first Mayor Bill Luchtmeijer, an air came to Qualicum beach in July cadet band and former mayor of 1913 and he quickly bought six and museum society president Art residential lots. Skipsey were all on hand for the big In the following year Money reevent. turned as the resident manager of After acknowledging Money’s the Merchants Trust and Trading contribution to the town, Lucht- Company. meijer announced the land surMoney died in 1941.
A campaign to recall Parksville-Qualicum MLA Paul Reitsma was initiated this year after it was discovered he had been penning letters to the editor under an assumed name. The letters, under the fictitious name of Warren Betanko, slammed his opponents and heaped generous praise on Reitsma. In April Reitsma apologized for his behaviour in the B.C. legislature but was kicked out of the Liberal caucus anyway. He still refused to resign, declaring instead that he intended to regain the trust of B.C. voters. However, voters were PAUL RIETSMA evidently not in the mood to forgive and forget and, in response, volunteers fanned out across the constituency to collect signatures on a recall petition. By late May the recall petitioners, headed by Mark Robinson, were within 2,000 signatures of their goal of 17,000 names. When the petitions were completed, a total of 25,000 names were submitted to Elections B.C. Rather than become the first member of the B.C. legislature to ever be recalled, Reitsma, who had served as mayor of both Port Alberni and Parksville, resigned his seat as an MLA.
Rainfest 1998
Nobody had to be worried this festival was going to be rained out. Quite the opposite. In 1998 Parksville celebrated Rainfest with a series of activities designed to be undertaken indoors. Organizer Sandy Herle, who would later go on to become mayor of the city, was one of the key organizers of the celebration of rain. Events included a nerf golf tourney, gumboot races, road hockey games, a basketball skills contest, karaoke and a parade of lights. Despite pesssimistic forecasts for sunshine, the weather co-operated with a nice drizzle.
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30th Anniversary Series
The Parksville Qualicum Beach News Tuesday, July 31, 2012
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Community in Review ~ 1999 Civic vote brings surprises
TOP STORIES
• January: The annual Polar Bear Swim in Parksville saw political activist Bruie Brunie doff her top and take to the waves on New Year’s Day. Brunie carried a sign that said, Disarm for World Peace. • February: A proposal to split Parksville and Qualicum Beach into two separate provincial ridings united Parksville mayor Julia MacDonald and Qualicum Beach’s Bill Luchtmeijer in opposition to the move.
• March: A group called the Society for the Preservation of the Englishman River Estuary (SPERE) decided not to appeal a court ruling that undercut its opposition to the Arrowsmith dam. • April: United Church minister Foster Freed was pushing for Canada to live up to its NATO Commitments and get involved in the war in Bosnia. His church had been sponsoring a family from Bosnia. • May: Qualicum Beach residents voted in favour by a two-to-one margin in a referendum about whether or not to incorporate 270 acres of property to the west of the town boundary. • June: The cliff at Little Mountain proved deadly for a Parksville man, who fell 120 feet to his death in June. • July: The Englishman was called a river of sorrow after a teenaged visitor from Saskatchewan died after being swept over the falls. • August: A federal court judge sank an attempt by the Province of B.C. to expropriate the base at CFMETR in August. The court denied an injunction by several plaintiffs who had launched a lawsuit against Ottawa over its seizure of 225 square kilometres of seabed. • September: • Police were on the lookout for mailbox bombers after vandals hit three different areas in one night. The culprits used pipe bombs and fireworks. December: RCMP turned the sod on their new home. The $1.5 million project was set to provide more parking, better access, interview rooms and a new cell block area.
RCMP officer handels marijuana from one of the biggest drug busts in the area’s entire history.
Brown property saved It’s ofďŹ cial. The Brown property — and the old growth forest it contained — would not fall to the developers’ bulldozers, but was to remain as a heritage forest for future generations. The announcement came in April, three years into the campaign to save the property after preservationists joined with the municipality to come up with $908,460 — enough to purchase 70 per cent of the undeveloped portion of the land. “It’s a good day for Qualicum Beach,â€? said Chris Lee, the president of the Brown Property preservation Society. “It’s been a team effort — a long team effort.â€? Of the total purchase price, the Town of Qualicum Beach came
up with $483,460, obtained from development cost charges as well as other reserve funds. The society kicked in $426,000, which they raised through pledges and donations from the community. “The Town of Qualicum Beach has identiďŹ ed the Brown property as a site for anticipated parkland acquisition since the adoption of the 1987 ofďŹ cial communmity plan,â€? said mayor Bill Luchtmeijer. “Working in co-operation with the community and the Brown Property Preservation Society, we have collectively been able to achieve our goal.â€? Along with the purchase, the group secured a one-year option to purchase the remaining 30 per cent of the undeveloped land.
A total of 42 candidates threw their hats in the ring to seek a seat in the Nov. 20 municipal election. Parksville mayor Julia MacDonald was acclaimed at the close of nominations. School District 69 trustees Loretta Nichols and Barbara Terry were also acclaimed, while RDN directors Jack McLean andn Joe Stanhope also held onto their seats by acclamation. In Qualicum Beach there was no acclamation however. Incumbent mayor Bill Luchtmeijer was challenged for his seat by Coun. Teunis Westbroek. This election also saw the ďŹ rst run for a seat by former school vice-principal Randy Longmuir, who focused on the need to have a hospital in Oceanside. One of the key elements in the Parksville race focused on development. Fully half the written questions at a Parksville all candidates meeting involved development and development friendliness. That development friendliness proved a key issue, with candidate Rick Marshall arguing that council’s attitude towards development was driving businesses away. In Qualicum Beach meanwhile, a forum, where incumbent mayor Luchtmeijer criticized Westbroek for missing a town budget meeting because of an annual ďŹ shing trip. In response, Westbroek said he had been closely involved in the budget process. When the dust settled in the two communities, Westbroek had won the mayor’s chair in Qualicum Beach, taking a whopping 65 per cent of the vote to Luchtmeijer’s 35 per cent. Incumbents Marlys Diamond and Anton Kruyt easily reclaimed their seats, along with newcomer Scott Tanner, who won a nailbiter against Chris Lee that required a runoff election in December. In Parksville, Macdonald remained by acclamation while Coun. Anne Duggan led the pack with 1,057 cvotes. Jon Walters ďŹ nishd second, while longtime councillors Jim Banks and Barry Johnston also returned to their seats. Longmuir also won his seat, as did Fred Demmon.
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30th Anniversary Series
Tuesday, July 31, 2012 The Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Community profile
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Valerie Dare has helped create a vibrant music scene in Arrowsmith, among many other achievements in the area.
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throughout B.C. Dare discovered marimba music while attending a music showcase during her time on the Vancouver School Board’s art advocacy committee. The idea came up and funding was available to build a set of marimbas at Britannia school’s wood work shop. In District 69 last year, Dare and Marilynn Sims, both with Arrowsmith Community Enhancement Society (ACES), won a grant to introduce a similar project. Marimbas were built at Qualicum Beach Middle School with the help of students and seniors and lessons and performances around the area followed. Dare was also involved with local community groups on the mainland and helped create a youth performance group that has since evolved into a group called Kutapira. In 2007 they played for Queen Elizabeth at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival in Scotland. This group has been involved with the Errington Hall over the years and some of its members make up the group Afro-Mumanzi, who run a World Music Summer Camp in Errington. With the idea of starting a local youth performance group, Dare worked with the Oceanside Community Arts Council to hold workshops at the local middle schools. She discovered two youth in an adult marimba band and they became the instructors of the group Kumbana Marimba. After her first year on the Errington Hall board, Dare managed to get approval for a grant, enabling the hall to book out of town guests. Back on the board of directors at the Oceanside Community Arts Council, Dare is now endeavoring to bring more activities and community engagement to The MAC (McMillan Arts Centre). “What I’m hoping we can do is transform The MAC into a real community arts centre,” she said. This will be a tough challenge however, she said, without any basic funding from local government. But whether this challenge pans out or not one thing’s for certain, the community has a lot to thank Valerie Dare for.
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f you’ve experienced multicultural music in the area over the last couple of years, odds are that Valerie Dare had something to do with it. Dare has been the music coordinator at the Errington Hall for the past couple of years and with that role she has brought a wealth of experience and connections and a genuine enthusiasm for this ethnically diverse music. In Arrowsmith she also helped put together the youth marimba group Kumbana Marimba, as well as the group Afro-Mumanzi, who now run local summer camps, she’s involved in the marimba lessons for seniors at the Bradley Centre and she’s also involved in the new Jug Band Project that recently began at the Coombs Activity Centre. Her community engagement stretches beyond just Arrowsmith. Dare grew up in the area and graduated from Kwalicum Secondary High School in 1964, before moving to Victoria to attend university. She became a teacher and taught in a number of locations including Parksville, Powell River, Nelson and Revelstoke before settling in Vancouver. After returning to school she received a masters degree in education with a specialty in school libraries. It was teaching at Brittannia Secondary School in East Vancouver that Dare discovered her affinity for world music and what a wonderful tool it was for introducing new cultures and music to the largely ESL (English as a second language) student population. “It was a really neat way for students to be introduced to other cultures in a sort of live format, non-text, so they didn’t have to read and could acquire the information in other ways,” she said. The musicians would come into the classroom, demonstrate their craft and interact with the students, and Dare saw great results. She became involved in creating curriculum that combined learning and ethnic music for schools
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