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.
Milling logs, mixing cement, transporting steel
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.
Volunteer labour
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.
It’s all donations, no taxpayer dollars
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.
A template for future projects
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: