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LIFTING HERSELF AND OTHERS Local bodybuilder wants to empower others

Campbellton ready for take-off

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PEOPLE | COMMUNITY | C ULTURE

ON THE COVER: Photo: Mike Davies To Nicole Janveaux, the gym used to be an escape but in recent years, as she achieves greater success in the sport of body building, she has found that she uses the gym to help others achieve their own successes.

SEPTEMBER 2016

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Local bodybuilder wants to empower others

LIFTING HERSELF AND OTHERS Local bodybuilder wants to empower others

Campbellton ready for take-off Wave is produced by: Wave magazine is published quarterly by Black Press. The points of view or opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of Wave. The contents of Wave magazine are protected by copyright, including the designed advertising. Reproduction is prohibited without written consent of the publisher.

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contents SEPTEMBER 2016 | ISSUE #15

For Meinjsa Vlaming

puppetry is how all of the pieces fit together Never underestimate what

‘gals on a mission’ can achieve

10 LIFTING HERSELF AND OTHERS Local bodybuilder wants to empower others

14 Sonia Edwards has never been one to take something for granted

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For Meinjsa Vlaming puppetry is how all of the pieces fit together Meinjsa Vlaming fell in love with puppeteering when she was 18-years-old. To be more specific she fell in love with a handsome puppeteer. “He was so amazing and beautiful but he had no idea who I was because he already had stage shows and everything,” she said. Vlaming had been making puppets since she was nine years old, using a pattern,that she still uses today, that she got from a TV show .

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Around the same time she was pining for the puppeteer, she saw the movie Les Enfants du Paradis. She was enchanted by the masks and grotesque movements of the comedia dell’Arte group. And so she decided she wanted to be a puppeteer. But she went about it the wrong way. “I thought I needed other people,” she said. So on top of teaching yoga and working for a fly-over photography company in the Netherlands, Vlaming and two friends began making marionettes. However, that didn’t go anywhere. One friend wanted to do a Monty Python-esque puppet show, which was not what Vlaming had in mind and the other friend fell in love and got married. And so Vlaming moved on to dollmaking. In 1985, Vlaming travelled to Canada on holidays. Her friends back home bet a case of beer that she wouldn’t return one and a half months later like she had planned. They were right. Vlaming met a man in Lund, B.C. and sold her return ticket. She returned home pregnant six months later. For three years she made trips back and forth before the getting married and officially becoming a landed immigrant. The couple had two more kids together before getting divorced ten years later. While raising her kids, Vlaming’s only puppets were made of napkins in restaurants to keep the little ones quiet. She taught art classes at her kids’ school for awhile, marionettes being one of the projects, but her personal art journey took her in other directions. Vlaming made costumes for the school plays. She made jewellery. At one point she studied colour theory but had no intention of learning to paint. “I don’t need something else that I am passionate about that doesn’t make me money,” she said. But, inevitably is seems, she fell for painting as well. Soon it wasn’t just creating with her hands, Vlaming got involved with dance as well. It started with Middle Eastern Dancing. She worked both as a dancer and as a teacher. Because of previous injuries, belly dancing became too difficult so Vlaming turned to zambra, which is a combination of Flamenco dancing and belly dancing. Vlaming teaches a troupe from Cortes Island. They performed at the River City Arts Festival in July. For a five year stint Vlaming ran a restaurant on Cortes, but she didn’t have time for art and she was miserable. “Life is too short not to do what you love,” she said. At the moment dance, as well as puppetry are what keep Vlaming, who is quickly approaching 60, busy. “I would never retire, what would I do?” she said. “People that retire pick up painting.” Thirty-seven years after falling in love with the puppeteer, Vlaming got back into making puppets.

[6] WAVE MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2016

She was looking at her dolls one day, and decided two things, first that she didn’t like that they were stationary, and second that she would like to find a way to become one of her dolls. Vlaming said that puppetry is a combination of all of the art she has created in her life, stitching, sculpting, painting and performing, it has all come together, coincidentally, in the very same place where it started. Looking back, Vlaming said the first puppet that she made wasn’t very good. She attempted to make a muppet type character using pop bottles and covering them with felt. At the same time Vlaming created scarf marionettes, which have strings attached to their heads and hands and if their hands move, their feet move. She also made sock puppet type characters with the mouth, eyes and nose situated on her fist. Though it started off fairly simply, it grew from there. Vlaming has taken workshops both on Quadra and once every couple years in Banff to learn how to make puppets as well as the history and technique behind good puppetry. Vlaming now has a variety of

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characters that she takes out to parties, festivals and parades. Some of her puppets are hand puppets, she controls their mouth with one hand and their limbs with the other. When more flowy movements are required of celestial type characters they are often marionettes. Some of her more wacky puppets are hybrid puppets. They are nothing but a torso. Vlaming uses her own legs as their lets and controls their mouth with one hand her arm is one of their arms. What Vlaming doesn’t want is to be a puppeteer dressed in black or controlling puppets from strings, she wants to be on stage interacting with her puppets. That call to the stage is something she thinks she inherited from her mother. Though on stage with her puppets, many of Vlamings shows are lip synced. She creates a loop and her and her puppets talk, sing and perform along with it. “If I look at one big red thread in my work it is expression,” she said. “With the expression I try to evoke emotions. That’s what all my art boils down to. When we have emotions we feel like we are alive, like we are really really alive.” At the end of July she was working on her interpretation of The Velveteen Rabbit. An idea that came to her when her daughter got sick and asked for a story to help her feel better. She said that much of her other inspiration comes from music. A song will inspire the free thinking that leads to choreography as well as puppets. At one point Vlaming wished it hadn’t taken her so long to get back to puppetry. “I would have been brilliant by now,” she said. But it wouldn’t have been the same. Sometimes you need to walk your road and pay your dues. “I’m happy with the way it all went,” she said. “Everything I have done was with so much love.”

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Local bodybuilder used the gym to overcome some issues, and wants to empower others to do the same

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Lifting herself and others Story by Mike Davies

Nicole Janveaux doesn’t like to talk about herself. She doesn’t see what the big deal is, really. She’s just a regular person who struggled with homelessness, depression, addiction issues and self-harm in her youth before turning to the gym. So what if she’s now a 47-year-old mother of two who happens to also have a lifetime exemption into the national bodybuilding championships, right? “I’ve been weightlifting since I was 19,” she says, taking a short break from her workout routine at The Yard in Campbellton, “but I guess I’ve been doing it competitively for about four years.” She first went into the gym 30 or so years ago because she was dealing with some physical and emotional issues. She had some thyroid problems affecting her weight and she was struggling with her mental health.

“The gym became kind of my escape,” she says. “I wasn’t so much running away from anything, as it turned out, I was running towards something. It gave me an outlet where I have been able to work through my past and it has given me more than I could have ever hoped for.” Throughout the years, she and husband Adam say they have taken what they call “some time off” from the gym, but only long enough to have a couple of kids – they have a girl and a boy now – and to recover from various injuries. The most major of these came in 2011, when the Janveauxs were in a serious car accident. “They told us that if we didn’t weightlift, we wouldn’t be here. They basically said our muscles held us together,” Nicole says, looking over at Adam with a smile.

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Shortly after the recovery from the wreck, Nicole decided to get serious about her sport. While the first 25 years in the gym were certainly productive, she’d basically been lifting what she wanted, when she wanted, and eating what she wanted, when she wanted, and that just wasn’t going to cut it if she was going to take herself to the next level: actual competition. So she got herself a coach and got to work. Much of what she needed coaching in was diet, she says. Her coach now controls her intake with a regimented program designed to optimize the calories going in and energy coming out at the gym. And that diet changes drastically depending on the time of the year and how close she is to a competition. “When I was in show prep, I hated it,” she says. “It’s a pretty harsh diet, but right now I’m eating six meals a day, but there are only carbs in two of them, and the rest are mainly fats and proteins.” That sounds…expensive. “We spend easily $250 a week on food,” agrees Adam. “And that’s not even including the supplements or anything like that,” Nicole adds. “Protein powder is probably another $150 a month.” “I could have bought two houses with how much food we’ve eaten,” Adam says with a laugh. He lifts, too, and says he’ll be getting into competitions, as well, as of next year. You go through a lot of food when two of you need the energy to be in the gym for 2.5 hours a day, lifting weights five days a week to go alongside your seven cardio workouts. While there are some genetic dispositions that help some people build muscle easier than others, Janveaux says she’s not really one of those lucky few. “There’s definitely some genetics involved in bodybuilding, but for me, it’s a lot of effort. I don’t have the best genetics for this,” she says. “Some people can really build easily, and I can build legs really easily, but you want everything to be in proportion, and I don’t build upper body very easily, so for me that’s a struggle.” And then there’s all the additional cardio work she’s had to incorporate since she turned from an enthusiast into a serious competitor. So let’s get down to the brass tacks. How much can you pick up off the ground, Nicole? “It’s not really about that,” she says. “Some people think it’s about lifting heavy, but I don’t lift as heavy as half the people who do this. It’s more about controlling the weight and being

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connected to your muscles. I see guys flinging 60-pound weights around, but I have bigger arms than them, so who’s doing it right?” And speaking of not being all about something, while the gym has become an integral part of who she is, it’s not what life is all about. For years, Nicole and Adam have been helping troubled youth, as well. They used to detox kids with addictions struggles and stabilize them, right in their own home. They don’t do it right now, Nicole says, but they may again one day. “I miss it,” Nicole says, looking again at Adam, who nods knowingly. “I get that,” he says. “She’s so good at it. She’s able to connect to those kids on a level that nobody else has been able to. With her past, she’s able to show that where you are right now doesn’t matter. You can change. To be able to show kids that, first hand, really has an impact, and

that’s what she’s able to do.” And who knows, maybe if the whole bodybuilding thing doesn’t work out – which is hard to fathom at this point – they could open a petting zoo. “I’m a big animal person,” she admits. “For quite a while my daughter and I would just welcome animals into our home that someone else didn’t want or couldn’t take care of.” She says it like it’s in the past, but Adam lovingly interrupts. “She just brought home a pig,” he says with another laugh. “We had 25 animals at one point. Everything from dogs to snakes to birds to flying squirrels.” For now, however, they are focused on the next goal in their sport. Nicole is trying to turn professional. Right now, Nicole has graduated from competing under the banner of the British Columbia Amateur Bodybuilding Association and competes on the

national stage through the Canadian Bodybuilding Federation. Next year she hopes to win the overall title at the national championships and move on to the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) to compete at a professional level. They’re the ones people see on television. They are why we know the name Arnold Schwarzenegger. And while she’s working on that goal, she’ll be working in the gym helping others realize them down at The Yard in Campbellton, where she both manages and takes on personal training clients. “For me, a huge part of this journey is helping others, especially women, feel empowered through lifting,” she says. “I want others to know that no matter what you’ve been through or where you come from in life, you can do whatever you want. “Don’t let anyone put limits on your goals.”

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Never underestimate what ‘gals on a mission’ can achieve Story by Alistair Taylor A group of women with a creative flair are celebrating 15 years of socializing, making art and getting things done. “We’re gals on a mission,” says Mary Teer one of a group of about 12 women who make up the Driftwood Club of Campbell River. “We’re always on a mission to save something.” The club was founded around the creation of Hobbitats – west coast villages made from driftwood. They became – and are still – quite a hit when they burst on the local art scene 20 years ago and soon spread far and wide in popularity. Club members were in high demand for workshops teaching how to

make them. After a while they came to be known as the Driftwood Divas because they don’t take themselves too seriously. The women in the club are in it for the fun and creativity and never really saw it as a commercial venture. In fact, right from the start, they put their output to use to benefit the community. “We have always been a charitable-minded group,” Teer says. The accomplishment they are most proud of is spearheading the fundraising to help save the Sybil Andrews Cottage. Sybil Andrews Cottage is the former home of renowned Campbell River-based artist Sybil Andrews. Andrews and her husband Walter Morgan lived in the oceanfront cottage in Willow Point from 1947 until each passed away. The cottage is a heritage home and the adjacent woodworking shed have been saved and restored and is the home of the Campbell River Community Arts Council. It is also made available for various artists and groups to use for creative endeavours. The Driftwood Club formed the Sybil Andrews Heritage Society in 2004 and its membership along with the Tuesday Painters At Sybil Andrews Cottage made contributions through art sales to help restore the cottage in 2011. The Driftwood Club evolved into the Friends of Sybil Andrews Cottage Art and Garden Group but their mission is still the same: to do art projects for charities to use for fundraising efforts. The group likes to accomplish at least one large painting, small quilt or wall hanging per year. The group holds an annual summer sale at the cottage and creates smaller art pieces for giving throughout the year. This fall and Christmas season, they will be selling their second colouring book and a series of “doodle art” black and white prints. They like to produce work in a lot of different art mediums, making it more interesting for this fun-loving group. They used to meet every Monday night at Sybil Andrews Cottage but have reduced their get togethers to once a month. But that just means they’re ultra-focused on whatever their current project is.

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“We’ve got the one night on the Monday and we all get there and we just lay into something,” Teer says. Teer says they are all so inspired by living in such a beautiful community that they can’t help making art of some kind. And although some of them are getting on in years, they continue to create. “We are lucky to live in such a beautiful environment, so conducive to art in all its forms,” Teer says. “Where else is lovely nature so close? The river and its tall trees; the estuary and the sea full of marine traffic and Quadra Island as our constant view.” Creating art goes back a long way for many of them. “There are still a few of us around who started out some 45 years ago performing art in Campbell River who belonged to the original art groups in town,” Teer says. “In fact, quite a few milestones have been reached this year, 2016.” The Lights and Shadows Art Group, as it was known in 1970, become the Campbell River Community Arts Council 45 years ago. In fact, the Arts Council put on an impressive three-day event in the old Community Hall 40 years ago, called Showcase ’76. As part of that event, they put up a display in the display case in the Centennial building that used to house the museum and which is now the home of the Art Gallery. Coincidentally, the Community Centre is once again displaying work from the “The Divas of Sybil Andrews Cottage.” Teer says it reflects how artists and their organizations are all intertwined over the years. But with the cottage restored as a centre for art and creativity in the community, the Divas are now turning their mind to another project. Why sit still now? And their goals are nothing if not ambitious. “We like being a small force for good in our community and the next project on our minds to save could be simply awesome,” Teer says.

BC Hydro will be demolishing in 2018 two of the surge towers as part of the John Hart Generating Station project. Three large surge towers were built as part of the John Hart hydroelectric project in the 1950s which is now being replaced with a mostly underground facility in a billion dollar project currently underway. The 90-metre high towers prevent the old penstocks which transport water from John Hart reservoir from bursting during periods of low production. They become redundant when the new generating station goes online. One of the three towers will remain as a beacon. But rather than demolish both of the last two, the Divas want to save one of them and move it to a platform by the Quadra Island ferry terminal. But it won’t just be a surge tower standing there, the Divas want to replicate a project one of their members saw installed in New York City beside the Brooklyn Bridge. That’s where a water tower was placed with its sides removed and replaced with stained glass panels. The multi-coloured stained glass water tower is then lit up at night with solar-powered lighting and serves as a colourful beacon. The Divas would like to see the same thing done with one of the surge towers. It doesn’t need to be installed at the same height that it currently stands on the hill above the John Hart Generating Station, it could be only a portion of the current height. To get a sense of what the Divas envision Google “stained glass water tower, Brooklyn Bridge.” It’s a distinct and attractive concept that would become a community landmark. Teer says they have been in contact with BC Hydro and weren’t discouraged from pursuing their idea. In fact, Teer says Hydro spokesperson Stephen Watson said they have until 2018 to develop a proposal. The Driftwood Club members would like to see it in place on the three acres the city owns adjacent to the Discovery Harbour shopping centre. Combined with a new tourism information centre and a new library, it would become a distinct public place for Campbell River. Teer says the motivation is inspired by BC Hydro which she believes the community owes much to for building and producing power at John Hart for over 60 years and now their restorations have given a boost to the local economy when it is needed most. “What better way to commemorate and promote what we have than by installing a beautiful art installation and saving another piece of heritage?” Teer says. The Divas have another mission. You just can’t hold them back.

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Sonia Edwards is the chair of the Investors Group Walk for Alzheimers, a contribution that aligns with her personal values of giving back to the community and helping others.

Sonia Edwards has never been one to take something for granted Story by Kristen Douglas Sonia Edwards has never been one to take something for granted. So when an employer took what she calls “a leap of faith,” she made certain to make the most of the opportunity. Growing up in Quebec, and knowing only basic English, a store manager in Jasper, Alta. took a chance and hired her to manage a gift shop. “The manager of the store took a leap of faith and he said ‘I’ll help you with your English,’” Edwards says. “Without that person I wouldn’t be here today; that person really took a chance on me. And really that’s why I do what I do. It’s a great feeling when you have someone who believes in you and wants to help you and give their all to you, and I’ve tried to return that.” In an effort to give back, Edwards, now a divisional manager with Campbell River’s Investors Group, volunteers with the local high schools’ Junior Achievement Program. The program allows Edwards to pass on her wisdom and teach students who are preparing to enter the workforce how to secure a job, how to budget and how to afford real life once they

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“It was a big deal for me when I moved out of my parents’ house,” Edwards said. “I moved from Quebec to Alberta, I wasn’t just two hours away, I was in another province and I was thrown into adulthood. I felt I wasn’t really ready, I didn’t have enough preparation to know what to expect, what groceries cost, how much you should set aside for rent, utilities, if you want cable, that’s extra. “That’s why the program is so great, it opens their minds to have to think about these things before they move out,” she says. Edwards is also the chair of the Investors Group Walk for Alzheimer’s. “My family has been touched by Alzheimer’s and that’s something that’s very difficult to deal with,” she says. “Investors Group put a lot of money towards research through the walk. That aligned with my values and what I believed in and I wanted to give back to that organization. The co-chair had retired and they were looking for a new person so I took it on.” On top of that, Edwards has also put her French language skills to good use. She is

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involved with the Campbell River Francophone Association and previously served on the board. She was a member on the board when the association worked out an agreement with the SPCA to house its animal adoption and education centre out of the back of the building. But, she is quick to admit that all of those successes didn’t come without failure. After graduating from Laval University in Quebec City, Edwards applied for a job in Quebec but was turned down because she was not bilingual. Having only taken basic English classes in high school and university, Edwards was determined to become fluent in English. “I had great ambitions for myself and I wanted to grow and climb the ladder, if you will,” Edwards says. So she moved to Jasper. It wasn’t long before she left the gift shop to take on a job at Jasper’s community newspaper, the Jasper Booster, and take advantage of the communications degree she earned at Laval. And she was wearing a lot of hats. “I was doing everything to bring content,” Edwards says. “That really taught me a lot, that hard work pays off. I was able to develop so many skills.” She soon was promoted to publisher of the paper, additional staff was hired, and the future was looking bright. Until Edwards received news that Sun Media, then owner of the Booster, was shutting down the 65-year-old paper. “I did lots of soul searching. I didn’t know if I should stay in the industry,” Edwards admits. In the end, she chose to go back to school and applied to business school at the University of Victoria to earn her masters in business and administration and be closer to the man who would become her husband. Edwards completed the two year program in a year and a half and subsequently took a job in Victoria doing marketing for Rogers’ Chocolates. Though she loved her job, Edwards says by that point her husband was commuting to and from Campbell River for work and it was time to decide where they wanted to settle down. They chose Campbell River and Edwards took a job with Investors Group, following her passion of helping others. As it turned out, Edwards was not only helping clients to manage their finances but also helping other consultants working with Investors Group.

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So much so that after only a couple of years with the company, Edwards was promoted to division director. “I started coaching the newer consultants that were brought on board at Investors Group pretty much a year after I started,” Edwards says.

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In 2015, she was recognized as the Financial Planner of the Year – an internal award for the region based on business growth and the number of clients helped. Edwards says the award is given to the consultant who experiences the most growth in that year. Making it an even more impressive feat was the fact Edwards achieved such growth after having a baby in August of 2014.

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After taking six months off, Edwards was back at it. “I just could not stay home,” she says with a smile. “We had just hired a new consultant and I just couldn’t not help.” Help that Edwards is still paying forward and will not soon forget. To this day, she still credits that store manager back in Jasper, and all of her setbacks, for getting her to where she wanted to be. “All these failures, losing my job, not getting the job I wanted, I used that to get myself further,” she says. “I’m really thankful. I really think I’m in the right place I need to be.”

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SEPTEMBER 2016 | WAVE MAGAZINE [17]

CAMPBELLTON READY FOR TAKE-OFF

Story by Alistair Taylor

Once rundown and old, the historic heart of Campbell River has found its voice and creating a vision of its future [18] WAVE MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2016

A once-neglected part of Campbell River is finding its voice and undergoing a renaissance. Business leaders in historic Campbellton are pressuring city officials, the Highways Ministry and just about anyone who will listen that the birthplace of the municipality is entitled to the same urban renewal other parts of the city have received. “This is where Campbell River grew up,” said Brian Shaw, a Campbellton business person and force behind the Campbellton Neighbourhood Association (CNA). “I have always believed in this part of the community. I want it to grow. I want it to be beautiful.” Shaw made those comments at the first Campbellton Day held on August 1. But community leaders are not waiting for civic officials to take action, they’re getting on with the job themselves. “The potential in Campbellton is so tremendous and we will try to realize that (potential),” said Morgan Ostler, former city councillor and longtime resident of Campbell River and now a resident of Campbellton. Ostler said she has come to admire the attitude she has found in Campbellton. “I like the grittiness and he spirit of what there is in

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Campbellton,” Ostler said during her Campbellton Day speech. Ostler recognized the farsightedness of Brian Shaw in creating the CNA to act as a voice for the community. “(He realized) we need a structure, we need a vision,” Ostler said. He also realized hard, hands-on work was needed and a dedicated group of Campbellton supporters rolled up their sleeves and weeded overgrown sidewalks, cleaned out cracks in the sidewalks and built and painted planters to improve the look of the area. Campbellton’s recent history has been one of neglect and growing crime. The district is a mix of single family residents, some apartments and a lot of commercial and light industrial businesses. A tipping point was reached few years ago when business people had had enough of the drug dealing and prostitution on the streets of Campbellton and banded together to hold a community meeting. They invited police and city councillors and officials. And they wanted action. Out of that meeting came a resolution amongst the residents and businesses to do something. Civic officials may not have

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One of Campbellton’s greatest assets is its proximity to the river but over the years, access to the river has been cut off. One of the goals of the community is to regain that access. understood the spirit of the place, said Ostler, who was a city councillor at the time. “We really didn’t understand the spirit of Campbellton’s people that they wanted to do things on their own,” Ostler said. They weren’t looking for a hand out, she said. The meeting stuck with Ostler and when she later retired from council and moved to Campbellton, she probably wasn’t surprised when a group decided, “we’ll start replanting the sidewalks.” Then they went on to remove graffiti from hydro boxes. “That was our first big effort,” Ostler said. “From that early start, it has been really heartwarming to get to the particular stage where we have a community garden.” One thing Campbellton residents and businesspersons are not short on is ideas and many proposals have been put forward to enhance the district. On the drawing board is a signature display at the entrance to Campbellton coming from the south on the Inland Island Highway that will serve as a “Welcome to Campbell River” sign.

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There is also a proposal to install a visitor information centre in Campbellton. Both of these projects focus on Campbellton’s position as an entrance to Campbell River. In order to get to downtown from the north you have have to cross the Highway 19 bridge and turn left. Coming from the south you roll down the Highway 19 hill and turn right in two places to access the centre of the city. Highway 28 rolls in from the west and also joins Highway 19A at the same intersection. In fact, that intersection has been given greater importance because it is a block away from where Google locates Campbell River on its GPS coordinates. Google Campbell

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As the northern entrance to the city, Campbellton supporters are urging the city to support upgrades to the area.

“All the ones people have, they want to keep,” said Johnathon Calderwood, a member of the CNA executive.

Ostler has the perspective of having seen the city tackle the southern entrance to the city in Willow Point.

But one was acquired thanks to the generosity of Bill Alder, owner of Campbell River’s Sealand Aviation. Sealand is involved in the maintenance and repair of aircraft as well as designing, certifying and manufacturing aircraft modifications. Alder is donating an air frame.

“It was not an attractive entrance to the community at all,” Ostler said. “They put together a concept where today, to drive through Willow Point is an amazing experience. “What I am hoping from the success of Willow Point is now the city will take on the process of upgrading Campbellton.” One of the projects that has gained momentum is a proposal to install a floatplane on Highway 19 coming down the hill into Campbellton from the south. This will be the centre piece of a Welcome to Campbell River sign. The idea is to acquire a full de Havilland Beaver and set it on a stand so that it looks like it’s taking off from a pond that already exists in that spot between the north and south lanes of the highway. One of the biggest challenges to the project was finding an aircraft that somebody was willing to part with. The workhorse of the coastal airways is in high demand. There were only

The display will say “Welcome to Campbell River” and will be similar to a signature and very visible welcome sign that graces the entrances to Nanaimo. So, the game is on and the spirit of Campbellton is rolling up its sleeves and going to work as the community has focused on this project. “We’ve finally reached the point where we can ask for this and today, we are working for this,” Calderwood said.

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[22] WAVE MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2016

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Ostler said that many visitors and residents don’t even realize the community is strung out along the river.

The floatplane was considered a good symbol for the business and resource industry service character of Campbellton.

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“There’s no public access,” Shaw said, “no place to sit down and contemplate.”

Now the job is to get Ministry of Transportation support for the project and to raise $150,000 to build the showpiece.

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One of Campbellton’s greatest assets is its proximity to the river but over the years, access to the river has been cut off. One of the goals of the community is to regain that access.

Shaw said the community is working towards regaining access to the river. Proposals have been put forward to create parkland and even a fishing wharf on the river. It’s an effort that’s important to not only Campbellton but the City of Campbell River as a whole. after all, it is the city’s namesake. “It is a big part of our community. It is a huge part of our community,” Shaw said. Improving access to the river will benefit tourists but Shaw said that’s not the only reason for doing it. “It’s for ourselves,” he said, to enhance the community for those who live here. And with the spirit of Campbellton now engaged, you can bet that the transformation will happen. The renaissance has begun.

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Campbellton

Fred Nunnsâ€™ farm (far left) graced what would later become Cmapbellton. Later, in the 1930s, Campbellton suffered major flooding, something that would later be controled by the construction of the John Hart Dam in the 1950s.

SEPTEMBER 2016 | WAVE MAGAZINE [23]