Chilliwack is a city of ~80,000 people at the head of the Fraser River Valley. The mountains that border on the north and south of the valley converge just past the town. The town is a lively combination of services and agriculture and appears to be little understood by most other Canadians. It is passed quickly on the Trans-Canada highway and is known for its excellent corn, and distinct agricultural scent.
Geoff was sent on a Rotary Student Exchange here in 1999. He stayed with five families over the course of a year and attended one of the two local high schools - Sardis Senior Secondary. Geoff learnt quickly that within this town there is a distinct sense of community, pride and culture. In particular there is a strong culture of music within the community, whether in school bands, singing at Rotary Meeting, barbershop quartets or Jazz and Bluegrass festivals.
The qualities of community and pride seem, to us, to be lost in the bigger cities that we have lived in, but seem to remain intact in Chilliwack through the various institutions and community service organisations.
The rotary exchange was a very influential and formative period of Geoff's life. He fondly remembers the role models of many individuals within the community that invested time in him, and gave him options of the kind of person he could be.
As you mature you change and we find that people we have known in previous periods of our life become benchmarks. They remember you as you were and are a better indication of how you have changed than the people you see on a regular basis. It is always interesting to see how they have changed, and what changes they perceive in you.
We spent a week in the town touching base with the wonderful people we know in Chilliwack. We also had the opportunity to introduce them to Christopher and we visited some special places.
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| Geoff and Marie Goldfinch, his first host mom. We used her house as our base and can attest to it being solidly kid-proofed by the time we left! |
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| We attended a rotary meeting with the Chilliwack Rotary Club (there are three rotary clubs in the town). Playing in the Rotary "Discount Band" again - Geoff just slotted right back in! |
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| With Brett and Jo-Anne Klassen, classmates of Geoff's from school days and two of their three kids. |
Chilliwack has a very lively cycle culture and Geoff's school-mate Brett Klassen introduced us to all sorts of bicycles and associated accessories. We took a ride along the Vedder River with Brett riding a dutch "bucket-bike". It effectively has a wheelbarrow bucket in front sufficiently large for three children to ride up front! He introduced us to long wheel base bicycles - with a long pannier sufficient for two 80 litre pannier bags, or three children, or both. He had a phenominal 3m long flat bed trailer suited to his bicycles to allow him to transport larger items and lent us a Chariot which allowed us to cycle around with Christopher. Phenomenal! We are so inspired to look at bicycles differently when we go back home. Chilliwack is a reasonably flat town being based on the valley floor which of course works in cyclists favour! While in town we also discovered "fat-bikes" which are quickly becoming the next big thing for mountain biking - well at least here in Canada.
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| Along the Vedder River Trail. It had been an excellent run for the Sockeye Salmon that year and the fishermen were still out, despite the rain! Christopher is in the Chariot. |
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| A happy little boy, fast asleep in his chariot! |
One of the Rotary projects that had been underway when Geoff had been an exchange student was the development of a walking trail along the Vedder River. There were basic paths, but nothing suitable for cyclists, prams or wheelchairs. The trail is now typically 3m wide, gravel and level and sees on average 18,000 visitors a month. The trails make use of existing dykes and have extended them, while also providing side creeks for spawning and rearing of salmon and trout. Despite some heavy rain we headed out to cycle the trail with Brett and Jo-Anne Klassen and two of their kids. Christopher did admirably well and we learnt how effective Cheerio's are at placating a hungry and cold child!
Rotary is responsible for driving and fundraising for a number of public projects, however we were interested to note that the City of Chilliwack has agreed to take over and maintain such projects in order for them not to be a burden on the club.
Since we were last in Chilliwack in 2008 the City has, through the influence and vision of a number of individuals and organisations in the community, built a new cultural centre. It is a wonderful facility boasting a beautiful and modern 575 seater theater, a smaller theater, a music academy, an art gallery, art workshops and many other assets. Of particular interest to us however were two memorials dedicated to individuals within the community who had meant a lot to Geoff.
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| With John Blessin at the Chilliwack Cultural Center in front of the water fountain memorial to Charlie and Mary Young. Charlie was saxophonist and a musical mentor to Geoff. He passed away earlier this year aged 94. |
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| Also up in the Cultural Center is a memorial to Ron Goldfinch who played a piviotal part in the development of the center and particularly in fundraising for a concert grand piano. Ron was also Geoff's first host dad and teased him mercilessly! |
Mt Cheam (pronounced chee-am) is a 2,100m peak which rises prominately above Chilliwack. Every time we are in town we try to ascend it, however due to poor weather conditions we didn't make it in 2008. The common access is via an old logging road above Chilliwack River which takes you to 1,400m. You then continue on foot through alpine meadows and eventually screed to the summit. The drive up is half the adventure (and half the time!) and needs to be done in a high clearance vehicle, preferably with 4x4 capability due to the steep grades and loose gravel. A friend took us up with his 1970's short wheel base jeep which was lots of fun. Christopher only managed to get half-way up the hike before the ripe and abundant blue-berries side-tracked him and Lucy, while Geoff, Brett and Lance continued to the summit. It was a terrific day out up on the mountain!
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| Brett and Geoff on the summit of Mount Cheam |
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| Jones Lake was part of a reserve managed by BC Parks. Aparently apart from free camping they would encourage folks to stay up there by offering them free firewood! Not so any longer! |
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| A happy boy stuffed with blue berries in the alpine meadows |
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| The view down the meadows from above. The colours where quite spectacular. In the background is the massif of Mt. Baker (3,300m) in the States, in the foreground are low lying blue berry bushes... Yum!!! |
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| Hiking through the glorious meadows. |
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| On the trail with Lady Peak in the background. |
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| Lance is a friend of Brett's who joined us for the hike and drove us up the rough route to the start of the hike. Christopher was very happy to be in a loud vehicle on a bumpy road! |
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| Settling in for the hour long drive down to the tarred road. Once the sun had gone down it was going to get quite chilly. Note that little boys can happily fend of cold with a blueberry bagel in each hand! |
We were based at Marie Goldfinch's place for the duration of our stay in Chilliwack. Behind their house is a small farm run by Bill and Renee Higginson. Geoff had got to know the Higginsons during his exchange and years later had joined them for a trip to the famous Calgary Stampede. Bill was minding his delightful granddaughter, Harper, and Christopher and her got on pretty well. Bill introduced us to his sheep and the two toddlers were soon tearing into bales of hay to feed them. Christopher was very content to play amongst the old farm equipment and in particular enjoyed an old John Deer lawnmower!
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| Christopher and Harper Higginson feeding the sheep |
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| 'Mowing the lawn' |
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| Happy warm fall days in Chilliwack |
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| End of September swim in Chilliwack. The water was about 18 degrees and Christopher was very happy to be in the water. This is good news with summer approaching. |
We spent most of our time catching up with contacts of Geoff's - host parents, siblings, councillors, friends, etc. We didn't manage to get photos with all of them, but it was really lovely to see them and to catch up with them again.
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| Herm and Brenda Kovits. Herm was Geoff's councilor when he was on exchange. |
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| Perfecting his walking and stair climbing! We lost track of how many times he went up and down! |
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| With Marie Goldfinch. |
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| With Joy St John |
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| These Chariots are terrific. We'll be on the lookout for them back home. |
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| Father and son riding through town |
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| With Sam and Liz Dunbar |
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| The obligatory jumping photo outside the Goldfinches house. |
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| Like the name Chilliwack (which means Meeting of the Waters), many names are Anglicized from First Nations |
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| The mighty Fraser River |
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| Dave and Gil Alford had lent us their van for the duration of our stay in Canada. It was a huge help. Thanks so much! |
