Walking into the new Gibsons and Area Community Centre, you can't help but smile. It's a wonderful and inviting place.
I was on hand last Saturday for the official opening and was thrilled by the response from the community. A standing-room-only crowd packed into the foyer for the opening ceremonies featuring speeches from Sunshine Coast Regional District board chair Ed Steeves, Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk and Sechelt Mayor Cam Reid. It was a day for celebration.
Looking out in the crowd, I recognized many folks who had a vision many years ago and worked a lot of hours both in the forefront and behind the scenes to make this new community centre a reality. Former SCRD director Celia Fisher, Bill Hubbs, Ed Hill and Geran Capewell from the Gibsons Area Community Centre Society (formerly GACCS) were just a few of the community leaders and volunteers who pushed so hard for the positive referendum a few years ago -a referendum that, after 40 years, finally was passed, enabling the community centre and aquatic centre in Sechelt to be built.
The problems with these new facilities are well documented. Government has not seen eye-to-eye on many of the decisions. When I was covering Gibsons council two years ago, I remember many a meeting where council questioned the decisions being made by the SCRD, that their concerns about the new community centre were not being addressed. I penned an editorial about the SCRD and Gibsons not working together to achieve common goals. It was an editorial that hit quite a few nerves and for which I received a lot of criticism.
Those negative feelings were put to rest last Saturday. Government showed they can work together, and the new facilities show renewed commitment to continue that trend.
The Coast has a history of politicians and community members showing unwillingness to work together, choosing to protect the interests of their own communities and not thinking collectively. But that is starting to change for the better. We're now starting to think as the Sunshine Coast and work on initiatives that will benefit everyone, not one community in particular.
The new arena is fabulous. I can't wait to get in there and start covering youth hockey, adult hockey, speed skating and figure skating.
Saturday was a proud day for all of us. It's a day that will go down in history, because this facility is a true community facility - one that the community played a huge role in getting built. Whether it was in donations of money or in-kind support or voting yes a few years ago on the referendum, we should take some pride that we helped create two new recreation and meeting spaces that everyone can enjoy.
