Crawford Bay Elementary-Secondary opens its doors
Friday, April 17, 2009

It is easy for small communities, especially those disconnected from the larger centres by geographical barriers, to feel overlooked in their struggles. However, this April the Crawford Bay Elementary-Secondary School, East Shore Fitness Place and East Shore Family Place became a testament to how having a vision, dedication and cross-community connectivity can make residents in isolated locations realize they have the ability to create their own legacy.

For the past five years the communities of Boswell, Gray Creek, Pilot Bay, Crawford Bay, Kootenay Bay and Riondell have successfully fundraised and campaigned to have a new school and multi-use facility built in Crawford Bay. The unique aspect of this facility is that from the beginning it was envisioned to also serve as a cross-generational and multi-purpose social hub for neighbouring communities.

Leona Keraiff along with a group of individuals from each of the six communities formed the East Shore Community Facilities Committee after funding for a new school was announced. The committee set their goal at not only building a new school, but also creating a neighbourhood hub that would fill a void in the area’s infrastructure and speak to the residents’ needs.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to receive funding for a new school in the community, and when the opportunity came around we wanted to take full advantage of it. We knew we wanted to make it much more than a school and envisioned something the whole community could share and participate in and use,” explained Keraiff.

The group organized community forums and held fundraising drives and with the help and support of local families and businesses, corporate donations, in-kind contributions from contractors and suppliers, the Nelson and District Credit Union, the Regional District of Central Kootenay, School District 8 Kootenay Lake and Columbia Basin Trust the group raised $870,000. In total, with the Province of B.C.’s contribution of $12.7 million the whole facility houses kindergarten to Grade 12, a two-storey fitness and multi-purpose centre and a childcare and family resource centre.

“This project was about partnerships,” said Keraiff. “A community starts with its foundation, the people. This project made us realize that we can look after ourselves and create the facilities to suit our communities’ unique needs so that we don’t have to go to larger centres such as Cranbrook or Creston. Being acknowledged by CBT in its funding support validated our efforts for this project and it made us realize that even though it is easy to feel forgotten, we are recognized and we can make a difference for our communities.”

In addition, this school is also the first of its kind in the province to meet a gold level in LEED standards for environmental stewardship.

CBT supported the project with $200,000 towards the two-storey fitness and multi-purpose room facility. At the ribbon-cutting on April 7th, Garry Merkel, CBT Board Chair and Jennifer Krotz, CBT Community Liaison spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of students and community members.

“The true measure of the success of this project lies with the people of the community,” said Merkel. “It wasn’t without a lot of hard work on the part of many, so many people and the East Shore Community Facilities Committee has done a terrific job in spearheading this community project.”

The East Shore Fitness Place and East Shore Family Place will be used for extra-curricular education, cultural and artistic classes, social gatherings and fitness classes. This space will be open to everyone in the community and will aim to connect multiple generations and residents from the various communities.

“By seeing each of the individual needs, a school, child care facilities, fitness facilities and multi-purpose uses, as part of a much bigger picture of shared community amenities, all of the partners working together were able to achieve a greater vision. It is projects like these that bring meaning to community capacity building," said Merkel. “And that’s why CBT is so pleased to be part of this project.”

“This multi-use facility and community school will truly be a landmark that will foster growth, learning, pride and above all a sense of accomplishment for the whole community for many years to come," said Jennifer Krotz, CBT Community Liaison. “It truly is a legacy and we are so proud to have been a small part in helping make this amazing project a reality.”