Runner carries the Olympic torch past the colour guard to Museum Plaza

The Olympic Torch Relay passed through Cloverdale on February 8. A huge crowd lined both sides of Highway 10 and filled the Museum Plaza.

The Cloverdale Legion colour party provided an honour guard.

The Lord Tweedsmuir Senior Jazz Band provided entertainment to the crowd.

Elections for the Cloverdale Rodeo & Exhibition Association board were held at the AGM on January 20. Results of the elections are as follows:

Incumbent Directors Shannon Claypool, Ken Kachur and Rob Marshall were voted back onto the board.

The 2010 executive consists of:

• Shannon Claypool  President
• Gerry Spielmacher  1^st Vice President
• Penny Smythe  2^nd Vice president
• Ken Kachur  Treasurer and Personnel.

Crocuses have popped up in the planters in downtown Cloverdale. The one pictured is outside the Museum.

A new $15 million, 60,000 sq. ft. multipurpose complex is being built at the corner of 176 Street and 62A Avenue. This new centre will meet the needs of Cloverdale’s rapidly growing population, which has jumped to 53,000 and is projected to grow in the next five years.

Some of the highlights of this new facility will be a triple gymnasium, a wellness centre and fitness and exercise rooms. There will be activities like drop in sports, arts and cultural programs, preschool and children’s programs as well as a wide range of programs for seniors, like carpet bowling and pickleball.

The Centre is expected to open in early 2011.

The Cloverdale Christmas Hamper Program includes the combined effort of many local churches, high school & elementary schools as well as a host of businesses and public organizations; collecting and donating tens of thousands of dollars worth of food, gift items, toys and cash – turning them into hampers for families and individuals in the Cloverdale area.

We would like to give you the opportunity to be a part of this great venture by asking for your assistance by volunteering or cash donations, food, merchandise and/or gifts. (Cash donations will receive a tax deductible receipt at year end, please make cheques payable to Pacific Community Church). No donation is too big or too small – it all adds up and it is all sincerely appreciated by the beneficiaries, who would have a colder Christmas without it.

Serving the Cloverdale Area from 88th Ave – 32nd Ave (North-South); 196th St – 152nd Street (East-West).

Application deadline: Friday December 11th, 2009.

Hamper pick-up: Saturday December 19th, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm @ Pacific Community Church, 5337 – 180 Street.

For inquiries call 604-574-4001 Ext 106.

Local charities and drop-in centres are appealing to REALTORS® to focus this year on rounding up new sleeping bags, bedding (sheets and blankets) and comforters. This is in addition to the usual gently-used winter coats, hats, mitts, long-sleeved shirts, jeans and other cold weather clothing.

Encourage your colleagues, clients, friends and family to purchase a new blanket, sheets or sleeping bag for donation, in addition to their contribution of warm clothing.

In Cloverdale, donations may be dropped off at HomeLife Benchmark Realty, 103 – 5830 – 176A Street, phone 604-574-0161.

The largest Remembrance Day crowd in recent memory packed the Museum Plaza for the Remembrance Day service. In this photo, Mayor Dianne Watts lays a wreath on behalf of the City of Surrey.

For more Remembrance Day photos, click on Cloverdale Legion.

“TownShift: Suburb Into City” is open an international ideas competition seeking innovative ideas for five of Surrey’s established Town Centres: Guildford, Fleetwood, Cloverdale, Newton and Semiahmoo. The aim of the competition is to “Shift” thinking and opportunities for each of these “Town” hubs towards more intense, public-minded and productive urban futures. Approved by the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, this competition is proposed in order to generate innovative new thinking about suburbs transforming towards sustainability in an era of increasingly expensive energy. TownShift has been conceived to open up debate and communicate design ideas amongst the general public and city-building professions, and we hope its results will shape this rapidly-evolving city for decades to come. Indeed, the civic slogan proudly displayed on Surrey’s new urban brand is “The Future Lives Here.”

Competition submissions to TownShift are open to all designers, urban development professionals, artists, city planners, engineers, sidewalk superintendents, and interested citizens from Surrey, Canada and anywhere else in the world. TownShift has no requirements whatsoever for educational or professional qualifications. Evidently, some familiarity with design, urbanism or construction practices is an asset, but not obligatory, and new ideas in city-building can come from any source. Inter-disciplinary and multi-member competition teams are encouraged, as are entries from students of all types and ages. This is an Architectural Institute of British Columbia sanctioned ‘open’ competition.

Registration for the competition closes January 4, 2010, and submissions are due by January 6, 2010.

For more information see www.townshift.com

Auction items and donations continue to roll in for Casie Coleman’s special day on the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 11 – BC Breeders Classic Day at Fraser Downs.

“Everyone I approach has been anxious to contribute,” Casie told Norm Borg on the Trot Radio national network this week. She credits the staff at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria for saving her life 10 years ago following an accident in the barns at Sandown Park when she was a 19-year-old groom. Casie, born and raised in Surrey and a grad of Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary, was mixing an alcohol-based liniment to warm her horse’s feet when flames ignited and left her with third-degree burns to her legs and right arm as well as first-degree burns to her cheeks and neck.

“Those people at the hospital in Victoria put me back together,” she says. “Now I have the opportunity to give something back to them.”

Proceeds from a silent auction in the Atrium at Fraser Downs on Nov. 11 will go to the Burn Unit at the Royal Jubilee Hospital. Casie herself has been collecting donations from her travels on the Eastern harness racing circuit where she has been recognized with two O’Brien Awards (2005 and 2006) as Canada’s Trainer of the Year.

Anyone wishing to get involved by contributing auction prizes or cash donations can contact Kelly Hudon at kelhud@shaw.ca

From Mike Heads’ HorseRacing Central Newsletter – October 30, 2009

The Cloverdale Rotary Club roasted well known Cloverdale booster Bill Reid before a packed house at the Eaglequet Coyote Creek Golf Club on October 22.

Bill is a former MLA for Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale, former Minister of Tourism, and currently Executive Director of the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce.

First up was Grace McCarthy, herself a former cabinet minister, and considered by many the Grande Dame of B.C. politics. She reminised how she had first met Bill in 1972, and went on to describe him as one of the forces behind Expo 86.

Next up was Kevin Falcon, current MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, and Minister of Health. He joked that he was only there because he had received an invitation addressed to “Dear Resident”. He said he had received crabs from Bill, quickly adding that they were caught by Bill at Birch Bay.

Surrey Councillor Linda Hepner quipped that she had come to the event under the mistaken impression that it was for Bill Reid the Haida artist.

Paul Orazietti is Executive Director of the Cloverdale Business Improvement Association, and shares an office with Bill. He recounted the top 10 things heard in the office, our favourite being “welcome to Cloverdale, centre of the universe”.

Bill was also given an award by the Rotary Club for his many years of service to the community.

Bill was very touched by the tributes. As his wife Marion was heard to observe, this was the first time in her life she had ever seen him speechless.

The event was also a fundraiser for Bill’s favourite charity, the CH.I.L.D. Foundation for children with intestinal and liver disorders.

Hats off to Bill Reid, one of the driving forces in the community, and one of those great characters who help make Cloverdale such a wonderful place to live.