The following is an edited version of Rotary Area Governor Ian Grant’s nomination of Lyn and Bill Charlton for the club’s Don Evans People of Action Award. Grant recently presented the Pender Harbour couple with the award.
Lyn and Bill Charlton are the personification of the Rotary Club Motto, ‘service above self.’ Between the two of them, they are members and on the boards of the Pender Harbour: Community School, Legion, Chamber of Commerce, Area Homeowners Association and Rotary Club of which Bill is the immediate past president. They work together sharing duties on all the initiatives they participate in.
When COVID hit, Bill and Lyn became part of a local COVID task force. They quickly established links between food banks on the Coast, which enabled higher levels of bulk buying and sharing and were instrumental in setting up a fundraising effort for the foodbanks.
The Pender Harbour Club did a community needs assessment two years ago and identified the need to replace the community school building. The community school, which is housed in a 40-year-old portable building without washroom facilities, supports food programs for the schools, houses the local youth outreach worker, provides adult education courses and supports people looking for jobs. Bill decided to champion a project to replace the building and created a team, which has come up with a proposal. Getting everyone onside involved multiple meetings with stakeholders, the regional district, the school board, the Community School Board and the project team and many presentations.
Christmas 2020, COVID Lyn put together a fundraiser with Rotary called “Spreading Kindness,” which raised more than $30,000 in a community of fewer than 3,000 people.
The Rotary Club has a long history of working with the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society to preserve the history of the harbour and promote historical tourism. When the society was documenting the stories of people buried in the local cemetery, they realized there was a large gap. Often people who had been cremated had their ashes scattered at sea. It was decided to place a large stone in the cemetery to which brass plaques commemorating these individuals could be affixed. Bill and Lyn led a project team to commission an engraved granite block, find the right location, pour a foundation and install the stone.
Looking at the challenge of fundraising during the pandemic Bill and Lyn put together an application for a gaming license and have now implemented an online monthly 50/50 draw.
We have a small community library called the “Reading Centre.” There were a set of stairs to reach the entrance that many elderly or disabled members of the community found difficult or could not navigate at all. When the Reading Centre approached our club, Bill took it on and led the construction of a ramp to provide access. Bill both got the necessary permits and worked on the construction of the ramp.
The club has been pursuing doing a story book walk along a trail in the community. This has been an involved process of obtaining permissions from shíshálh Nation and the regional district. Bill did presentations to both the nation and regional district. Lyn has coordinated with the nation and the local elementary school to select the first books to be used, which are written by a shíshálh author and she is coordinating an opening ceremony with the nation.
Bill and Lyn did not let the challenge of the pandemic defeat them, they found ways to move the club forward, have made a significant difference to the community.
