INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

• Heritage Endangered
• Volunteers Needed
• Annual General Meeting
• SOPA
• The Heritage Contest
• Volunteers Night at The Heritage Playhouse
• The Heritage Playhouse
• Membership

  HERITAGE ENDANGERED

The word "heritage" might make you feel warm and comfortable, but if it doesn't excite you as well, British Columbians might lose the mainspring of heritage activity in our province.

Our new government is questioning whether to continue support for heritage, currently one-sixth of one per cent of its last budget. That percentage is the smallest of any Canadian government, and worldwide, it pales to insignificance. 

1. It reaches every community, including the unincorporated. For every dollar committed by government, three more, on average, add to the local economic benefit of that grant. Some grants bring 10 times the basic offering.
2. Some 2,700 people work in B.C. heritage institutions, and 7,000 volunteers support them. The payroll is $40 million per year, the results far beyond that.
3. Heritage is at the heart of modern tourism. The tourism industry recognizes and promotes heritage, but leaves the creation and maintenance of the resources largely to non-profit societies, municipalities and aboriginal councils.
4. Conserving heritage buildings makes sites attractive, saves landfills and increases the tax base without building more infrastructures. Reusing buildings makes as much sense as reusing bottles.
5. Besides being a green industry, heritage is highly technical and provincial heritage dollars contribute significantly to job training for "the new economy."
6. Available federal dollars require provincial spending at a similar rate.

To even sustain the present level of funding represents a drop in the bucket - the bucket of a $20 billion provincial budget.

Tell government now, before it makes that final core decision, that we need government leadership and funding; that every drop counts, and it counts four times if it's spent on heritage.

Ann Edwards
Former chair, B.C. Heritage Trust
(Reprinted from the SUN)

Drawing by Terry Barker

  VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Our volunteer group would like to expand. Why? Springtime is coming and once again the grounds will need tending and vacations will deplete our volunteer stock.

All our volunteers are committed to giving the Heritage Playhouse the TLC it needs inside and out, by helping with concession, ticket sales, ushering, baking, gardening and more. Once a year our volunteers are treated with an appreciation event dedicated solely to them. Our last Volunteer Night was an entertaining assortment of music, the best on the coast, from Lyle Carter to Bernie G and the Grass Holes and more. 

Of course, whenever volunteers are working and it is feasible to "catch a show", our volunteers luck out! They are the pulse of the Hall.

Please join us, become a Heritage Playhouse Volunteer. Call Paula our Volunteer Co-ordinator @ 604-886-9051 or e-mail her at p_kelley@sunshine.net

  annual general meeting

The AGM was held Sept 11, 2001 and the following board members were elected.

  sopa

What is SOPA?

SOPA stands for Showcase of Performing Arts. 

The Heritage Playhouse will host a summer festival of various coast groups, ranging from dance to drama, choirs to orchestras from July 1st to July 20th to provide you and your summer visitors with a broad selection of coast talent night after night after night.

Watch out for more information and publicity about SOPA as July nears. 

  the heritage contest

Every year the provincial Heritage Society sponsors a contest for all school children in the province. The children are asked to choose a family picture that depicts something about their family's heritage. The children write about the significance of the picture from a historical and personal point of view. This activity is a great one for allowing a family to sit down together and write about their family's background. Often children are unaware of how their grandparents or parents came to this country, where and how they lived and what life was like for them. I have done this in the past few years with my grade 1 class. I have received entries about families homesteading on Gambier island, families that were part of the setting up of China town in Vancouver, mothers and grandmothers that were nurses in the first and second world wars, as well as family stories that are significant to their own backgrounds.

Children in my class have received first and second prizes for their entries and have been given a cash prize as well as a certificate acknowledging their entry. We display all the entries in the hall at school. I have used the Heritage Society members to assist me in selecting the three entries I am allowed to submit. It is a very difficult decision to choose from the great selection of entries that I receive each year. I have enjoyed reading the stories and acknowledging the learning that each of the children have developed with their families.

Submitted by Karen Careless 

  Volunteer night at the heritage playhouse

As a gesture of gratitude toward the many volunteers who devote their time to the Heritage Playhouse, an evening of entertainment was arranged for those able to attend.

The evening began with Berni G and Friends (David Southcombe and Barrie Taylor) who provided a lively set of standard tunes including Honeysuckle Rose and It Had to Be You.

Ed Smith delighted the audience with an emotionally charged dramatic version of The Face on the Barroom Floor, followed by Ed and Dayna white who showed us the humour and pathos of two old married people whose memories are playing tricks on them.

A bluegrass band called The Grassholes played and sang some foot-stomping tunes that proved bluegrass music appeals to everyone.

Kevin Crofton had the audience howling with a song and story about a bureaucrat being lost in the shuffle of deadwood employees who "work till five without the boss knowing they're alive."

Finally, a set of jazz instrumentals and vocals by the Lyle Carter Group (Al Burns, Boyd Norman, Dan Richter, Karin Bergen) ended volunteer night in swinging style.

At intermission, Nest Lewis, president of the Gibsons Landing Heritage Society, talked to the audience about the many accomplishments of last year's volunteers and about what it means to the Society to have such a devoted and hard-working group of people.

But, Ms Lewis also presented the benefits of volunteering to the newcomers in the audience and emphasized the need for continued volunteer support to enable the Heritage Playhouse to reach its goals.

Being a Heritage Playhouse volunteer feels good (just ask one). So, if you have some free time, why not call the Society at 604 886 8998 and get involved?

  the heritage playhouse

The Heritage Playhouse has been in operation for 20 months. Such a variety of rental events! In the twenty months there have been 30 different productions. Thank you to the community for producing and attending these events. 

Thanks to the many volunteers who have given time towards the success of the Heritage Playhouse and through it, the Gibsons Landing Heritage Society.

The following information is regarding the current June 2001 - May 31, 2002 year.

A few things you might not know about the Heritage Playhouse.

It was the inspiration of Fred Inglis in 1989 when the School District Maintenance Shop as it was known then was going to be demolished.

The GLHS, School District # 46 and the Town of Gibsons worked together and the GLHS ended up with a lease and the mandate to build a theatre for Gibsons.

Ten years of hard work and help from the community got it opened on April 29, 2000. To make this possible the Sunshine Coast Credit Union and several guarantors from the community arranged interim financing. This debt is being paid off month by month from the shows produced at the Playhouse.

No complete sound system? No concert grand piano? No air conditioning central heating? No paved parking lot? No! Not until our debt to the Credit Union has been paid. We do make improvements every time we can afford to and are grateful for the kind donations, which now and then come our way.

The GLHS is a registered non-profit society and the board of directors manages the Playhouse. Marilyn Browning who acts as booking agent does so for a pittance and Kerry Mills our technician gets paid a minimal sum per hour of work. Nobody pays these two wonderful people for the many extra hours they put in. The Playhouse is staffed by a willing and dedicated band of volunteers.

The Heritage Playhouse is a credit to all those people who made the dream become a reality and all those who work there because they love live performance.

  MEMBERSHIP 

Memberships can be renewed anytime throughout the year and yours may have lapsed. The cost is still $10.00 and that will keep you on our newsletter mailing list. Please renew you membership soon to keep it active.