“We’re a stubborn bunch in Woods Harbour! We won’t give up!”

Growing up in a small town is hands down the best way to grow up. Side walks? Pssh. Malls? Who needs ‘em. A small town life is the life for me, and at its core are the people and places that make amazing things happen.

Rosalie and Darrell Stoddard are on a mission to upgrade the Woods Harbour Fire Hall, Community Centre, and Young at Heart New Horizons Senior Centre, but they can’t do it by themselves. Through some computer stumbling their new neighbour, B.C. native Alan Daykon, has found the Aviva Insurance Community Fund. The Aviva fund has $1,000,000 to give away, and the Stoddard’s want a piece of that pie.

This is our present hall. It needs help.

In the write up about why the community needs this renovation money, Rosalie writes:

“The Young at Heart New Horizons is a new group of seniors helping seniors. We have a lease agreement, along with the Woods Harbour Community Center for the former Woods Harbour Fire Hall. The building needs a lot of renovations and we are diligently working at getting this done. The two former truck bays on the end of the building need to be torn off as the floor under that part of the building is sinking. We will then put a new end wall up and renovate the roof to match. This will give the New Horizons a 17'x55'room. As you can appreciate this is a costly undertaking. When this is done it will give the New Horizons group a new well lit room with a kitchenette and tables and chairs so they can go any time and meet their friends and quilt or play cards etc. We hold seniors activities such as quilt shows and social events every month. We are trying to get card games and game nights going and we have a volunteer giving computer classes. The community center holds weekly kitchen parties (local musicians) every week, bingo and dances. Any help that we can access would be greatly appreciated. Seniors have been the ones who have built their communities up and now need help with getting out to social events that are geared to their interests. There are a lot of activities geared for the younger generation but not so much for the senior population. We have found that our social events where we provide a lunch and time for them to just sit and talk to ones their own age and renew old acquaintances has been good for all of them. The mingling with people of their own age and talking about the good old days when they were young keeps the mind sharp and the exercise of just getting out every week instead of shopping and the bank once a month keeps them in better shape. We are working on safety programs for the seniors also. We have the necessary building permits and a contractor willing to do the work. The project can start as soon as funding is finalized.”

                                   If you don't know what a kitchen party is, you are missing out!

The Fire Hall is so much more than this! The community uses the Hall for Woods Harbour Days, the annual celebration of our founding, trivia, birthday parties, weddings, comedy nights, auctions, bake sales, breakfasts, queen pageants, baby showers, and of course we use it to house our fire trucks and invaluable fire fighter volunteers.

                             Multiple generations listening to Mrs. Claus during story time

Built in 1973, the Woods Harbour Fire Department was modest and small. The hall was added in 1986, and since then the community has evolved around the hall, to host countless events and milestones.

Since its inception, the hall has brought the community together in ways that bigger towns and cities cannot comprehend. As of late, residents have noticed that a corner of the hall has started to sink, the entire building is in sore need of repair, and the New Horizons are actually hosting their meetings in the old ambulance bay!

“We are really hoping to get a new room built for the New Horizons [with the funding] as well as general repairs to the entire building. We need to update the community hall, New Horizons meeting room, a boardroom for the fire fighters, basically everything. It’s a multi-purpose building,” said Darrell Stoddard.

A lady in the community actually made the Grinch! He's a 6 foot tall stuffy.
"Fraser was trying to get him on the stage, I didn't know who was going to win, him or the Grinch!" -Darrell

Darrel has been a volunteer fire fighter for 44 years, is in the New Horizons, that his wife Rosalie is the president of, and they’re both apart of the community hall.  

“We put on a lot of stuff through the New Horizons. So many people look forward to the meetings each week, and we try to do as much as possible for our community. We put on a ‘wedding dresses throughout the ages’ show, quilting shows, tea socials, and much more. All of it really goes over big!” Darrell exclaimed with a lot of passion and gusto.

“We put on kitchen parties and get local bands to play every Wednesday. People come from all over, from Lockeport to Yarmouth! It’s more than a community hall. It’s a place for everyone to keep traditions alive.”

“The best thing about most of our events are that they’re free. You can give a donation at the door if you want, or bring a snack for everyone, but with so many people on fixed incomes a lot of people wouldn’t be able to participate if we started to charge.”

New technology is great, especially with community initiatives like this one. A former resident of the area, Carl Dixon, put on facebook that he thought the hall needed a piano, and the next morning one was donated! People in small towns just have that much more heart.

                This is a handmade quilt. If you don't own one, then your bed is probably sad.

“We’ve put on a lot of dances and other events throughout the years, and we’ve never had a bad report,” said Darrell with a lot of pride in his voice.

Other than being a meeting place, the hall, first and foremost, is a fire hall! We have amazingly dedicated volunteers, and every third Sunday of the month you can get an all you can eat, whatever you want breakfast, for just $7 to help raise funds for the fire department. Where else are you going to find a deal with a good cause like that?

In the comments section of the contest, locals have put in their heart warming two cents.

Kerrie Bubar writes:

“I also totally support this project. Living in a small community, it limits the seniors to have very little access to activities or functions for them. In the few months since this New Horizons group has begun, I am utterly amazed at the happiness of our seniors, not only those in Woods Harbour but they are traveling from neighboring communities to join in the fun (some are in their nineties). It has brought life back to many seniors to know they have something to look forward to. When you can walk into a building full of seniors every Wednesday night and see the toes tapping to the music, smiles on their faces and the friendships that are being made just by being able to get out of the house and meeting with others, it is a wonderful thing to witness. I can only wish for this to be able to continue and it can only be done by getting funding. I am very thankful for this organization and wish it the very best, you by far have brought the people of our little community a lot of laughs and enjoyment and I wish you continued success, I can't think of anything more deserving.”

Carl Dixon writes:

TOTALLY SUPPORT THIS PROJECT IN ITS ENTIRETY! Its a "BIG MUST DO"......The love, fun, joy and excitement experienced by not only the residents (young and for ever young) of Woods Habour as well as many other residents of Shelburne and Yarmouth country in the past few months has been overwhelming....All events since becoming the WHCC have been well attended bringing many local individuals together with...a renewal of friendships and companionship. Just in the past few months this WHCC has given man many people in the area a new lease on life....just seeing the happiness and smiles on their faces tells the whole story. I have lived in Toronto for 34 years and get home to Woods Habour every couple of months...It is pretty amazing the feeling of community involvement and renewed community friendships/ relationships that has been reignited/ renewed since the Old Fire Hall became the WHCC.....Funding must be made available to make the necessary renovations to physically transform the Old Woods Harbour Fire Hall into a safe, user friendly and manageable Community Centre. The well planned and well organized Community events draws people of all ages from Yarmouth and Shelburne Counties...The Directors/ Organizers of the New Horizons Seniors Group and the Woods Habour Community Centre are to be congratulated for all that has been done to date and in this very short period of time in organizing a very successful and well attended events.

The hall needs a lot of help. If we don’t win the Aviva contest, Darrell and Rosalie have been working tirelessly to ensure that other grant funds know of our needs.

“If we don’t win the contest, we have 5-6 applications in for grants with the government with seniors and recreation, environmental, etc. If these don’t work out we’ll find more! We’re a stubborn bunch in Woods Harbour! We won’t give up!”

To vote for upgrades to our hall please go to: http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf11468?fb_ref=.Tsm3Eyxuvb4.like&fb_source=profile_multiline