Countdown to the New Year!
The clock’s ticking to 2020 and the best New Year’s Eve party on Vancouver Island, right here in Youbou. Back by popular demand, Littlehead will be rocking Youbou Hall with dancing music all the way up to midnight and beyond. The doors open at 8 pm and the band starts at 9 pm. The same free intermission snack, soft drinks, decorations, and shuttle service will be in play to help you wring out the old and ring in the new! A few tickets will be available for $40 each at the door. Thanks to our ticket sellers: Cassy’s Coffeehouse, Daly’s Auto Centre, the Shop & Save, the Youbou Bar & Grill, Scarlet’s, the Visitor Centre in Lake Cowichan and YCA board members.
YCA General Annual Meeting
Once a year, the Youbou Community Association holds a general meeting for the election of board members, information sharing, and discussion. This year, our annual meeting is slated for Sunday, January 19 at 2 pm on the lower floor of the Youbou community hall. We hope you’ll come to hear our annual report and to discuss plans for 2020. We’ll have a survey available for members to share thoughts regarding events and initiatives. You’ll also hear the latest news from our Emergency Preparedness Task Force. In addition, we’ll be voting for board members for 2020. You must be a YCA member to run for the board and to vote. If you’re not already a member, we’ll have lifetime memberships available at the meeting for the remarkable rate of $10 per household.
Your Voice Counts
We’d love to hear what you’d like the Youbou Community Association to do in 2020. Let us know your thoughts by filling out an interest survey at our annual meeting on Sunday, January 19 at 2 pm. We’ll also be sending an electronic link to the survey to YCA members and posting the link on facebook.
Post-Holiday Bottle Drive
The Youbou Community Church Association will be holding its annual bottle drive on Saturday, January 11 at the Youbou fire-hall from 10 am to 2 pm. If you need a bag to pre-sort your pop cans/beer cans/water or other bottles or if you have items to be picked up, please contact Deb Whittingham at 250-732-5840.
Fair Fun
Smart shoppers packed Youbou hall for the annual Christmas Craft Fair on November 30. With 50 tables brimming with crafts and baked treats, it took some time to browse upstairs and downstairs. Even so, most found a moment to sit down and catch up with neighbours over a cup of coffee or bowl of soup from the Youbou Community Association’s concession. Thanks to all the vendors, YCA concession workers, the CVRD, and shoppers who came to support the event.
Youbou Shines Brightly
Congratulations to the Youbou winners in the Cowichan Lake District Chamber of Commerce’s holiday decorating contest. Cassy’s Coffee House won first place in the business category for its outdoor lighting display, and the Jones’s won a Special Mention for their amazing holiday village inside the coffee shop. We hope everyone had a chance to stop by for coffee and tour the village. In the home holiday decorating category, Eva and Garry Fearon won third place for their eye-catching display. Now that’s the spirit!!!
The Joy of Giving
Thanks to your generosity, the Youbou Community Association was again able to support Cowichan Lake Community Services efforts to help our neighbours in need. The YCA was delighted to donate $500 to the Holiday Hamper Project and several board members spent a day compiling the hampers.
Little League Playground Update
Many of you have been questioning the closure of the playground facilities at the Youbou Little League Park. The Youbou Community Association has written a letter of concern and inquiry to the CVRD on the matter. The CVRD has sent the following:
“Youbou Little League Park remains open; however, access to the playground remains closed and fenced for safety reasons, pending removal in early 2020. To better comprehend the current use as well as the desire of the community to reinvest in the same type of play equipment or something different, the CVRD will be engaging with the community by the following means:
- Surveys will be mailed out directly to neighbours of Youbou Little League Park.
- A notice will be posted in the park with information on how to access a survey and provide input.
- A notice will be posted on the CVRD website with links to the survey on line and PlaceSpeak.
- An online survey has been developed through PlaceSpeak at www.placespeak.com/ YoubouLittleLeague/.
Town
Hall Meeting
To further discussion on the playground equipment
issue, the CVRD will hold a community meeting on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 from
7 to 9 pm in the Lower Youbou Hall. Input from the community will be
collected for review in January 2020 to inform decisions regarding playground
equipment replacement. Once the 2020 CVRD Budget is approved by the Board, with
funds for playground replacement, a timeline for the replacement of the
playground at Youbou Little League Park will be prepared and shared with the
community. In the interim, questions or comments concerning the park can be
directed to Graham Gidden, Parks & Trails Planner with the Cowichan Valley
Regional District, at: Graham.Gidden@cvrd.bc.ca or 250-746-2639.
More Hall News
The heart of
our community, Youbou hall, continues to get some much-needed attention. Last
month, we reported on the painting of the lower hall interior. This month,
we’ve refurbished the former playroom. As we move forward with plans for a
community welcoming shelter for distressed residents during a disaster, the
playschool area will serve as an interim relief centre and meeting area for the
Youbou Emergency Task Force and Youbou Community Association. Several
volunteers met with CVRD staff members in early December to clear, organize,
and clean the playroom area, while carefully preserving some of the historical
items in the room.
Youbou Emergency Support Services (YESS): The Shelter
Our objective is that the Youbou Emergency Shelter would be a short-term emergency shelter that operates when precipitation, wind chill, and/or temperatures become dangerously inclement or another situation arises that requires a significant number of residents to seek communal shelter until further help can arrive. The paramount purpose is the prevention of injury to any community member from exposure to the elements.
The YESS Task Force arose out of requests made by concerned residents after the multi-day power outage and road blockage experienced in December 2018. Too many Youbou residents were without heat, light, and the means to cook food. With the backing of the community association, and the support of the CVRD, we plan to provide a better response, should a similar disaster strike in the future.
When Disaster Strikes…
(1) Shelter in Place: Preparing your household in advance of an emergency is your family’s best chance of surviving a disaster. YES will help by hosting emergency preparedness seminars, open to all, where you can learn what multiple days or weeks of no power or municipal service looks like and how you can prepare for it.
(2) Check on your neighbor: You might save your neighbour’s life or they might save your life. Just reach out and say hello. It’s that easy. “Response-able” neighbours can make all the difference to someone in need during a time of crisis.
(3) Get to YESS: To get help, to get something to eat or drink, to share information, to charge your devices and check your emails or texts, to find out if you can volunteer and help others…or to just be in a safe place where you can stay warm and be around other people.
Santa’s Youbou Visit
Children waiting patiently for jolly St. Nick were greeted with an early visit. The weekend before Christmas, the jolly old elf hitched a ride on one of our Youbou fire trucks for a tour through town. He was just doing a final check of his naughty/nice list before his big Christmas Eve trip. We’re happy to report that all of the children in Youbou made the nice list with flying colours!
What’s Happening
December 31: New Year’s Eve party, 8 pm
January 11: Church Society bottle drive, 10 am
January 19: YCA General Annual Meeting, 2 pm
January 29: Town Hall Meeting, 7 pm
Ongoing
Church: Sunday: 10 am Coffee and social, 11 am service. The last Sunday of every month is a potluck lunch gathering after the 11 am service.
Pickleball at Youbou hall: foul-weather Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings.
Bowling:
Tuesday nights: Men’s League (Jan 7 to Mar 24)
Thursday nights: Women’s league (Jan 16 to Mar 26)
Sunday nights: Mixed League (Jan 5 to Mar 29)
Friday nights: Family bowling; Saturday nights: Adult bowling
Loonie nights: Jan 10, Feb 7, Mar 6, April 3, May 1, June 5
Toonie night: Jan 18, Feb 15, Mar 21, April 18, May 16, June 20
Got News?
If you’d like to contribute news for the newsletter about a public event happening in or around Youbou, please send particulars about date, time and place to julia@raedwulf.org. You can also check our web site at youbouyca.com and our facebook page for the latest information.
Your YCA Board
Chair: Julia Martinusen
Co-Chair: Lori LaFave
Secretary: Randall Wilson
Treasurer: Spencer Day
Social: Eva Fearon, Garry Fearon
Publicity: Allan Gott