Cowichan News Leader Pictorial, July 30, 2014

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Sports: Baseball zone playoffs productive for Duncan News: Jaws of Life needed in crash near Crofton

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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Community champ dies in plane crash

Gerald Thom: Saturday’s tragedy near Nanaimo Airport shocks friends who praise man’s gentle coaxing toward river conservation initiatives

Peter W. Rusland

News Leader Pictorial

G Andrew Leong

An unknown amount of timber and brush was burned during Monday’s stubborn blaze off Genoa Bay Road. The brush fire happened at 5525 Genoa Bay Road around 10:45 a.m., some two kilometres past the Maple Bay Marina, News Leader Pictorial lensman Andrew Leong said. The inferno was fought by members of Maple Bay’s volunteer hall, with mutual aid from Crofton’s hall. The fire was seen candling up trees, while traffic was blocked until around 12:30 p.m., he reported. The fire’s cause was still under investigation.

Country music festival booming

B.C’s biggest: SunFest features new entry routes, bigger beverage garden and tons of acts headlined by star Tim McGraw at CowEx grounds this weekend Peter W. Rusland

News Leader Pictorial

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.C.’s biggest country-music festival dawns again on Cowichan tomorrow as SunFest organizers welcome some 30,000 fans and entertainers. Spokeswoman Charlotte Fisher sounded calm while ironing out details for the valley’s 14th-annual hoedown, headlined this year by superstar Tim McGraw, plus Dean Brody, Jake Owen, Cassadee Pope, Kira Isabella, George Canyon, Aaron Pritchett, and Blackjack Billy. Fisher was amped about SunFest’s saddlebag of local, provincial and international talent bound for the sprawling Cowichan Exhibition grounds. That’s where new camp-shower trailers ($5); shuttles (from Island Savings Centre and Fuller Lake Arena, 2 p.m. to 1 a.m., Friday to Sunday) and buses (Wilson’s, from Nanaimo and Victoria); various vendors; redesigned on- and off-site parking and traffic routes; a fenced beverage garden; an arts, crafts and

games Kids Zone; Farmer’s Market building in Mellor Hall; contests and much more await cowpokes from many countries. “We have people coming from Perth and the state of Victoria, Australia; the U.K.; Belgium; Germany; Texas; California; Arizona; P.E.I.; Massachusetts; Ontario; the Yukon — literally from all over the world,” Fisher said of Cowichan’s Nashville North. “It’s our own little SunFest city on the go.” Folks are flocking to 1,000 campsites during Thursday to Sunday’s family festival hosted by benevolent locals at Wideglide Entertainment. “We’re getting north of $75,000 a year we put back into local Cowichan charities,” said Wideglide head and SunFest founder Greg Adams. “We’re over half a million dollars (donated locally) since we started.” Humble beginnings at Providence Farm back in 2001 propelled SunFest to Avalon Equestrian Centre, and eventually to CowEx grounds several years ago. more on page 5

erald Thom, one of Cowichan’s conservation and community stars, was one of two men killed during Saturday’s ultralight plane crash near Nanaimo Airport. He was 50. The Youbou resident was president of the Cowichan Lake and River Stewardship Society. Thom shared Lake Cowichan Chamber of Commerce’s 2014 Citizen of the Year honours in April with the lake’s Wilma Rowbottom. He also earned Lake Steward of the Year kudos in 2013, from the B.C. Lake Stewardship Society. Friend Rodger Hunter was stunned about the tragedy when reached Monday. Hunter stressed how Thom’s death is a blow to the valley’s crucial conservation efforts. “I’d describe Gerald as a watershed champion. His death is a huge loss, but he inspired so many people that his legacy will live on. This watershed will be so much better because of Gerald. “I can’t think of a fault to Gerald Thom. He had that wonderful, quiet confidence that was absolutely inspiring; he led by example.” Coincidentally, Thom and other society volunteers planted 800 native plants in the lake’s damaged riparian zone on Lake Cowichan First Nation land earlier Saturday. “It was a marvelous day, and Gerald was front and centre leading the way,” Hunter said of Thom, who led the lake’s riparian-restoration drive. The B.C. Coroners Service confirmed Monday Thom and Salt Spring Islander Michael Cyril Weir, 73, died in the 7 p.m. crash of a home-built aircraft near Nanaimo Airport on July 26.

Malcolm Chalmers/file

Cowichan conservation pillar Gerald Thom was restoring river vegetation just hours before dying during Saturday’s ultralight plane crash near Nanaimo. “Mr. Weir and Mr. Thom were taking their home-built aircraft on flight trials, taking off from the Nanaimo Airport, which is located at Cassidy south of Nanaimo, on the evening of July 26,” coroner service’s Matt Brown’s email reads. “Shortly after 7 p.m., witnesses observed the plane to be in trouble shortly after takeoff. It crashed almost immediately onto the neighbouring Cottonwood Golf Course. Both men were deceased at the scene.” Investigation continues through the coroner’s service, and the federal Transportation Safety Board, Brown noted. more on page 5

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