The Tri-Village Community Facilities
Our Facilities Need Your Financial Help
This letter was submitted by Brent McInnis (Magoo)
Over the years volunteers in our community have developed great facilities for the use and enjoyment of everybody.
Now we are struggling to raise enough funds each year to operate and maintain them these wonderful facilities:
• The community recreation hall
• Outdoor pancake breakfast area and kitchen
• Tennis court
• Outdoor Ice arena / Summertime pickle ball courts
• Basketball court
• Public washroom facility
• Softball fields
• Lions’ path around the lake
So, we’re reaching out to the communities of Wasa, Ta Ta Creek, Skookumchuck, and Premier Lake to ask for a $45 annual support levy per lot included in our property taxes, starting in 2022.
This money, collected by the RDEK on our behalf would be earmarked strictly for reimbursement of operations and maintenance expenses of our community facilities.
Thank you sincerely from volunteers and community users of the facilities.
Please Stay Safe!
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For more information, please read the flyer enclosed in the Buzz, or send an email to trivillageinfo@gmail.com or call one of the volunteers below:
Karen Markus 250-422-5555
Brent McGinnis (Magoo) 250-422-3745
Lois and Jack Morrison 403-478-4450
Dale Leask 250-422-3577
Tanya Yost-Munro 250-422-5555
Laurie Kay 778-517-3288
Bonnie Meena 250-422-3795
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The Community Recreation Hall - a treasure - built by volunteers!
Most people first experience the hall as the gathering place for a special occasion.
For over 32 years the hall has hosted birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, funerals, reunions, recognition and award dinners. It’s our civic centre the polling place for federal, provincial and municipal elections, town hall meetings, RDEK official public meetings, WLLID annual meetings and government workshops. And before Covid-19 hundreds would attend events community groups depended upon for their fundraising: dinners, the annual Wasa Lions Christmas party, craft fairs and a favourite of both full time and summer residents, bingo.
The hall also serves community organizations as their regular meeting place and home base: yoga, Wasa Country Quilters, Tri-Village Kids Club, TOPS, WLLID and Wasa Lions. Some of these organizations have specific rooms dedicated to their use.
Newcomers and occasionally a longer time resident are surprised to learn the hall hosts a substantial library, a well equipped gym and the Wasa Lions Medical Loan Cupboard offering a wide range of medical furniture and devices to area community members at no charge.
While they might not have imagined the wide range of usage the hall has today, by the early 1980s community members recognized the need for a gathering place for the community. To this end, in 1982, the Wasa Lions Recreational Society was incorporated to build a community hall and a series of fundraising events began.
As its name implies, the Wasa Lions were a driving force behind its creation. In talking to people active in the community at the time, one name, Jim Blackburn, is mentioned as having travelled to Victoria and secured sufficient funding through the BC Legacy Fund that construction was able to begin.
Stan Kneller tells of how corporate donations of both material and labour were received and teamed up with massive and enthusiastic volunteer labour from the community.
In 1988 the Wasa Community Hall became a reality. It has become the hub of the community.
The hall operations are run entirely by community volunteers, with the exception of a paid janitorial person.
Covid-19 has brought fundraising on which the operations of the hall and many of the community organizations to an abrupt halt. In reaction, the Rec Society has cut expenses to the bone, applied for grants to install solar panels on the massive south-facing side of our roof and cut our hydro costs. But other costs, like insurance and maintenance continue to rise.
In normal times user fees contributed to the cost of operations. The lesson of Covid-19 is that counting forever on volunteers, fundraisers and special operating grants to keep our doors open, by themselves are not sustainable in the long run. There may be other Covids and Sars in our future. The board of the Rec Society is currently exploring options for long term operations funding for the hall. Regular annual funding should help us to continue to provide the usage of the hall to our community users at as modest a cost as we can.
The hall is our irreplaceable community treasure
The Ball Diamonds
The ball diamonds were built around the same time frame as the Community Hall in the late 1980s.
Originally constructed by Lions members and community volunteers, in recent years it has been carefully mowed by community ball players
An automated irrigation system was installed in 2012 by local contractor Gary Verrigan
The Pete Vereshagen Memorial Rink was officially opened on December 16, 2014.
The rink was funded from the B.C. Provincial Government’s community Recreation program, Columbia Basin
Trust funding through its Community Development Fund, as well as Wasa Lions fundraising.
Our original Wasa Community Rink was located at the Wasa Campground and was managed and maintained for a number of years by Pete Vereshagen. Pete would rise at 3:00 am to flood and again at 5:00am and 7:00 am to make sure the surface was in great shape for the locals to use.
A lot of the scraping and flooding work was done by hand with the help of the Parks truck and fire hose.
The construction of the new rink, located at the Lion’s Grounds, was completed over a period of months in 2014.
With the help of many volunteers putting in approximately 4000 hours of volunteering and the concrete contractor, Western Recreation Ltd., the rink was ready for use in the winter of 2014/2015. The boards surrounding the rink were sponsored by individuals by giving a donation to the club to help with maintenance.
With the help of the RDEK the Lions acquired a Zamboni to help with the flooding of the rink surface. This has made the work involved to flood a much easier process. The rink is operated with volunteers from the community at large and Wasa Lions members.
Many thanks to all the volunteers in helping to keep the rink in the great condition it is in. If you would like to help with the rink, please contact the Wasa Lions. This facility is for use by one and all free of charge. Donations are greatly appreciated to help with maintenance, and can be sent by mail to Box 10 Wasa, BC V0B 2K0, or to any Lions member.
The Kitchen and Covered Dining Area
Whether you are local to the Tri-Village or here vacationing, no weekend is complete without Saturday pancake breakfast at the Lions Kitchen.
Community groups depend on the funds raised serving yummy food to hungry locals and campers
Some have been working together so long, watching the food being cooked and served is like watching the Halem Globetrotters execute their teamwork
The Lions Path around Wasa Lake
The Path gets year round use. Families, couples: young and not spring chickens, runners, slow strollers, speed walkers cyclists and folk in walkers all love the Path.
Trees like to grow their roots into the path. Winter frosts cause heaves and cracks. When you build in nature, she doesn't give without a steady battle. Every few years, there's a patching and crackfilling project to pay for.