Donations are an essential part of community projects and without people stepping forward and offering assistance, many might never reach completion.
On Gabriola Island, people have emptied their pockets for the past year to help build a health clinic, which is now under construction. The group Gabriola People for a Healthy Community is also eyeing the possibility of creating affordable housing on the island.
A key factor in these projects is the acquisition of land.
Securing land poses a particular challenge on the island, said Brenda Fowler, president of the Gabriola Health Care Foundation. T
hat’s why the offer to donate 1.6 hectares by resident Bob Rooks was such a “watershed moment” in the clinic’s development – without the donation, the foundation would have had to raise another $100,000 for each two acres of land needed, she said.
“His generous gift allowed us to move much more quickly towards having the clinic built,” said Fowler.
Rooks also recently offered two hectares to the Gabriola People for a Healthy Community to build affordable housing.
A retired veterinarian who used to work in Huntington Beach, Cal., Rooks bought a home on Gabriola 12 years ago. He retired permanently on the island last June.
He said donating land to these kinds of projects is the “right thing to do”.
“I came from a family that always tried to do the best for people around them,” said Rooks. “The population of the island is getting older so there is a greater need every year.”
High real estate prices on the island are also causing difficulties for youth, families and seniors to live on Gabriola.
“We are seeing people leave the island because they can’t afford to live there,” said Rooks. “To see our youth grow up and have to leave because they don’t have a place to live or jobs is a terrible waste.”
Kathryn Malloy, executive director of Gabriola People for a Healthy Community, said the organization is grateful for Rooks’s latest offer, but it hasn’t accepted yet because there is still a considerable amount of preliminary work to complete.
The GPHC is creating an affordable housing plan and conduction surveys to determine what people want and what is needed on the island.
Malloy said she hopes Rooks’s donation prompts others to step forward and donate land to community projects. The affordable housing plan will require more than one parcel, since because of density issues, a maximum of 24 units can be built on two hectares of land, she said.
Rooks said his donation of land is the same as any other donors who gave as much as they could – $10 or land, people give what they can afford and together everyone is making a difference.
Fowler agrees, adding that more than half of the families on Gabriola have contributed to the project. Others are giving their time, with more than 90 volunteers fundraising and more than 120 volunteering on the construction team.
“I’ve never lived in a community so wildly generous as the population on Gabriola,” Malloy said.
The Gabriola Health Care Clinic is under construction and expected to open this June, although the foundation has $200,000 left to raise. For more information or to donate, please go to www.ghcs.ca.
People for a Healthy Community is working with the Gabriola Housing Task force to work on developing a housing organization for the island and develop seniors housing, supported living for people with special needs, support projects for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and shared land and housing projects.
For more information or to donate, please go to www.phc-gabriola.org.
