Community Spirit

The essence of any community is its members. I say members, because the word implies 'belonging', and a true measure of place or home is the sense that one belongs, has both entitlement to being there, and a stake in its future.

We talk a lot about inclusivity, yet in many ways we don't include whole groups of people. Certainly, those whose hours of employment, or need to be mobile at off hours, cannot easily live here. If aged and/or infirm, it's pretty tough, with an incomplete spectrum of medical services and support. And housing choices are very limited; everyone knows the difficulties of finding accommodations for  service workers, people on pensions, or others unable to afford the exhorbitant costs of house ownership or even rentals.

However, for those who do manage to carve a niche, one of the big attractions is our community spirit. BowFest, Canada Day, Remembrance day, the Christmas choral concerts, Run-for-the-Ferry, the fall Fowl Suppers and ongoing Legion dinners, Hallowe'en haunted house and fireworks, Family Place's Children's festival, Strawberry Tea, PPP, the Children's Centre annual huge rummage sale at Cates Hill are all examples of events that underscore how rich our community really is. 

Add to that the extraordinary array of volunteer driven entities that don't hold events- like the NERPS, BIRD, the formal advisory committees of Council,  and myriad others, and one realizes that Bowen really is something special.

It's odd, though, that we don't have a 'real' community hall, and haven't gotten together to do an old style barn raising to address that. Instead, we hire visionaries, and do feasibility studies, needs analyses, convene committees that meet for years. In one sense, it is a measure of prudence and sophistication, but in another, a measure of incapacity. North Pender, Lasqueti, Denman, Hornby, Mayne, Saturna- in fact all the Gulf Islands have built impressive community centres via 'grass roots' means.

The recent ferry waiting room erection- small project, mind you, was exhilarating in that it just happened. One organizer, lots of helpers emerging from the woodworks, money from Harper's Island, and over three work days up it went. And people actually use it. 

Somehow, I think we need to harness that kind of thinking to further other projects. Or, as I like to think of it, we need a community hall, not a Taj Mahal!