ASK Salt Spring: Answered - Ep. 48 Cherie Geauvreau

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

Damian Inwood talks to Cherie Geauvreau of the Salt Spring Copper Kettle and the Wagon Wheel Housing Society about helping the islands needy and homeless population and about new housing alternatives.

You're listening to episode 48 of Ask Salt Spring Answered in which we talk to Sherry Govro who is the chair of the Wagon Wheel Housing Society and the administrator for the Copper Kettle since 2002. Okay, I'm here with Sherry Govereau, who is the chair of the Wagon Wheel Society and also the administrator for the Copper Kettle. And we were at Ask Salt Spring today. And Sherry, great to see you. Thanks for coming in. Oh, thank you. And just tell me a little bit about those two organizations, when they started and what they do. Okay. Copper Kettle Community Partnership started in 2002.

It's a grassroots organization. We're not a big charity. We are just a grassroots charity on Salt Spring that meets people's basic needs as they come forward. And so that includes, it can include food, housing, clothes, you know, contacts, reaching out to other places in the community that might help this individual and stuff like that. So we do a lot of networking. And over the years, Copper Kettle has developed a community garden. Eighteen years we've been going strong there, growing organic food and giving it away to people who can't afford to buy it.

And we also have a community woodpile that's run by, these are all volunteer-run little projects, side projects of Copper Kettle. Marcia Goldberg was our garden manager for nine years, the last nine years, and Paris Sensen runs our woodpile for us. So people in the winter, if they run out of wood, they can call us and get a load of wood without having to pay.

That's just a few of the things that Copper Kettle has done over the years. Yeah, you do a gift card program as well. We have a gift card program partnership with Country Grocers, and Country Grocers is a great community citizen. It's always supported Copper Kettle, and we have a box 31 there, save a tape program, and that helps support our gift card program. We do get one grant in aid a year from the CRD for that program as well for $5,000, but that's not enough to cover the need, and so we're always fundraising for more money so we can buy more gift cards at the Country Grocery.

And this sort of spun off into the the Wagon Wheel Society right? Well one of the things the issues at Copper Kettle for years has been the lack of affordable housing in our community and so in 2016 October, eight years ago almost to the month, we started having public meetings inviting people who had affordability problems and people who were interested in affordable housing and anybody who wanted to make a difference and so we had a lot of people come to those meetings but the upshot of that was is the people what they really wanted right away was their laundromat and public shower back because the community hadn't had one for five years by the time we took that project on and so wagon Wheel Housing Society took that project on because that's what was needed.

And we had the ability to do it then. And we got lots of support from the community, financial and otherwise. And so it's a success. Great. That's one of the great things, isn't it, that you've managed to do. And that's fantastic. Now, the Wagon Wheel Housing Society, I didn't realize until this meeting today exactly where the name came from, but it's sort of like a hub with housing in spokes around it almost, right?

Yeah. So the hub house is the main house where most of the living goes on and most of the cooking goes on. And anything that people want to do or have in their lives, all of that will be provided in the hub house. Along the spokes of the wheel then, people have their individual pods, whatever they may be. It could be a little cabin, could be a fifth wheel, could be a motorhome, that kind of thing. Or it could just be a Conestoga hut. But it's their private space, and they have independence there. And they have privacy, and they have their own headspace. And whenever they want to participate in the bigger community, the hub house is there for them.

And this model has been nothing new. This model is very successful in the Netherlands and in China and even in California. They have one mobile home park that is a wagon wheel down in California. I forget the place where it is, but it's a village, but it's all in a circle around the hub village in the middle. All the amenities are all there for everybody. It's just something that makes sense and it's affordable. People will only be charged 30% of their income to be part of a wagon mill.

Right. Now, one of the things that we spent quite a lot of time discussing at Ask Salt Spring was the potential of Brackett Springs on Rainbow Road, right? It's just sitting there. Yeah, and it's a big piece of land that's got a whole bunch of buildings on it. I've been by there. I'm sure everybody's seen it, and it looks pretty run down at the moment, but it would be ideal for your purposes, wouldn't it? It would be ideal for our purposes, yes. So what would it take for you to actually be able to get that going? Well, I would need a competent team because I had that for the laundromat,

so support team. I'd need a project manager and we could start from there, but money really is. Yeah, now the land is for sale. The land is for sale for $600,000, but there's about half a million dollars in upgrades that need to happen after that. Would you be able to buy the land at this point? Not at this point, no. Okay, so that's something you'd have to fundraise for. Yes, it would be if it became one of our projects. We would definitely try and get it done.

Yeah, and I think a very good idea, actually, over the years in the UK and stuff, I'd stayed at many youth hostels that were run by the International Youth Hostel Association, and you said that that would be a great thing for Salt Spring to have. It's one of Wagon Wheel's goals, is to have an international youth hostel so that the revenue produced there, and believe me, hostels make money, will go into local solutions for local housing for local people. I think that's just a fair way of doing it.

And in off-season, it can be used for temporary housing for locals as well. Right. And also, it would raise money that would continue to fund the rest of the project. The hostel in Tofino grosses almost half a million dollars every season. Wow. It's a no-brainer. Yeah. I mean, it was the number one tourist destination in BC.

Why don't we have a youth hostel here? Have we ever had one? Yes, we did on Cushion Lake for about 20, 25 years. And why did that shut down? It was private, and people just, they retired. Okay. Sold the place. Right. So that's another great possibility for Brackett Springs isn't it?

Yes it is. It could all be in one one little beautiful community project right there. Now there is a house there that that we were talking about the old Mowat house. Yeah. Which is has potential for being the sort of hub or maybe even the youth hostel. Even the youth hostel, yeah. Right. So, and I gather that after the conversation today, you're going to get together with some folks and have a look at that site and see whether it's... Yes, we're going to go take a look. I'm going to take a couple of experts down there in building and contracting and engineering,

and we're going to go through it and see if it's worth our time and our effort. Right. Now, if people want to help you, how do they do that? Where do they donate money to, or how do they contact you if they want to volunteer and that kind of thing? You can call me at Wagon Wheel Housing Society at 250-537-1027. And just start a conversation because I'm always open to input. And do you have an email? Everybody likes to use email these days. Yes, I do have an email this year.

Marie Cherie, Anne with an E, at gmail.com. So if you're interested in the bracket spring coming to fruition because that is a dream deferred for our community it would be a dream come true for us to be able to pull it off right now of course Christmas is coming and that's a tough time for everybody

who's not got a home or who's living on yes you can contribute to Copper Kettle. You can e-transfer. Copper Kettle SSI at outlook.com. Copper Kettle SSI at outlook.com. That's an e-transfer for Copper Kettle,

and we do have many sustaining supporters for Copper Kettle, but this time of year is always scary. Yeah what what kind of things are people facing would you say? Well the number one issue beside housing is food. That's the scariest part for us. Yeah. Because I know people who just don't eat every day. So to get money for the gift cards or whatever that kind of thing would be a big help wouldn't yeah copper kettle is just a community cash flow account dollar in dollar out there's no administration and well there is you know gas we pay for gas because we do do a lot but um there's there's no cost i mean there's no administration to it. We're all volunteers.

And how long have you been doing this kind of work on Salt Spring? I started my first community work when I became part of the team that brought I-Wave to our island and the transition house and the transition store. How long ago was that? Oh, almost three years ago now. And I was the first worker in that transition house. Wow. And I think you said actually at the beginning when we were talking about, you know, what gets you going, you said poetry, which is something you love to do, and also community work,

because when you get up in the morning, you say to yourself, you know, how can I help? How can I benefit the community today? Yeah. Because it's really, you have a basic choice in life. you say to yourself you know how can i help how can i benefit the community today yeah because it's really you have you have a basic choice in life either you're going to help or you're not so you know most people are on the helping side most of the time yeah i find but i've dedicated my life to this because it's so much fun yeah and you've obviously done a very good job at it too i'm not alone my partner of jewel 31 years we started copper kettle together and she's my conscience my guiding light great well thanks for coming in cherie it's the first time i've met you

it's been a pleasure and uh nice to meet you i hope you have some success with your projects well you know it's sometimes it's just about getting the ball rolling. Right. Because there's so many willing partners out there. They just don't know what to do. Yeah. Or how. Well, maybe we'll get the word out and some people will come out of the woodwork, hopefully.

That would be great because, you know, it's just waiting. It's just sitting there. It could be so beautiful. Yeah. Okay, you've been listening to Ask Salt Spring Answered with me, Damian Inwood. We are on CHIR FM, the voice of the Gulf Islands. Peace out.

Lovely. Thanks, Damian. Thank you very much. Okay.