November 15

Nine joined this ASK Salt Spring gathering to welcome Cherie Geauvreau, the heart and soul of the Copper Kettle/Wagon Wheel team. After offering a loving Penelakut greeting as our Territorial Acknowledgement, we began learning about the work of the Copper Kettle/Wagon Wheel Housing Society (https://saltspringexchange.com/2016/07/19/copper-kettle-cooks-for-a-community-cause/). 

When asked what “excited and delighted” her, Cherie did not pause: writing poetry gives her great joy, proud of the poetry book she published (https://abcbookworld.com/writer/geauvreau-cheri/). Also “excited and delighted” by connecting Salt Springers, she and her team have been serving those in need for nearly a quarter of a century. Since 2002 when Copper Kettle Community Partnership was established, Cherie and her hardworking team have been connecting those who are isolated and feeding those in need, one victory at a time, year after year. 

The Copper Kettle began as the result of tough times Cherie and her partner experienced, moving nine times in the short space of three years. In that traumatic process, she saw the underbelly of Salt Spring suffering first hand. Determined that others would not experience the desperation of isolation, housing insecurity, and need, this long-lived grassroots organisation was born. 

As an organic, ever-changing group, Copper Kettle has adapted to current situations, once offering tents and sleeping bags to those living rough, now pleased that another organisation has taken on this large and complicated task. While programs change as needed, core Copper Kettle programs are wide-ranging and can consist of: 

• Eye and exams dental exams for those in need, 
• Free delivery of wood from the Copper Kettle Wood Pile to help keep folks warm,
• Country Grocer gifts cards to help feed folks, 
• Stand and Deliver food program, and
• Free produce from the Copper Kettle Community Garden. 

Dependent upon donations and grants, funding is constantly fluctuating. Despite these fluctuations, the Country Grocer’s Save-a-Tape Program offers a dependable, continuous source of funding. Receiving 1% of the total of all the receipts you and others put in the Copper Kettle and Wagon Wheel boxes, these organizations net up to $700-800 dollars a month to sustain their programs. Folks, that is a whole lot of receipts: $700 dollars to Copper Kettle requires $70,000 dollars of your shopping receipts. Please keep placing your receipts in boxes #31 (Copper Kettle) and #41 (Laundromat) to keep this important source of funding coming!

For nearly 20 years, hardworking Copper Kettle volunteers have been farming a donated half acre of land, producing plentiful produce given to those in need. Unable to continue this labour-intensive farming, Cherie and her team are hopeful that the Farmland Trust will take over this important farming initiative.

In addition to all of these important programs, in 2016, Copper Kettle volunteers began offering a series of well-attended workshops on the affordable housing crisis that loomed on Salt Spring. By 2017, its partner organisation, the Wagon Wheel Housing Society (WWHS), was incorporated to address the housing needs of those who were suffering. Based upon a simple housing community with a central communal hub circled by small homes, the spokes of the wheel, this plan was first implemented in Eugene Oregon to house veterans in need. Using inexpensive, secure, warm, and private huts located in the parking lot of a local church, this simple effective idea of housing spread rapidly. 

Wagon Wheel (WWHS) had soon built two Conestoga-style huts to offer safe, warm, dry accommodation for a total cost of $5,000 each. Still owning these two Conestoga huts, finding the land for them has so far stymied the Wagon Wheel folks. Pursuing some opportunities for land, Cherie’s favourite option is the 7.8 acre parcel on 584 Rainbow Road, currently for sale. 

This former Land Bank property, still known as Brackett Springs, is being sold by Vancity. Once zoned for 10 affordable homes, the affordable housing zoning agreement on this property was removed after it was determined that the agreement was both unclear as well as too restrictive. While Vancity is committed to selling this land to someone who will build affordable housing, it is understood that neither this legal protection (nor the needed zoning) currently exists. 

Vancity needs to find a buyer for this long-unused property. A troubled property in the eyes of many locals, it is littered with what appears to be junk; it is the site of number of homes, many of which may have been rendered unusable by exposure and years of neglect, its two wells require work as arsenic is present; it has riparian issues; and it needs a septic system. Many potential local buyers have passed on this opportunity. 

Despite the challenges, Cherie sees an amazing potential. She is eager to reclaim this troubled property for affordable housing, seeing it as a multi-step process. Were Wagon Wheel (WWHS) to acquire this property, Cherie envisions the first step (after hauling away the trash) would be to focus attention on the large Mouat house that had been moved there from the Rainbow Pool site some years ago. She sees this as the perfect location – near enough to Ganges yet rural – for a hostel, part of the Hostelling International (HI) (https://hihostels.com/) lucrative network of hostels throughout the world. 

While HI will not help with the funding needed to acquire and renovate, as part of this organisation, the marketing benefits would be significant. While many would agree that Salt Spring needs a hostel, Cherie’s interests are very specific: She and HI estimate that this Salt Spring hostel would make an estimated $500,000 a year. . . .the perfect revenue to fund affordable housing on the remainder of this multi-acre site. 

Despite clear challenges, participants were intrigued. Two ASK Salt Spring participants who have spent their professional lives renovating homes promised to tour the site with Cherie. The rest of us asked whether we could join this tour, simply curious to see if this long-unused property could be rescued. Stay tuned. . . . .

While finding the land needed for the Wagon Wheel housing concept has long been the major focus of this society, addressing Salt Spring’s desperate need for a laundromat has taken much of the energy of the tenacious Wagon Wheel volunteers. It may be hard for those of us with a home and laundry facilities to understand the hardship created when a community offers nowhere for one to clean clothes nor shower. Imagine doing ones wash in a bucket; what about washing oneself and clothes in a lake – a pretty dismal prospect during our wet, often gloomy winters. Can you imagine being forced to take your laundry off-Island, an expensive and time-consuming endeavour?

It took three and a half years for Wagon Wheel volunteers to find a location, renovate the site, and raise funds for equipment, but, on June 1, 2021, volunteers celebrated a joyful opening of Salt Spring’s long-awaited laundromat (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ssi-laundromat-opens-1.6054135). 

An instant success, Cherie sees it as Salt Spring’s most successful social enterprise: It is loved by tourists, lauded as clean and bright, and offers not only clean clothes and showers but also that invaluable sense of community. Local churches have stepped up to offer those in need 50% off services and all can refill their containers with biodegradable soap products (https://www.ssilaundromat.com/). 

Already self-supporting, the only financial cloud is the $200,000 debt still carried for the machines. Anyone have an extra $200,000 so that Wagon Wheel can proceed with their good work debt-free? 

As our time together was coming to an end, two participants discussed an unhomed family member who has continually fallen through Salt Spring support cracks, too needy for some housing and not needy enough for other options. Continuously seeking a solution, these participants left with some possible leads to contact but also the understanding that their journey is a difficult one. 

We also spoke briefly about our Liveaboard community. Did you know that Copper Kettle delivers free firewood to Liveaboards needing fuel? Could there be a boat-based Wagon Wheel community? Could some Liveaboards move into the marinas during the rough weather when tourists have left and slips lay empty? Lots of questions; few answers, yet. . . . 

Donations are sorely needed this time of year to help Copper Kettle do its great work. A bit extra you can share? Donations are gratefully accepted at: copperkettlessi@outlook.com. 

And. . . .ASK Salt Spring is also having a celebration Friday, December 13, 11-1, in the SIMS classroom. For the first time in its five yers of weekly gatherings, we are accepting donations. All will go to those in need. Come join this celebration and bring something earmarked for Copper Kettle to help them continue their good work. 

As our time together was over, we thanked Cherie, a Salt Spring heroine tirelessly helping all who ask, unflagging in her commitment to address that hidden Salt Spring suffering, one person at a time, year after year. (Thank-you, Cherie!)

While we stored chairs, Cherie joined Damian to be interviewed for our soon-to-be-live local radio station, CHiR.fm. Listen to her interview as well as those of many other ASK Salt Spring guests at ASK Salt Spring Answered: https://chir.fm/answered.

Just in case you are interested. . . .This report has been written by Gayle Baker, founder of ASK Salt Spring, currently also a Salt Spring Local Community Commissioner. This report has also been edited by this week’s special guest, Cherie, and her team.