and the band played on
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hockey heartbreak is good for you
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hear some great indy bands
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friday
may 24 2013 www.newwestnewsleader.com
Why not take a few great strides this sunday, get some exercise and help out a new West boy like hudson? see page a8
Westies to make historic march Participating in Hyack Parade Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
Grant GranGer/newsLeader
the expanded Queensborough community centre re-opened this week. the facility provides lots of natural light, part of the goal to ‘bring the outside in.’
New ‘Community living room’ opens Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
“Where’s Bart?” a staff member asks Queensborough Community Centre manager Renée Chadwick. “Bart’s in the kitchen,” she replies, only to get a quizzical look from the employee. “Oh, yeah, I have to tell you which kitchen. Now we have five.” It’s a small clarification Chadwick takes great delight in having to make, with the newly expanded facility opening its doors to the public for the first time this week. With the expansion, the centre has doubled in size to 28,000 square
feet. Beautiful big beams, big any sense of the community. To get skylights and big windows dominate that right is hard to do.” throughout. There’s lots of natural The most spectacular room, light bouncing off the shiny wood although far from being the only even on a dingy day to accent the one, may be the fitness centre on the building’s Life Along The River second storey. theme. It is festooned with “We did bring workout machines, video-online] the outside in,” says weights and fitness balls Chadwick, as the newwestnewsleader.com with all the stations compliments from providing fabulous visitors echo across the hallways. views of the surrounding park and “It’s beautiful, it’s gorgeous. Well mainland New Westminster. done!” chimes in a long-time user of The spacious Poplar Island Room the centre. on the lower floor, with its sparkling Says another, Marilyn Pitt, community kitchen (the biggest of “When you walk in, you don’t lose the five), can hold up to 130 people
for gatherings. A woman who has booked it for her child’s baptism is one of the first in to take photos of it. “It’s so nice I don’t want to leave here,” she tells Chadwick with a big smile. Next to it is the child care centre, expected to open Sept. 1, which features a little-people washroom with sinks and toilets only about a foot off the ground. Along the atrium hallway wall is a continuous series of benches and tables repurposed from wood out of the old section’s beams.
www.royalcityphysio.ca |
please see faciLity, a3
604-553-1203
101-450 E. Columbia St, New Westminster | contact@royalcityphysio.ca
A once-in-aquarter-century appearance will be made by the Royal Westminster Regiment during the Hyack International Parade on Saturday. To honour its 150th anniversary, the regiment, complete with colours flying, drums beating and bayonets fixed, will participate in the parade for the first time since its 125th anniversary in 1988. A military contingent of 250 members from many ranks of the battalion will march under the command of Lt.-Col. Douglas Poitras, the regiment’s commanding officer. Participating will be serving members of the battalion including numerous Afghanistan veterans, about 140 cadets from the unit’s five cadet corps, the regimental band, Second World War veterans and several large military vehicles. The Seymour Artillery Battery and Royal Engineer Re-enactors will be firing a 12-pounder field howitzer during the parade. please see parade, a8