Hi everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful week. There is snow in the forecast so be safe out there!
The Halfmoon Happenings community column began many years ago with some dedicated authors submitting interesting stories in the Peninsula Times, the Coast News and finally in the Coast Reporter. I reached out to local resident Sandi Cunliffe who provided some facts and approximate dates. The earliest clippings Sandi could find were from 1955 with no contributing author noted. In 1960 through to 1966, there were some columns submitted by Pat Welsh and the column was called “Halfmoon Bay Notes” or just “Halfmoon Bay.” In 1966, Mary Tinkley takes over and by November of that year the column in noted as “Halfmoon Bay Happenings.” Sandi shared, “during the winter of 1971/72, Mary wrote an exhaustive history of Halfmoon Bay, which was published in the Peninsula Times over eight successive weeks and has been referenced frequently for history of this wonderful area.” In the late 1970s, Peggy Connor wrote the column a few times and in 1979, Mary Tinkley married and became Mary Tinkley-Shannon and wrote a few more columns. In 1980, Ruth Forrester was the author until 2003 at which time Sue Lamb took over. It is believed that Sue continued to write the column until it was handed over to Terry Knight in late 2013, early 2014. Terry continued to submit weekly information about our community until spring of 2020 when the torch was handed to yours truly. Somewhere along the way the name of the column was changed to “Halfmoon Happenings” as it is referenced to today. Sandi noted, “the column has been the backbone of what is happening in Halfmoon Bay over the years and as a historian with a special interest in our area, I certainly appreciate both the news and information contained in the column.”
The time has now come for me to “pass the pen (keyboard)” to someone who will continue this legacy. If you live in Halfmoon Bay, are in touch with the community, love to do research (sleuthing) for content, have some time to dedicate to create, write and submit a weekly column to the Coast Reporter, then this would be perfect for you. Content in this column has always been positive, supportive of the community and events with factual and non-controversial information with a little bit of humour thrown in now and then. If interested, please send me an email and we’ll have a chat. Please note that we community columnists volunteer our time and are not employees of the Coast Reporter.
As an aside, the Halfmoon Bay Heritage Endowment that Sandi Cunliffe and husband Don began with the Sunshine Coast Foundation, is still going strong. Proceeds from donations to the fund go to the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives specifically for the preservation of artifacts and items of historical significance here in Halfmoon Bay. For more information about the Halfmoon Bay Heritage Endowment, please contact Sandi at [email protected] or go to the Sunshine Coast Foundation website at sunshinecoastfoundation.org.
If you have any ideas for column content or have a community event or story you would like to share, please send ideas and suggestions to [email protected].
Be safe, be gentle, and always be kind.
