As a sincere gesture of appreciation for the various frontline workers in the Parksville Qualicum Beach area, Milner Gardens and Woodland in Qualicum Beach has offered those essential workers free membership for a year.
Ian Lindsay, with Re/Max Anchor Realty, said those eligible in the area include grocery store employees, care home employees, Vancouver Island Health Authority area workers and other area frontline COVID medical workers.
“The objective was to create a relief, or get away space, for all of these amazing people that are on the frontline and so often taken for granted,” wrote Lindsay in an email to PQB News.
Executive director for Milner Gardens and Woodland, Geoff Ball, said Lindsay’s team in Qualicum Beach had contacted eligible area businesses and asked them to advise their employees of the opportunity.
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The vouchers are good for individual membership, or family membership with two adults and however many children live at the household.
The free year-long membership starts the day the vouchers are redeemed, with an extended deadline of March 31, 2022.
Ball said the idea stemmed from a conversation he had with Linsday last winter, where they both wanted to recognize all that frontline workers have done for the community since the COVID-19 pandemic started. They first distributed the vouchers in early 2021, where approximately 1900 were sent out. Ball said a few hundred have been redeemed so far.
“Frontline medical people are still dealing with an awful lot of exhaustion. And we both felt very strongly that Milner Gardens is a very therapeutic place to be. Its very restorative, peaceful, quiet, tranquil. It’s a chance for people to reconnect with nature,” he said. “It’s the type of place that would help those who’ve been putting in so much for the rest of us to get by, and give them a chance to recharge and have a good connection with nature and beauty.”
For those who may have received a voucher and misplaced it, they are able to contact Lindsay at Re/Max Anchor Realty and ask for a replacement with provided proof of employment.