Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - “The Cortes Island Senior Society, as it is now, was registered in 1987, but previous to that there were seniors groups. I think mainly they called themselves the old age pensioners. They eventually became a seniors group. At some point when they wanted to build, someone told them that they weren't even called a building society, so they decided to become the Cortes Island Seniors Building Society, which they were for a number of years,” explained Sue Ellingsen, Vice Chair of the Cortes Island Seniors Society.

Cortes Currents: What did they build when they were the Cortes Island Seniors Building Society?

Sue Ellingsen: “They didn't build anything when they were the building Society. They kind of gave up. At that time, there was a lot of donation of materials. They had piles of lumber that people had donated and various other things, and then I guess they just couldn't get the money together.”

“When we got going 14 years ago, they were still selling off some materials that hadn't decomposed, that had been sort of put aside.”

“I think our biggest success overall has been our housing. We successfully built six units for seniors housing, and then in the last three years we completed four more units. So those are probably the biggest successes we've had in the last 15 or more years that I've been involved.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -“The Cortes Island Academy is working on becoming its own nonprofit, but right now it actually functions as a program of the Cortes Island Community Foundation. Part of this was because I have had this interest in trying to figure out if we could create a high school pilot program and I work part-time as the Executive Director of the Cortes Island Community Foundation. So there was an obvious link, but it really goes back to the root of why we need a high school program on Cortes,” explained Manda Aufochs Gilliespie.

Cortes Currents: How has the Community Foundation helped out the academy?

Manda Aufochs Gillespie: “The Community Foundation partnered to help raise almost $200,000 for the first year of the Cortes Island Academy. They partnered in writing and then receiving a grant from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). That was a big chunk of what we were able to raise this year.”

“Managing the money of that grant and the dispersion of that money: all happened through the Community Foundation.”

“The Community Foundation also raised money for scholarships and for local facilitators through individual fundraising. So the Mark Torrance Foundation and a number other private donors, some as small as $50, some as large as $5,000.”

“The Community Foundation is a charitable organization. It's able to give a tax receipt for any of the donations and it has to make sure that all the money that it's raised is actually used for its purposes.”

“In this case, one of our purposes is both looking after the educational needs on the island as well as the general wellbeing of Islanders.”

“At the very heart of this is a deep understanding of how much it has harmed our community to not have an option for our students and our families so that they can remain in this community through all stages of life.”

“In fact, when the Cortes Community Economic Development Association did the Local Economic Action Plan, or the leap plan, in 2018, this came out as one of the major gaps to us actually being a full functioning economy on Cortes.”

“Not having a high school is causing many families to leave this community right at the time when their work years are most essential. Their highest earning work years, when they have the most time and energy to give.”

“It's caused major issues in the elementary school where families don't just take their high school kids. They leave and they take all of their kids.”

“It drains out even people without kids, because if you can't run a small business and access employees and skilled labor, etc - you leave.”

Roy L Hales/ COrtes Currents - According to the 2021 census, 36% of Quadra Island’s population is 65 years old or older. That’s 10% higher than throughout the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) as a whole, which has a considerably higher proportion of seniors than most of the province. The only Area in the SRD with a larger percentage of seniors is Cortes Island, where that number is 38%. Some might describe the large number of retirees is a problem, Quadra ICAN's new Coordinator, Ramona Boyle,’describes them as an asset that was responsbile for much of her organization’s accomplishments during 2022.

“We have a pool of retirees who have expertise and time and energy to put into all kinds of endeavors that they have gained experience with. We have, of course, younger members and teenagers. Young families are also part of our action, but the backbone is, as it is with most volunteer organizations, that pool of retirees.”

“I know we have the regional district as a structure, but the voice of islanders is tiny on that body. The interests of the island will never be the priority of the regional district just because of population concentration in Campbell River.”

“The fact that we have been able to accomplish as much as we have with just the efforts of volunteers, I think in many ways it comes down to a history of independent action of people who have lived on an island and had to make due for generations.”

“ICAN started about five years ago, had a little bit of a hiatus, a falling off, and then it was reinvigorated before the beginning of Covid.”

“In the last, I would say three years, there's been really significant progress in a number of areas.”

Manda AUfochs Gillespie/ Folk U -What do our lives, spaces, and buildings look life if we were to prioritize connection? On Friday December 30, Bruce Haden joined host Manda Aufochs Gillespie to discuss his career as a designer, thought leader, and author focused on the power of spaces, organizations, and institutions to create powerful, transformation change through prioritizing the potential of human connection.

This will be a wide ranging discussion on elements of design and architecture, men’s groups, human experience, and more.

Bruce Haden,AP, besides being a part-time Cortesian, is an architect and principal of Human Studio, which he co-founded in 2017 with Peter Atkinson. The firm focuses on using outstanding design to enhance the quality of human relationships, and is committed to enhancing built and social infrastructure resistance to the challenges of climate change. Human Studio’s work currently includes multiple B.C. housing projects, Indigenous cultural and housing projects, and post-secondary and cultural projects. One area of Bruce’s current focus is leading the development of Human Studio’s public good software tool, FLUID Sociability.

Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 and Mondays at 6:30 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Corrents - Cortes Island’s little community foundation has turned to be a leader in terms of innovation.

“Most community foundations have years and years of fundraising and millions of dollars of endowment behind them. They get to have their cake and eat it too,” explained Executive Director Manda Aufochs Gillespie.

“This idea that we've got to just hit the ground running and figure out what the social profits on Cortes need and trying to help become a partner and getting that for them, turns out that's really innovative in the community foundation world. It's only the most up to date modern community foundations that are trying to figure that out.”

Mark Spevakow, Chair of the Cortes Island Community Foundation added: We wanted to be effective now. Everyone is aware of how many challenges are here right in front of us.

If we had to wait until we were able to build up a big pool of funds, it would have to be really in the millions of dollars to be effective. Say we are able to eventually hit a place where there's a couple million dollars in the bank, then we could expect through having those investments out there that we might be able to distribute $150,000 to the community. As a small community foundation and one that was just starting up, we don't know when we will hit those type of numbers.

It's really about discussing with people and trying to get them to understand that by leaving money down the road to the community foundation, perhaps in their will, then it gives us an opportunity to keep building on this work that we're doing.

We knew we couldn't wait, so we've tried to figure out a way to be effective right off the get go.

Part of that was by agreeing to get some funding in from people involved with the community foundation and a little bit from outside people and hire some staff to start to do all this work that we needed to do, we went from an organization that was waiting for its charitable status to come to really hitting the ground running.

Mark Spevakow: If we had to wait until we were able to build up a big pool of funds, it would have to be really in the millions of dollars to be effective. Say we are able to eventually hit a place where there's a couple million dollars in the bank, then we could expect through having those investments out there that we might be able to distribute $150,000 to the community. As a small community foundation and one that was just starting up, we don't know when we will hit those type of numbers.

It's really about discussing with people and trying to get them to understand that by leaving money down the road to the community foundation, perhaps in their will, then it gives us an opportunity to keep building on this work that we're doing.

We knew we couldn't wait, so we've tried to figure out a way to be effective right off the get go.

Part of that was by agreeing to get some funding in from people involved with the community foundation and a little bit from outside people and hire some staff to start to do all this work that we needed to do, we went from an organization that was waiting for its charitable status to come to really hitting the ground running.

Podcast image: Triumphant woman shouting out to the world - Photo by Joyful on Unsplash

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Quadra ICAN recently hired Ramona Boyle as the Coordinator to oversee their operations. This was advertised as a part time position, which is expected to take approximately 40 hours a month. Cortes Currents asked the Heriot Bay resident about her new role.

“After I was interviewed for the job, I was told that the reason that I got it is because of my intense practicality. I'm a problem solver and I get things done,” she explained. “When I first started working with ICAN about two years ago, some of the people came to my property here and they looked around at what I had built. I have goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, a huge garden and water collection system. All kinds of systems that didn't exist before. The property was in quite rundown condition when we bought it. I don't have a lot of money and I don't have certain skills, but if I needed it, I learned it. So we had to build a barn. I learned how to build a barn and put a roof on it, learned how to do a water collection system and learned how to repair a flooded roof. I'm pretty practical.”

Cortes Currents: What will you do as ICAN’s Coordinator?

Ramona Boyle: “I think ICAN is a really important enterprise in the community because it brings together over a hundred registered members who each participate in what they're passionate about.”

“I came to ICAN through the food security team that works to create access to nutritious local food, to reduce reliance on food that has to be brought in by truck to the island.There is a team that is focused on water security, another one that's focused on transportation and another that's focused on energy. Each of these committees has its own focus and energy that comes to it, which I find very energizing. It's not a top down organization that tells us, do this, do this, do this. It's very much people in the community who say, 'this is what would make the community stronger, better, more resilient in the face of climate change or economic change.’”

“I think that my job as coordinator is to keep that energy burning and to focus it into projects that come to fruition. It's that connection between having an idea, having a passion for something, and then getting it done so that it's a working solution.”

“It's early days to see how it's going to work in practice, but part of it is sitting in on each of these action committees as an observer to identify where there are bottlenecks to a project moving forward and then clearing that for them. Whatever is needed, if it's a, a permit, then it's my job to ensure that the necessary permits are in place or to apply for funding if that's what's needed, or to gather together a pool of volunteers for a particular project.”

“First is just to watch and see what you need cleared out of the way, so that you can make your vision real. That's my job. I view myself as the locomotive of the train that says, ‘get out of the way so that the train can go through.’”

“Sometimes those barriers are not external. Sometimes it's a matter of tweaking a vision. For example, when the Library of Things was first imagined a couple of years ago, we began to see information about it, got very excited, but then it didn't happen. That was frustrating for a lot of community members who are like, ‘darn it! I need a lawnmower now.’”

“What we discovered when we stepped back and looked at it was that the Library of Things was working in one direction and at the same time, the food recovery team was developing a lending cupboard of food preservation materials. It didn't make sense to have two separate lending locations. I don't think people differentiate in their mind between, I need a lawnmower and I need a pressure canner: they're tools. So putting those two things together and ensuring that those two groups coordinated on it was one way of moving it forward to actually happening so that you're not duplicating, for example, computer systems for monitoring.”

Margaret Verschuur/ Cortes Currents - When you asked me about doing an interview, Roy, I hesitated. But then I thought of Jennifer Stevens, and her courage, and thought: I can do this. Jen was someone who really showed up in community, and she let the DeathCaring Collective be a part of her experience.

Of course, confidentiality is something important in everything we do in the DeathCaring Collective, but Jennifer was always very open and her daughter Darshan has been generous and eloquent in her sharing her experience with her mom and has given us permission to talk about Jen as well.

Jen Stevens Journey

Jen has been part of the DeathCaring Collective and involved since we began meeting and learning a few years ago. Her vibrancy, warmth, presence, community-mindedness and sharing added a lot to our meetings.

In Jan 2022, she and Darshan gave a talk at one of our meetings. Jen shared what it was like to live with a potentially life-threatening illness. At that time she was putting a lot of energy into healing and was hopeful she’d have more time. She allowed us to be part of her journey and trusted, as did Darshen. When Jen died and up to her death, we were able to participate in the ways that she had asked us to.

It was/is sad to witness Jen, so full of life, cross over into death. She was easy to love. That we as a Collective were able to participate in that journey, even contribute – to find ways to create beauty, to be with her body and help prepare it for burial, be with her family in meaningful ways. Death is something that affects a community, especially for someone like Jen, who was so involved, and the Collective was a part of that community experience.

She died on the island, her body stayed in her cabin for three days, she was buried in the nearby cemetery. This was all done by family, supported by the DeathCaring Collective.

This was the first death we’ve participated in this fully: with someone we knew, who was part of the Collective, who planned ahead. She became our teacher, our leader, we’ve learned from her.

As I reflect on this past year I say, thank you Jen.

2022: A Year of Building Confidence

As a Collective, we’ve grown in confidence and competence. We meet each non-summer month, and at each meeting we share, like a death café. We talk about our experiences with death, dying, and grief – whatever has come up for us, and we learn something about a particular topic. I know for me – and I can only share my experience, but others have expressed this as well – that by sharing and learning, we get more comfortable with death itself.

Talking about it normalizes it. As it becomes easier to talk about, I realize how death-phobic we are. It feels right to talk about something that affects us all so much. It feels right to express the loss of those we know, other losses, our sadness, our fears, confusion, thoughts. Talking about this becomes the new normal, and going back into the world where it is not talked about begins to feel strange. The education helps as well.

As I look back on the past year, having people from the community teach us has been helpful. Like Jen telling us 2022 what it is like to live with a potentially life threatening disease. We’ve had a retired hospice nurse telling us about the moment of death; a notary public about end of life planning, a beautiful presentation on Jewish practices around care of the body after death; a couple sharing their experience with the loss of their child. People pass on articles they’ve read, and I pass them on to the Collective through the email list, there is so much information out there and a lot of it is about empowering people to take death back into the family, into the community, to be more aware of choices.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - According to Tourism Manager Chris Tait, the Klahoose Wilderness Resort’s first full season was a much greater success than they expected.

Chris Tait: “We did open in 2021 but with the pandemic, obviously, we only had a very shortened season. 2022 was our first full season. We were open from May to October, and we had more visitors than we forecasted.”

“People were very interested in what we are doing. Whether they're from New York, California, from British Columbia, local here, or Toronto, or London, England: the number one reason that people came was because we're a hundred percent Indigenous owned. We are owned by the Klahoose First Nation, and we offer an Indigenous experience for visitors. That's what people were looking for.”

“It's something that's certainly, I don't want to say trending, but people are looking for authentic and local business as an Indigenous tourism in British Columbia and Canada. Especially coming out of the pandemic to go to a remote location, have an immersive experience and visit with local people.”

Cortes Currents: What would a typical package be?

Chris Tait: Transportation: “We will pick them up by boat, or they're going to fly in by seaplane.”

“They are essentially three or four nights stays, so people come for that duration. They're all inclusive: all of their accommodation, all of their meals, and all the activities.”

“We're going to go bear viewing in the springtime up to Toba Inlet and look for black bears and grizzly bears feeding onshore, and watch the waterfalls. When they're back at the resort, they're going to be able to enjoy activities like kayaking, hiking and paddle boarding, or even ocean swimming.”

“The most unique part is the Indigenous part that they'll be able to experience and that happens at the resort. We'll be sitting with one of the Klahoose First Nation cultural interpreters, and doing cedar weaving. We do a traditional welcome song. All the staff will be there with a song and a drum and have a proper traditional welcome to the territory, to the Klahoose Wilderness Resort. It sets the tone, but during the whole stay, they're going to have storytelling, songs, drumming and a connection with the people that call this place home.”

“People want to come for the Indigenous culture, but they're also coming for the wildlife, the whales, the humpback whales and the bears.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Three Cortes Island projects are about to receive a $40,000 grant to advance gender equality. This is part of a $3.4 million collaboration between the Community Foundations of Canada and the Equity Fund supported by the Government of Canada.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie, Executive Director of the  Cortes Island Community Foundation, explained, “We were able to partially fund three different projects. Those include our Women's Centre, which everybody knows, runs with very little funding and a real bootstrap mentality, like ‘we're gonna get her done. So it's going to be a little bit of funding for supporting their work. The other really exciting project that I hope is gonna make a major difference in many families' lives is the Playschool expansion, so that there'll actually be almost full-time childcare available on Cortes for the first time ever. The third one is basically an intergenerational helping hands, um, project being put forward by the Family Support Services of the CCHA (Cortes Community Health Association).”

“This was our first time participating in one of these community foundations of Canada Federal Government projects. We have already made our recommendations. The recommendations have been accepted, and these different organizations are just now getting their announcements that they're accepted. They will sign a contract with the Community Foundations of Canada and the gender equity pilot program, and then their money is not released until 2023.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Cortes Foundation just signed an MOU, which opens the way for it to receive $100,000 in funding for Cortes Island charities and non-profits.

In today’s interview Mark Spevakow, Vice President of the Cortes Island CommunityFoundation, and Executive Director Manda Aufochs Gillespie explain how this will work.