By Moira Farrow, The Vancouver Sun, May 16, 1975

If Jim and Myrna Boulding were out to make money, the last thing they’d be doing is running an outdoor education centre. But that‘s what they have chosen to do so last year they made a profit of $2500 for twelve months of work.

“And it was the first time that we were not in the red” Mrs. Boulding laughed.

Timbers being hewn for use at the Lodge

Money has no priority in the Bouldings personal scale of values, but ironically, they spend a lot of time worrying about the lack of it. It’s not possible to give outdoor education to thousands of children and adults every year without cash to pay the bills. “At last we’re still in the ball game and that is where we want to be” Boulding said. “We built the buildings ourselves – we like building  buildings’ said the 43-year-old Boulding who shrugged off the massive construction project as though it were of only minor interest.

The couple has turned their place into an outdoor education centre, where their hearts had always been. They have opened their doors at minimum prices to thousands of young people and even a few senior citizens.

They admit that they could not have survived without the help of the provincial government to subsidize the teacher’s summer programs. Last year the education department gave Strathcona $100,000 for its summer programs, but this year, because of general budget cutbacks, the grant was cut to $75,000.

Another problem is Boulding’s outspokenness. He is the first to admit that his blunt comments about everything from “petty despot school principals” to forest company “outdoor cowboys” has won him plenty of enemies as well as friends. But he says he has no intention of shutting up when principles are involved.

And in spite of all the hassles, Strathcona has made a success of its prime objective – teaching people about the outdoors. By the end of this year, 10,000 youngsters and teachers will have enjoyed its programs and taken their new knowledge back to communities all over B.C.

The Lodge provides everything one would expect in the field of outdoor education: cross country skiing, canoeing, kayaking, wilderness survival, fishing, marine biology, snow-shoeing and wildlife observation. But that is only half of it. Visitors can also learn weaving, pottery, photography, West Coast Indian culture and a score of other subjects. “We’re not really an environmental education centre, we’re a rural experience.” Boulding said. “We have to do everything ourselves – recycling our garbage, running our water systems and baking our bread. And it is a good thing that people can learn things from us because that is what the world is coming to,”

Some of Strathcona’s staff have formal degrees, and even they often get involved in teaching subjects unrelated to their specialty. An ornithologist, for example, teaches rock climbing and a nurse helps with canoe instruction. Local people with such special skills as weaving and wood carving drop in to teach a course in the summer.

As for the chores, everyone helps, whether it’s doing the dishes or vacuuming.

Strathcona is a family experience as well as a rural one because the Boulding’s live on the property and their three teenagers are involved in many courses. Their fourth and youngest child, 20-month-old Josephte, is everybody’s pet and bounces from knee to knee at communal meals in the vast dining room.

The Bouldings dislike intensely structured institutions with bells ringing every hour and long lists of rules, so Strathcona has a far more relaxed atmosphere than most similar places.

“I’m the super heavy around here,” said Mrs. Boulding who has very few minutes to herself all day long but never loses her sense of humor. She plans the menus (lots of fresh vegetables and whole wheat bread), but shares the cooking with the other staff.

No one is coddled at Strathcona – the youngsters keep their own rooms tidy and pick up driftwood to keep the stoves going.

“We are very high on what the Indians called ‘generosity of spirit’ – that’s what this place is all about,” Boulding said.

Luxe Mountain Weddings

By Paul Nicholson, The Daily Colonist, Friday, September 27, 1974

Administration Building (above), one of two buildings quickly constructed after the fire

Just a year ago with rain pouring off his wide brim-hat, Jim Boulding stared over the remains of the once proud Strathcona Park Lodge.

On May 23, 1973, the 47-year-old structure burned to the ground leaving Jim, his wife Myrna and family with a rather bleak outlook for the future. The financial picture was bad, the building was insured for only a fraction of its worth and the Lodge was destroyed just prior to the more prosperous summer season. But within a couple of days the Bouldings had plans for a new Lodge. Only this time it would be a series of buildings forming a whole village on the lakeshore property. And with an incredible amount of effort and will, work is nearing completion on the second of the two Cesar Caflisch designed cedar/fir structures. And the first one, completed late last year, was the scene for a whole new life for Strathcona Lodge as Strathcona Park Outdoor Education Centre.

Small store and deli in new Admin. building

This past summer 330 teachers from around the province spent time at the lodge studying everything from white water kayaking to advanced mountain climbing as part of a Department of Education sponsored program for additional teacher training.

BY JANET STEFFENHAGEN, VANCOUVER SUN

Students are heartbroken and some parents are fuming after teachers at a Vancouver Island elementary school abruptly cancelled plans for an end-of-year camping trip in Strathcona Park as part of their anti-government protest.

“This is a message I wish I did not have to write,” teacher Denis Morin said in a email to parents of Grade 7 students at Ecole Robb Road, announcing that he and teacher Veronique Turpin will not be going on the five-day trip after all, despite months of planning, fundraising and eager anticipation among their young students.

“I have been struggling with this for quite a while but I feel I have no other options but to stand up and defend what I think is right for public education, for the democratic rights of workers and for the teaching profession,” he said in the email Friday. “The current government is taking the approach that we are their employees and that we should obey their commands.”

Similar messages are being delivered to families around the province following a B.C. Teachers’ Federation decision to withdraw from extracurricular activities to protest a government law that ordered a six-month cooling-off period in their contract feud and installed a mediator to try to resolve numerous issues in dispute.

Shanna Ball, one of the Robb Road parents, said she is furious with the teachers because they had promised the students the trip would go ahead even while union frustration was building during the school year. The parents paid a lump sum of $3,300 to hold space for the students and the deadline for a refund was the end of February.

“The students were crushed,” she said, noting some were in tears. Ball said she was also angry to hear from her daughter that students were told at school that government was to blame for not treating teachers with respect. “They’re indoctrinating these kids — these 12- and 13-year-olds,” she said in an interview.

No one from the school or the district office responded to requests from The Vancouver Sun for an interview.

The BCTF protest is having effects outside the classroom too, as education camps struggle to survive despite a drop in attendance.

“We aren’t predicting that we’ll go broke but it’ll be a rough year,” said Jamie Boulding, executive director of the Strathcona Park Outdoor Education Centre. Although the centre doesn’t cater solely to students, reservations have already plunged by 25 per cent and more cancellations are expected. “It’ll be the end of May before we know the financial impact,” he said.

On Hornby Island, the Tribune Bay Outdoor Education Centre is also feeling the pinch. “Our numbers are way down,” sighed manager Gord Campbell, and that’s forced him to reduce the number of staff he will employ this summer. The YMCA’s Elphinstone Camp on the Sunshine Coast typically hosts 60 schools at this time of year, but that’s dropped to 46.

While not criticizing teachers for their protest, the camp operators expressed regret that many students were losing wonderful outdoor experiences, such as canoeing, hiking, campfires, leadership lessons and team-building. For students leaving their elementary schools and heading to high school next fall, these end-of-year camps have become a rite of passage.

Boulding said he was particularly sorry for children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. “The schools cancelling first are from the poorest parts of town,” he said. “It’s not a fair world out there.”

Not all teachers are cancelling, although the situation is still in flux. In North Vancouver, for example, the union said its members could still attend the Outdoor School/Big House as long as they did not provide supervision or instruction outside of regular school hours. The district recently nixed that idea, saying it couldn’t guarantee student safety under those conditions. Discussions continue.

jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com

Read more education news at http://vancouversun.com/reportcard

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/students+disappointed+businesses+worried+teachers+cancel+year+camping+trips/6543672/story.html#ixzz1tfLRvoFz

Alice

Alice was an exceptional female outdoor leader. Female instructors were in hot demand by both the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and with Outward Bound, so we were lucky to get her.  She was also a registered nurse (RN). My daughter, Elizabeth, who had taken an Outward Bound course the previous year was given the job of being Alice’s assistant. Liz still talks about how much she learned from Alice.

ALICE—BY ELIZABETH BOULDING

During the summer of 1974, I was a 16 year old assistant to Alice Purdey who was the first Strathcona Lodge Instructor to teach week long mountaineering courses. Alice had been on the 1967 expedition to Mount Logan and had twice instructed the girls’ course at the former Canadian Outward Bound School at Keremeos. Alice was married to the mountaineer Dick Culbert but he was away in South America so my mother provided a full-time babysitter in Cabin 9 for their children: Heather who was almost 4 and Vance who was 18 months. Strathcona Lodge was busy teaching mountain leadership and water-safety courses that summer and tuition was free for practicing B.C. school teachers.

The first course that I was on with Alice was Basic Mountain Leadership. We went up the Flower Ridge trail on a sunny day with a very large group including the Strathcona Instructors: Mike Rewald, Doug Dobyns, and Bob Sutherland. I was the “sweep” leader who encouraged the teachers at the end of the group. What I remember most about the hike up was that one of the female teachers with dark hair fainted at the first tarn (about 1200 metres) and was later diagnosed as having heat exhaustion.

There were some crumbling rock cliffs on the east side of Flower Ridge and it was here that Alice instructed us in rock climbing using traditional top-roping. First the rope was tied in a single coil around the waist of the climber using a bowline. As the climber climbed, the rope was kept taut by the belayer whom was tied to a tree at the top of the cliff. I remember that the pitches were short but that the foot holds were loose.

Alice was accustomed to Outward Bound Instructors and remarked that some of the Strathcona instructors, did not seem very comfortable climbing on rock. I explained that they usually taught Wilderness Survival or Natural History to groups of school children. Indeed on that same Flower Ridge trip I remember Bob and Mike identifying alpine flowers for an admiring group of school teachers.

Alice helped Elizabeth to become at ease in the mountains

My next trip with Alice was up the Marble Meadows trail in an attempt to climb McBride. I had been on the trail twice before: once in 1972 as a participant on a large Strathcona Summer camp led by John and Anne Gregg and once in 1973 on a traverse over Mount McBride with two Mount Douglas high school students, Jill Evans and Karen Morison. What I remember about the trip with Alice is walking up the trail on a sunny day near the front of a large group of teachers and feeling frustrated about how slowly the group was moving. It seemed to my callow 16 year old self that the teachers stopped at the top of every hill to take photographs of flowers just so that they could rest. They seemed to become even slower when the trail became steeper at 1400 metres especially where it was covered with a crust of snow. I remember being surprised to find that one of the older teachers, 50 year old Betty Baldry, was an experienced hiker and moved uphill far more quickly than two of the female teachers in their 20s. Despite my fears, we did eventually make it to Marble Meadows. Later that day Alice led a small group of us part way up Marble Peak where we got a good view of Strathcona Park. We continued across the Meadows towards Mount McBride the next day walking mostly on snow. It must have been sunny weather because several of the teachers became badly sunburned, including to my surprise, one of them with naturally dark skin. Unfortunately, the next day was so foggy and rainy the next day that Alice decided we should head home. She told me privately that she was anxious about turning back. The Director at Outward Bound had became annoyed when their instructors came back early because of bad weather. I remember reassuring her that my father was not a fan of the “man against nature” philosophy and would trust that she had made the safe decision.

My final and best trip with Alice was to Cream Lake. At that time there was no trail so my father drove us at the end of an old logging road on the east side of Thelwood Creek so that Alice could lead us up the ridge that divided Thelwood Creek from Price Creek. The day was hot and we had to gain about 1000 vertical metres along a ridge covered with logging slash. After an hour of bush-whacking, two of the school teachers decided they had had enough and headed back downhill towards the highway with one of the Instructors. Fortunately the moderately large group of teachers and instructors that remained was strong and motivated and included another Mount Doug student, Gordon Wood and two teachers, Barry and Carol, who ran the outdoors club at Kitsilano High School. Alice led us up the logging slash and then up the rhododendron bushes near the top of the ridge. Once we were up the ridge we had a wonderful trip. We stopped part way along the ridge and Alice had me pretend to be an injured climber who had fallen over a snow cliff so that she could show the teachers how to rescue me using lots of ice axes to form a pulley for the rope. The next day we arrived at Cream Lake and set up the Lodge’s brand new four-person McKinley tents on the bluffs overlooking the lake. That evening some of us took our ice axes and climbed up the steep snowfield that goes partway up Mount Septimus. The following day Alice led us directly up from Cream Lake in an attempt to climb Big Interior Mountain. We crossed several large snowfields on our way to the peak. Alice then rapidly headed up the steep back side of one of the peaks where we encountered lots of crumbly rock and poor footing. I did not like the climbing on the loose rock at all. Not only was our group climbing very slowly but some members were careless about knocking loose stones. Consequently Alice finally decided that we needed to turn back. We had a wonderful time bum- sliding and boot-glissading down all the snow fields back down to Cream Lake.

After that summer I realized that I wasn’t like Alice. Even though I loved being in the mountains I was not willing to take the risks inherent in climbing on crumbly rock that would be necessary if I were to become a professional mountaineer. I told Bob and Mike that I wanted to become a biologist like them. I remember the two of them taking me to the bog one day to learn to identify bird calls. I wasn’t good at it but even I realized that something was up when they asked me to identify a particularly loud call that turned out to be a squirrel. I did not realize at the time that there might be other sorts of biologists so I started to tell everyone that I was going to be a medical doctor. However, once I went to University I realized that there were many kinds of biologists and I am now an Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Guelph. Toby and I have a daughter, Emma, who will soon graduate from University herself. We all still like being in the mountains.

Cream Lake with Mt. Septimus in back

I found out only recently that Alice continued to be a mountaineer, a dedicated mother and a registered nurse. In the summer of 1975 she reached the summit of Mount St. Elias. After separating from her husband Dick, she accepted a CUSO position in Columbia where she and the children stayed for the next two years. She then returned to Canada and took her Masters at the University of Calgary in Anthropology. Once the children were grown up Alice and her current husband, Fred Douglas, another mountaineer, spent five years doing health care training in the foothills of Nepal. Her children Heather and Vance have gone on to live lives of adventure and humanitarian service and Heather just gave her their first grand child last May. They are also both mountaineers.

I first came to the Lodge in the summer of 1976 to take part in a leadership course for educators taught by Ray Preece and Geoff Evans. When staff wished to take groups to the bog they had to walk along the highway, which was rather dangerous. As a service project the participants of the leadership course cut a trail through the bush from the Lodge to the bog. Upon completion of the trail we had a great unveiling of the carved wooded sign that one of the participants made. Jim Rutter, dressed in a dress as the Queen and I dressed in coat and tails, a long-sleeved wetsuit top, as Prince Phillip, preformed the opening dedication to what is now known as the Preece Evans Trail. The trail has been used by groups ever since. However, for environmental reasons groups no longer go for a dip in the bog. But when they did it was great fun to really experiencethat the bog was made up of decomposing moss and not mud. It was the best of experiential learning.

In the summer of 1978, after separating from my wife and quitting my teaching job in Slocan, BC, I returned to Strathcona to take part in the Leadership Apprentice program of which there were five participants, with whom I still maintain regular contact. It was during this program that I was first introduced to Escalante and the West Coast. I still adventure out there periodically with other former Strathcona types. Other memories during this time were going on survival sessions with Jim Boulding. I’ll never forget him telling us that “Any college educated kid can learn the names of trees when they are alive, but for starting a fire when every thing is wet you have to know them when they’re dead: Hemlock for its finely branched twigs, Doug Fir for pitch sticks and Cedar for fuzz sticks.”

Jim Force and Jim Boulding

Another memorable line of Jim’s was, “You’re terrible at that,but don’t worry you’ll get better.” After the Apprenticeship program I stayed on for the remainder of the fall leading school groups and returned in the spring of ’79 to do more of the same. During the summer my two children, Sonnet age 9 and Sky age 8 came and spent a month with me at the Lodge. When I was out on the trail Bunny Shannon, the camp cook, who also had two children of similar ages, would look after them. One evening all four of them were missing from dinner. Bunny and I were quite worried and searched every where looking for them. We finally found them literally “hanging out” in the cargo net of the ropes course. Another time Sonnet and Sky returned to the Lodge quite excited after taking themselves on a bit of a hike in which they encountered a bear and her cubs near the old ski slope. They couldn’t quit talking about how brave they were and how they knew exactly how to behave when encountering a bear. During that summer I also had the opportunity to take the kids to Escalante with a Native Studies Group with Hilary Stewart and a group of young Leadership Apprentices. While we learned a considerable amount about Native plants and the uses First Nations Peoples made of them, the most memorable event involved beach combing. Throughout our time there the apprentices would go for long beach combing walks and return with glass floats. On the last day Sonnet asked if we could go for a walk and see if we could find a glass float reluctantly agreed as I had no hope in us finding any as the beach had been well combed by the apprentices. We walked for twenty minutes or so when I suggest that we turn around as it was getting close to our departure time. Sonnet insisted that we go just a bit farther. Sure enough within a couple of minutes we found a glass float sitting on top of the sand in the middle of the beach – at age 39 she still has it. It was a great summer adventure for the three of us. We returned the next two summers, ’80 and ’81. I led adult groups and the kids played their hearts out. It was a memorable time for all three of us.

Being at the Lodge over those years was vitally important to me. First, it allowed me to have my kids with me in a friendly family setting as well as one that was quite adventurous for us. It was also a time when I needed to have a strong sense of belonging, which the folks at the Lodge provided. While there I developed life-long friends, who are to this day an important part of my life. Another important aspect of my association with the Lodge was in my development as an experiential educator with an interest in leadership. Since leaving the Lodge, I spent seven years working with young offenders at the Enviros Wilderness School in Alberta, an opportunity I would never have had if I hadn’t spent time at Strathcona. Later I went on to earn a master’s degree in applied behavioral science with a focus on leadership as well as a Ph.D. in education. I am sure that without my Strathcona experience I wouldn’t have either. I am now semi-retired and teach as adjunct faculty in a master’s program in leadership at Royal Roads University in Victoria as well as teach leadership development programs at The Banff Centre in Banff Alberta. Much of the educational philosophy I was exposed to at Strathcona and particularly from Jim Boulding, I have used throughout my teaching career.

Steve first came to the Lodge in 1977 with Doug Scott, the famous British mountaineer and Everest climber. He returned to work at the Lodge the following year and stayed about three years. Steve came with extensive experience in the UK working with what he called ‘hoods in the woods’. He was always cheerful with an impressive knowledge about outdoor tripping. The leaders learned a lot of new ways to work with inexperienced or difficult students from Steve. Among other things he was an excellent singer of British pub songs and played the mouth organ. Along with his wife Marlene, the vet- erinarian, Steve has been involved with the ‘Friends of Strathcona Park’. Steve and Marlene are more familiar than any other person that I know with the many trails and uncharted routes in the Park.

Soon after his arrival Steve was put to work helping Mr. Caflisch Sr., a stone mason from Switzerland, to dig out and build a root cellar. It was not unusual for new people to be given challenging jobs upon arrival to see if they were made of the right stuff.

Steve tells the following story about Jim Boulding:

Steve Smith in Centre

I believe it was King George High School, probably grade eight or nine, who were at the ‘Lodge’ at the time. Jim insisted on including a visit to the infamous noisy and smelly generator (‘genny’) as part of their outdoor educational program. This was a normal ritual with some groups; in fact, it was not unusual when passing by the ‘genny’ shed to hear Jim shouting his description of the workings at the top of his voice because of the noisy engine. I must confess I would quickly pass by and feel a pang of sympathy for the young students. After supper on the last night of these 5-day school courses, supper activities would include skits by different groups. One particular often comes to mind.

One of the groups had experienced the ‘genny’ lesson with Jim and came up with a skit that night that everyone agreed was absolutely hilarious. About six students entered the ‘performing space’ carrying a large blanket and after lining up tightly, side- by-side, proceeded to cover themselves with it. Then, once under the blanket, they began to make loud machine noise and alternately raise and lower themselves imitating the pistons of an engine. Many of the audience did not really appreciate what was happening until six other students walked up to the noisy blanket, followed by a seventh student wearing Jim’s own famous ‘machismo’ cowboy hat! He began to shout loudly over the workings of the blanket and tried to explain the workings of the ‘genny’. The audience, including myself, instantly erupted with howls of laughter. Some of us had tears running down our faces and many held their sides after laughing so much. I cannot remember where Jim was at the time but I think he was also there.”

Steve some years later.

Some years ago Steve was leading a COLT group off trail and came across bits and pieces of a backpack, parts of a down coat and other scattered items. The snow had melted more than usual and this allowed things to appear that might not have been seen before.

They returned to the Lodge and contacted the police. Steve went out in a heli-copter with the police and the rescue people to investigate. Among other things a shin bone sticking out of a hiking boot was uncovered. It was established that this was a lost hiker from a year or so earlier .

At the Lodge we remembered a party of several Americans who had stopped in for a few minutes. One was a young man with a rubber boat on his back. He was traveling with his sister and some other people. The story goes that the young man had engaged in some sort of disagreement with the others and had set out on his own, never a good idea in a large and rugged park like Strathcona.  According to Steve, he appeared to have fallen off a cliff coming down from Cream Lake on a diagonal route to Price Creek.

Apparently he was a nephew of a well known person in the United States, the vice-presidential candidate, Mr. Mondale. The Americans and people from Canada had organized an extensive search but the remains weren’t found until the day Steve’s group came upon them.

A COLT group hiking off trail

“SKELETON BELIEVED THAT OF MISSING U.S. HIKER”

The Province, Saturday, Oct.14, 1978

A skeleton believed to be that of an American hiker lost last year has been found at the 3,700-foot (1,100-metre) level of Mount Septimus, 30 miles (65 kilome- tres) north of here.

Searchers found the skeleton after a group of hikers found a packsack and personal belongings of Gary Bressler, 20, of Valley Central, Kan., who disappeared July 24 last year while on a hike.

The skeleton was to be sent to Vancouver for tests to establish positive identification.

An intensive two-week land and air search was launched when Bressler was first reported missing. Bressler had let his companions – four other Americans – to take a shortcut to the group’s destination of Flower Ridge, a mountainous outcrop of rock.

The ground in the area was snow-covered during the search and nothing was turned up. The skeleton and personal articles became exposed when the snow-line melted to a higher level.

Like much that happened at the lodge, the folk weekend came from an impulse. There were some talented musicians at the lodge lead by Bob Sutherland. Stevie Smith sang British drinking songs, and Rob Wood sang climbing songs, and the accountant Ross “rock spider” Nichol always sang the MONSTER MASH. They needed a sound system. The plan was to sing for staff and others in town and then pass the hat, take the cash and let Ross,who had been a roadie for a rock band, go to Vancouver and buy a sound system.

So by the summer of 1976, there was a sound system: mixing board, mikes, stands, cables, and large Trainor stand up speakers purchased by staff. Sadly, the good stuff was later stolen.

The first folk weekend was in the spring of 1977. June Simpson, Stevie Smith, Bob Sutherland, and other musical staff produced a weekend of sing along folk music and it was a terrific success.

Lodge youngsters being directed by Bob Sutherland (upper right)

Later prodded by Jim to have a fall get together, a year end celebration, and to have some kind of activity to assist the lodge to become a year round facility, Bob Sutherland switched the date to a long weekend in November .

In 1978 the Folk Weekend was a rousing good time and started a tradition that lasted 28 Novembers. The first few years were more end of year staff reunions with old staff returning, and new staff enjoying a break from school groups.

And then it got famous. In 1980 Quadra Island’s Smooth Edge came and played for 18 years in a row. They were a harmony singing group with some accompanying instrumental music. Later the Strathcona Choir was formed to sing such all time hits as: The Yellow Rose of T exas, Gypsy Rover, and When the Coho Flash Silver All over the Bay, all favorites of Jim.

The weekend morphed into a family event like much at the lodge because some staff or a visitor volunteered to put on a workshop in weaving, potting, folk dancing, face painting, and music lessons and of course, the Saturday night square dance.

Square dancing has a long history at Strathcona Park Lodge. In the early days, the world’s best Phys Ed teacher, Brian Creer, called the dances without a microphone. He was ably helped by Bob Sutherland on the fiddle. Later Toby Hay with his standup bass, Ean Hay (Toby’s father) on trumpet and a young woman from Cortes on the piano were members of the Strathcona Sound Section. Square dancing became an institution because everyone could participate: no skill needed.

Now with Folk Weekend electrified, the Saturday night dancing was terrific. Sometimes there would be sometimes a 100 people, children of all ages, stepping out to a Virginia reel or to just plain good music for dancing. In the early days there was lots of help from shy talented types would not play solo, but with Bob’s gentle touch others would join in with the music. The tall blonde Betsy Gregg sang like an angel. Her younger brother David later was the main beam of the Vancouver Punk scene, and she later beat cancer and still graces Quadra Island with her serenity. Annie Boulding also sang with her guitar. Other supporters included the financial advisor George Austin from Seattle, who was a stalwart. For 20 years “Reliable “George played his guitar and sang. He brought his friends from USA. Eventually George started the gospel Sunday breakfast sessions at the Folk Weekend. George was always enthusiastic and he could raise the energy level of the Barn on demand.

Bob was the M/C of Folk Weekend for 28 years. He would play music and lift up our spirits by popping in to help various musicians during the weekend.

Paula Marter, George Austin, and Bob Sutherland

Other musical stars included Ann Glover, David Katz, Stevie Smith….who always sang “The Oldest Swinger in Town”, Els Early who sang “Those were the days”, Harry the Cook who sang “When I first came to this land”, and Tim Tacker who sang “I have five dollars to spend on you”. Karen Schwalm played her classical guitar. Karen was the all-time greatest employee ever at the lodge. She wrote the booklet “the sundew bog” and was the administrator of everything in addition to being the program director of schools program: a job that now takes three people to do. Karen had all the schedules, all the leaders and all the activities in her head and could organize anything in a few moments.

Bob sang several now famous tunes of his own including, “The Modern Male Mantra” and “The Ballad of Jungle Jim.”

June and Bill Cannon, Celtic musicians from Denman Island played the fiddle and Bodran, and gave lessons to any and all including children.

For years and years Margo organized the list of players and kept track of who was coming and who was in what room. Later Ann Lawrence took over all the organizing. Folk Weekenders came from Courtenay, Victoria (mostly from the Victoria folk club), Vancouver, and Quadra Island. Many attendees were ex staff or tourists who had stayed at the lodge.