A BUSY TWO MONTHS
Your Grand Boulevard Residents Association (GBRA) has had a very busy September and October planning and preparing for two events in October. The first was an All Candidates Meeting at Sutherland Secondary on October 4. It took a bit of back-and-forth between myself and the School Board Rentals coordinator, and then the City Elections Office for the grant to hold the meeting. We rented the Sutherland small gym and 200 chairs, when we weren’t even sure how many people would come. The resulting delay meant that we couldn’t advertise the meeting until a few days before Oct.4. So we stuck notices on poles and posts around Grand Boulevard.
Thirteen of the fourteen candidates for the City of North Van (CNV) Council and about 100 voters attended. Our format was similar to our previous Civic Election All Candidates Meetings in 2018 and earlier. But one thing stood out as very different this year: the $500 grant from the City wasn’t sufficient to cover the increased cost for the School District’s rental of the small gym and 200 chairs, and the AV equipment. We were short $200.
There was only one solution: we needed to ask the participants if they would be willing to donate $2 (the cost of one chair) to the GBRA. We passed around two black plastic jars at the beginning of the meeting and we collected… Drum roll, please! …$198 …mostly coins, plus a 1927 George V penny! Talk about a happy ending! We were so relieved and want to thank everyone for their generosity. To see the community come together to support our local non-profit society is so heartwarming. It was risky, and some people thought we should cancel, but we took a chance and you came across. Thank you!
In March, 2022, the GBRA Executive started planning for our second event. The City of North Van asked if we would help them to organize the second Great Grand Boulevard Pumpkin Walk on October 29. Well, after the big success of 2021, we couldn’t resist! However, because of our All Candidates Meeting and the Election, we really couldn’t organize the last-minute details until Oct.17. The GBRA Executive had laid the groundwork from last spring, obtained a grant from United Way and bought all the supplies for carving pumpkins. Meanwhile, the City was buying about 300 pumpkins, planning the layout between 13th and 15th Streets, and the participation of many different people and organizations, including City schools, to carve pumpkins.
We got lucky, again, and the rain held off on Saturday afternoon. At 4:00 on the dot families with strollers and children in costumes started to arrive and walk along the central path. There were stilt walkers, dancers, a musician, a sidewalk chalk artist, a City fire truck, two food trucks and so many other community groups, for an estimated 4000 visitors. Our GBRA photographer, Oliver, took photos of the pumpkins along the central path, plus 64 Halloween group photos between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m.
Overall, it was The BEST Halloween Treat of 2022.
Fiona