Write to Read BC withdrew its interest in receiving a building from the Municipality of Oak Bay, due to hidden costs. Our construction response team immediately identified a better financial option.
Instead, the Young Professionals of Nanaimo have decided that, for the Snunymuxw library, they will build the same solution we used for the Xeni Gwet’in library. They have already raised $25,000 towards building and met with Write to Read BC’s architect, Scott Kemp, about the design.
This BC community worked very hard to build their school, but unfortunately did not have funding for a library. Write to Read BC will visit the Stz’uminus school and meet with the principal, Tim Harris, and see what we can do.
Plans for a Xeni Gwet’in library are on track. This is our very first Version 4 library—one that will be built on site, rather than premade and shipped in. The library’s opening date depends on how the design and building proceed, and on funding for that to happen.
Before we can ask the Jack Gin Foundation to support it, our construction response team will need to determine exactly how much this library will cost to build.
Located on Stuart Lake near Fort Saint James the Principal of the Community School Eric Di Nozi contacted Write to Read BC for assistance to regenerate their school library and make it into a community library.
Write to Read BC visited the community in November 2015 to discuss partnership and proejct possibilities. We agreed Write to Read BC will provide shelves and books. Our library response team is putting together books, and shelving will have to be made by Nanaimo Correctional Centre.
Two Rotary clubs will be involved. One will collect the books and computer hardware. The other will deliver the shelving and assist in putting the library together. We anticipate doing this during the summer, an optimal time for travelling to the community.
Write to Read BC representatives met the owner of Windsor Plywood for Vancouver Island, who agreed to supply Write to Read BC with the plywood we were looking for at cost.
The plywood and other materials will become bookshelves that Nanaimo Correctional Centre will build for Write to Read BC projects.
Also, the owner, Randal Jones, donated $20,000 to Write to Read BC toward library construction costs.
This small, BC community is in the process of designing and building a new pre-school with the help of Scott Kemp, who is also our Write to Read BC architect.
The community is adding to the building design a portion that will serve as a community library. This project is a partnership with Write to Read BC.
Quatsino is located northwest of Port Hardy, on the BC coast.
Progress for the Write to Read BC project in Wuikinuxv, or Oweekeno, Rivers Inlet, has been encouraging. In fact, volunteers and project partners have already made several visits, to contribute their work to this partnership.
Write to Read BC’s design response team made two trips to Oweekeno—including Christoph Neufeld from Britco Structures (Now Boxx Modular) and the project’s architect Scott Kemp. The meetings and brainstorming with the Oweekeno team developed a vision for a building that we now call the Child of the Big House. This resulted in plans for the building, and a supplies list of required materials, which were handed off to the construction response team.
Write to Read BC’s construction response team will project-manage the 24×34 m building, its pad of steel-reinforced concrete, and dozens of massive wood posts and beams.
The amount of cement required for a pad that’s 15 cm thick is daunting, so the team wanted to use a cement batch plant that would make the cement in a quarter of the time of small mixers. The community went on a search to find such a plant. As with everything on this project, we were able to find a supplier, and a company is willing to contribute. Otherwise, the cost would have been prohibitive for this particular machine.
Finding a way to ship the cement and reinforced steel bars is still on the team’s to-do list.
Western Forest Products and Interfor Corporation are donating the logs to the community. The community in turn will be milling the lumber to the specifications provided by Kemp, the project’s architect. To hold up the roof, the design requires two beams, each 34 m in length and 1.2 m wide. The community and two lumber companies are looking for two trees now, and are confident they can find them. The community’s team lead said, “If we do, the Creator again is working with us.” The community also needs 6 posts of 1.2 m wide, and 16 posts 90 cm wide.
The team is also speaking with Seaspan in North Vancouver, to find the right type of barge to unload a 13 m prefabricated Britco building on the beach at Oweekeno.
Write to Read BC members approached Richmond Firefighters and left them with plans of the building. As volunteers they are very eager to help with construction, but because of summer leave cannot start until September.
With a batch plant for the foundations and cement pad arranged, scheduling the firefighters will be easier, and the pad is expected to be finished before the end of September, with building construction well underway.
Lions Gate Rotary Club of North Vancouver has taken the lead on fundraising for this Write to Read BC project.
The project uses no public funds and has no administration costs. Every dollar donated has gone straight into the purchase of materials. The success of the project is that urban companies and groups in BC towns and cities are partnering with isolated, Indigenous communities via Internet. They’re bridging the geographical and cultural gap simply through mutual kindness and trust.
“So far, I think the value of donations of time and materials is about $458,000,” said Write to Read BC’s co-lead Bob Blacker, adding: “We are developing a team of great volunteers here, and all the donors have been very generous.” Blacker arranged all of this with the help of a long and growing list of donors.
The value of the logs provided by Western Forest and Interfor is $65,000. Additional funding was made possible by Vancouver Coastal Health, a partner on this project. They provided a way for the project to apply for $25,000 toward construction.
“The key to getting this project done is that it is all community based,” says project architect Kemp, in this video:
“We are not joining the government queue and waiting for handouts. We are simply going out and doing it ourselves, and it’s been a huge success,” said Kemp.
This by far is the largest project Write to Read BC and a Rotary Club have ever done. Logistically, it has been a huge challenge but the construction response team is managing its way through. Meanwhile, the library response team—which will install the bookshelves and books, technology, and furniture, and which will provide training in library management—is preparing for the last stage.
This project may serve as a template for future projects in other isolated communities across BC. It’s also an opportunity for Oweekeno community to tell the world about itself, says Write to Read BC’s Kemp:
Write to Read BC’s co-lead Bob Blacker reports that the BC Correctional Service, through two of its facilities on Vancouver Island, have agreed to build furniture for Write to Read BC libraries.
First Nations inmates will build bookshelves, computer stations, coffee tables, and any custom work that may be required for libraries that Write to Read BC installs in isolated, Indigenous communities across BC.
Not only will libraries have a choice of shelving types, the shelving can be custom fitted for each library space.
With the help of Windsor Plywood, Write to Read BC will arrange for the required materials. The Correctional Facilities will build the furniture. Another positive aspect of the agreement is that First Nation inmates will be able to help build the furniture, certainly a win/win for all involved.
Old Massett band members talked about their concept of an Aboriginal library with Write to Read BC team members, recently. They were joined by Beng Leng Favreau of Literacy Haida Gwaii, and Christoph Neufeld from Britco Structures (now Boxx Modular).
Britco is providing modular buildings to house a number of Write to Read BC libraries.
The partnership now needs to find a Rotary Club to adopt this community fundraising project, so work can begin.
The community is very excited that we are preparing to do that. A visit to the community by Steven Point, the governor-general of BC, has also raised interest.
Metlakatla, just north of Prince Rupert, recently welcomed a small, portable library. The entire building was placed on a trailer and then transported from BC’s Lower Mainland by ferry, to serve Metlakatla.
The library is a compact, 10 m² studio with built-in shelving. It has cedar rainscreen cladding, R20 insulation, tilt-and-turn windows, and high-efficiency LED lighting. The library was donated by Western Camera Building president John MacFarlane. Western Camera is known for constructing tiny buildings for use as offices, storage facilities, and—in this case—as a library.
Based on the National Building Code for above-ground walls, insulation rated R20 exceeds both the “Good” and “Better” standards for above-ground walls in all zones across BC.
The library, which the community nicknamed Hobbit House, made the overwater portion of the trip by ferry, a service that BC Ferries provided for free.
