Believing in a good cause and doing something about it often goes hand-in-hand, and a Qualicum Beach couple are putting their money where their heart is for the community.
Ed and Louella Hollington have committed $3,500 to the Town of Qualicum Beach’s fundraising effort to raise $185,000 to buy District Lot 10 (DL10). The land runs alongside the Little Qualicum River and is the site of many of the town’s drinking water wells. The town began the effort this spring to buy the land from forest company, Island Timberlands.
“We’ve always been interested in preserving land,” Ed said. “We helped pay off the Brown Property’s outstanding amount, because we often walk there.”
The Brown Property acquisition is an example of the community pitching in volunteer effort and cash to save a popular wooded walking area. This gift from the Hollingtons, Ed continued, is to help persuade others to contribute to the DL10 purchase.
In addition to walking there, too, Ed said DL10 is important to the town’s water supply, wildlife and will prevent it from being logged. So, the local couple decided to commit the money from their charitable fund — which will be available to the town next year.
“We were just going to write them a cheque, but the mayor asked us to make the presentation at a public meeting,” he said, “to help promote the idea.”
They did so at council’s July 11 meeting and mayor Teunis Westbroek expressed his gratitude and invited other people to help with the campaign. He added the town hopes to wrap up its fundraising, ideally, by the last weekend of September.
For the Hollingtons, helping to save the land from logging is their way of making sure there are plenty of green spaces in Qualicum Beach for everyone to enjoy.