Winter Highlights

Sole Sisters Walking

Sole Sisters is fortunate to have a solid group of eight volunteer walk leaders who ensure the success of this program every season. They also have a few select guest leaders who share their expertise on various trails throughout the community. The group started the new year at Springwood Trails and enjoyed other walks such as the Lighthouse Loop, Englishman River Estuary and Middlegate to Clay Banks. Sole Sisters love to walk, and attendance is consistent rain or shine; they even made it out for a couple snowy walks this session.

Youth Basketball

Youth basketball continues to thrive. The Thursday-evening group for players ages 16 and over, led by Michael Briones, has garnered a dedicated following. It’s not uncommon to see thirty eager players come out to play ball. The gym buzzes with positive energy, maximum effort, and teamwork. The camaraderie among participants makes this free basketball program truly special.

The Tuesday-evening free basketball program for youth ages 11-15 has seen steady attendance this session, with many newcomers returning each week. Volunteer facilitator Isabella fosters a welcoming environment for younger players in our community. While the kids come for basketball, they leave with boosted self-esteem and newfound friendships—all while burning off some energy!

Family Day

2025 marked the Year of the Sheep on the Coombs Fairgrounds. This year, a big snowfall the week before the event had the committee anxious about whether or not the event would be able to go ahead. Fortunately, although the conditions in the parking lot were very mucky indeed, the event was able to go ahead. Family Day always has a fantastic variety of exhibitors, but the 2025 event was particularly excellent! Many regular exhibitors expanded their displays, and several new exhibitors attended too. Estimated attendance was 2000 people, and it seemed like more children than ever came to participate in the fun. Grant support from the RDN, donations from local businesses, and a huge volunteer effort make this event 100% free to participants. As the cost of living rises, it is so special to be able to offer the community a free family event.

Family Move + Connect

This new program, facilitated by ACRA Coordinator Sandra Poelzer in the gym at the Coombs Fairgrounds, is perfectly timed for home school families. Participants of all ages, both youth and parents, were encouraged to explore new sports, games and crafts. Structured activities such as floor hockey, gymnastics and basketball were offered with free play options always available. In a feedback survey at the end, one family wrote, “We liked the variety of activities, and LOVED Sandra!” Pre-registration and drop-in options were offered.

African Hand Drumming

Beginner African Hand Drumming with Trish Smiley

Trish Smiley has been an enthusiastic participant of the drumming program for several years, and when Monica mentioned that she’d like to step back from teaching the Beginner-level class, Trish was the first to jump at the opportunity. Trish is new to teaching, but she is very keen to share her love of the drum circle with others. She had nine participants this winter, and under her careful tutelage, three of them gained the skills they need to progress to the Beyond Beginner level. Drumming is a bit unusual in the sense that it is quite common for participants to take the Beginner-level course four or five times before they are ready to move up to the next level. Trish is very patient and extremely welcoming. The recreation coordinators were so delighted to welcome her to the team of instructors.

Beyond Beginner African Hand Drumming with Monica Hofer

This winter, ten drumming classes were initially scheduled. However, the season ended up being more tumultuous than expected, and five dates were cancelled. The first class, BC Hydro made updates to the service, but this class was successfully rescheduled. One date was cancelled to snow fall. One date was cancelled because the Errington Hall was being repainted, and two dates were cancelled when Monica caught the flu. This year’s flu was particularly brutal, and Monica not only had a terrible cough, but also lost her voice. There were eight people signed up for Beyond Beginner Drumming in the winter.

Intermediate African Hand Drumming with Monica Hofer

The drumming program has grown over the past couple years. Through the winter, four drumming classes were offered on Tuesdays at Errington Hall. Both buildings are utilized. Monica teaches Beyond Beginner African Hand Drumming, then Intermediate Dun Drumming, and finally Intermediate African Hand Drumming back to back. There were fifteen students signed up for this program. For the reasons noted above, only six out of ten classes were offered.

Coombs Fair Kids workshop series

ACRA partnered again with the Arrowsmith Agricultural Association this season to bring ever-popular pro D-day programs to school-aged kids in Coombs. At the March workshop, children got creative with clay, learning new techniques while making cups and unique ornaments.

Following an extremely popular fibre workshop in the fall, a three-week, fibre arts mini-series was offered with Diane Floyd in January. The students made felted ornaments, learned some new techniques to add detail to their projects, and graduated to making small critters.

Secondary School Health Fairs

ACRA shared a table with the Regional District of Nanaimo at this year’s Health Fairs. The fairs, for grade eleven and twelve students, ran at Kwalikum Secondary School on February 20th and Ballenas Secondary School February 25th. Both events were well attended with youth eager to learn more about ACRA’s free basketball programs and volunteer opportunities. ACRA’s stress balls were also popular with students. ACRA assisted the RDN in collecting feedback from youth on local recreation and will have access to the complied survey results soon

Adult Floor Hockey

It has taken this program a bit of time to find its stride, but now that it has, it’s doing really well. While initially, it was started as a preregistered program, it’s become apparent that floor hockey is most popular as a drop-in program. Beginning last fall, each week over a dozen players have been dropping in. This is an incredible improvement from last winter when some weeks only a handful of players attended. Facilitators Erin Adams and Jonas Menge make this program welcoming to players of all experience levels. This program received an RDN Recreation grant, and a variety of new goalie gear was purchased. The participants were delighted as the existing set of gear was in youth sizes only. Attendance through the winter program was very consistent with approximately eighteen players engaging in friendly games each week.

Night at the Palace

Annually Errington Hall organizes the Night at the Palace fundraiser, a spirited vaudeville show put on by many talented community volunteers. While ACRA is always keen to support Errington Hall, it is a challenge because this event falls so close to Family Day when the recreation team is fully engrossed in event preparation. This year, ACRA was able to bake and donate two dozen oatmeal lace cookies for the concession. All but five were sold during the intermission, and many attendees commented on how buttery and delicious they were. It’s a small gesture to contribute towards Errington Hall’s fundraising efforts.

Culinary Confidence

Beginning in March, ACRA offered its first cooking program at Meadowood Community Centre. The class was full with five participants and focused on cooking healthy and affordable meals. Weekly topics included how to build a flexible and vegetable-heavy rice bowl, how to utilize an entire roasted chicken, how to cook with chickpeas, and how to make soup without a recipe. While sharing a meal at the end of each class, instructor Kristine Stephenson led the group through some facilitated discussions about how to reduce food waste and keep cooking affordable. On the final day of classes, participants left with a booklet of recipes and an apron.

Ongoing

Community Meetings

The recreation coordinators attended many community meetings including:

· ACRA Team Meetings

· Facilitator Meetings

· Interviews with Potential Facilitators

· Building Learning Together Coalition Meetings

· YouthLINK Meetings

· Decoda Literacy Meetings

On February 27th, the ACRA and RDN recreation teams set out to see Gabriola Recreation Society’s space and tour Huxley Park. The recreation groups have been gathering on a quarterly basis to share knowledge. It was very interesting to see how GRS runs programs from the school. The group shared good conversation on feedback surveys, park usage, summer hiring, and registration.

Recreation coordinators Kristine Stephenson and Tracy Cargo-White met with Kara Addison and Chrissy Finnie to plan a Picnic & Play event in Errington Community Park in May. The idea will be to offer a free, family-friendly outdoor play-based event.

Promotion and Registration

The recreation coordinators are responsible for maintaining for maintaining the ACRA website and events calendar, Facebook page, and Instagram account as well as promotion for programs. The recreation coordinators receive and reply to phone calls and emails regularly and manage all of the registration for programs independently.

This winter, seventeen programs were offered. This is a more robust program offering than usual, but of late, ACRA has received so many incredible program pitches from very accomplished instructors and such fantastic collaborations from community partners.

Recreation coordinator Kristine Stephenson was approached by Neighbours of Qualicum Beach to write a couple of articles for their magazine. Kristine wrote one article about the ever-popular Sole Sisters Walking group, and another article about floor hockey.

In mid-March the fourth issue of ACRA’s quarterly newsletter was released. It focused on upcoming spring programs and included an interview with an instructor, an article about local parks and trails, and a couple of new program features.

Community Cupboard

ACRA manages a community lending cupboard where other non-profit organizations and hobbyist groups can borrow equipment on a by-donation basis.

Coombs Farmers Institute borrowed ACRA’s traffic directing equipment for their 5thAnnual Seedy Sunday event which happened the last weekend in March and was of much interest to local gardeners eager to grow their own food.

Grants

ACRA successfully received a grant from Decoda Literacy in January to fund a new program called Culinary Confidence. The grant was used to purchase a variety of kitchen basics such as plates, bowls, knives, mixing bowls, and more for the Meadowood Community Centre. The funds were also used to book three four-week cooking programs. The program will focus on developing confidence in the kitchen.

Recreation Coordinator Kristine Stephenson also put in a grant to ParticipACTION. At the end of March, notice came through that it was approved. ParticipACTION focuses on active living in the month of June. ACRA wanted to be able to offer free outdoor recreation opportunities. The plan is to offer Essentrics Fitness in Errington Park on Monday nights, Bodyweight Strength & Balance on the Lower Lawn at the Coombs Fairgrounds on Wednesday mornings, and Flow Yoga at the Meadowood Community Park on Friday mornings. If participants like the classes, there will be opportunities to continue and sign up for regular classes in the fall.

Winter Highlights: January - March, 2025