This year’s These Folks Make the City a Better Place awards go to several local residents who have contributed to the community in different ways.
Last year, New West resident Kyle Routledge launched an initiative to enhance the Glenbrook Ravine by removing invasive species and planting native plants. This year he led the initiative, now supported by with New Westminster Environmental Partners, which saw volunteers spend several days working in the ravine – all with the goal of enhancing this beautiful space for all to enjoy.
Dee Cavanagh warmed our hearts – and the bodies of those in need – with her Chase the Chill initiative this December. In addition to knitting many toques and scarves on her own, Cavanagh sought (and received) donations from other crafters and dispersed them at a yarnbombing event at Hyack Square in December.
A big bouquet to Reena Meijer Drees for keeping the Poppy Project going for a second year. People involved with the project make and collect donations of handcrafted poppies that now adorn a blanket that makes the rounds in the city around Remembrance Day. The art installation aims to honour all Canadians who have experienced the horrors of war.
And speaking of poppies, we salute Col. Karen Baker-MacGrotty, honorary colonel of The Royal Westminster Regiment, who is the lead organizer of the No Stone Left Alone event. Now in its second year, the event rounds up volunteers who place poppies on military gravestones in Fraser Cemetery in recognition of the sacrifices that fallen soldiers and veterans have made serving Canada. Lest we Forget.
Kudos also go out to the Society of the Officers of the Honourable Guard, which held a fundraiser in November 2017 to buy a gravestone for William Stevenson, a First World War veteran who died in 1939 in New Westminster and was buried in an unmarked grave. Along with buying a gravestone for Stevenson and unveiling it in November, the campaign raised enough money to buy gravestones for other veterans who were buried in unmarked graves in New Westminster. Well done!
