With some help from some valuable friends, the Regional District of Nanaimo was able to open both the Ravensong Pool and Oceanside Place for free swimming and skating on Family Day this week.
A couple of years back, the RDN took some heat for keeping the doors closed on those facilities during this particular stat holiday. The RDN and Quality Foods are to be commended for working it out this year. Reports indicate both free events were very popular with families.
• Sure it's solely based on sales in love shops, but with Valentine's Day coming, it was neat to see Parksville making the list of the country's sexiest cities. The whole discussion it started about how the area is home to the oldest population in Canada, and how retirement means something different these days, was fun. As one of our sources said, this generation of retirees were in their 20s in the peace and love 1960s.
• Eight teachers in this district have taken training on automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and are planning to pass their knowledge on to students. This could save lives. It has done exactly that in arenas and other public facilities in the country and even here at Oceanside Place.
• Seniors' clubs in Qualicum Beach and Parksville have joined forces to help raise funds for the Vancouver Island Compassion Dogs Society. They will do it with an antique fashion show starting at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Qualicum Beach Civic Centre. The collaboration between clubs in these two communities is great stuff.
• Ballenas Secondary School's drama department is putting on a production of Grease this month. Songs, dance, a look back... this is a fun production. We like to concentrate on the things that have changed in high school over the decades, but there are many issues and social interactions that are familiar. Good for BSS!
• Had enough of winter, or what passes for winter here? Nothing says spring or summer like baseball and the local B.C. Premier Baseball League Royals are training indoors and looking to head outside soon. This, and the soon-to-be-here herring, mean longer, warmer, sunnier days ahead.
There are those who say they don't pay attention to the news because it's all negative or political or tragic. For those people, we highlighted the above items, which are just a few of the positive/fun stories that were published in a single edition of The NEWS (Tuesday), one of 104 newspapers we will publish in 2015.
— Editorial by John Harding