Planning for the 2nd Annual Sandspit Winter Lights Festival is underway!

The theme for this year is “Christmas Trees.”

Stay tuned to our facebook page for schedule of events, including a craft fair, Santa parade, and visit with Santa in the social distanced sleigh!

We'll be doing a call out for volunteer work bees on November 14th, 21st, and 28th, so stay tuned to our facebook page for how you can help.

Contact Ellen at ellen@sandspitcommunitysociety.com if you're interested in helping out.

Our high hopes have paid off, and the new basket ball court is making big steps towards completion! Just some spring painting and grass sprouting then we'll be ready to go full on! 

Huge haawas to to Copper Bay Concrete for making such a fabulous court surface! Thanks as well to everyone who has been involved with supporting the project so far, including the SCS, SD50, ALM School, C.N.R Contracting, Atlantic Power, A&A Trading, Sandspit Recreation, and the Gwaii Trust.

Vancouver Island Regional Library is excited to announce a new in-person program happening at the Sandspit Branch!

Over the winter, the Sandspit Branch is hosting a Craft Night on Thursday evenings. If you’ve missed getting together with others during the pandemic, come down to the library at 6pm on Thursdays to work on your craft while enjoying the company of other makers. Please pre-register by emailing sp1@virl.bc.ca or calling 250-637-2247.

Details:

• Adult program.

• 6pm-7:30pm Thursday evenings.

• Masks required.

• Limit of 4 participants at a time. If more than 4 people register, a rotation will be established so everyone gets a chance to attend.

• Chairs provided. Participants will be spaced 2m apart around the main area of the library.

• Bring your own craft/hobby. This program is best suited to crafts that can be done without the use of a table. If your craft requires a table, please contact library staff to discuss options.

Please note: During the program, service will be limited to take-out if our occupancy limit is reached. This means you may not be able to enter the branch to browse between 6-7pm on Thursday evenings, but you can request assistance from staff while you wait outside.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause and we hope to have your support and understanding while we introduce programming back into our service offerings.

We look forward to hosting this weekly event and we hope to see you there!

November & December Hours

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday

9am - 1pm

Closed December 23 - January 1

Stay tuned to our facebook page for any changes, updates, new products, and specials!

Come check out the wonderful stock, including lots of work from local artisans and makers.

The cans and bottles recycling depot at the school has been operating for four years!

People may be wondering how it works and where the money goes from the recycling sales.

It began with Dennis Baran retiring and looking for volunteer work that helps kids.

The Charlotte bottle depot had recently closed and Dennis thought Sandspit could benefit with its own cans/bottles recycling depot. Dean at the store was graciously willing to send the cans and bottles off-island as long as the proceeds benefited kids. And indeed it has!

Dennis organizes various local students to sort every Saturday morning. They learn good work habits and get paid cash from the profits. After the students are paid for their work, the remaining money goes to the P.A.C. at the school to be used for student Outdoor Education and fitness activities.

So far, several thousand dollars has gone into the PAC account. More recently, some of the money has gone toward the Willow's Junior Golf program where it helped pay for some junior sized clubs and the Sandspit Youth Running Club to pay for club t-shirts.

Big thanks goes to all the students who sort and have sorted, Dean, Harvey and the others at Super-Valu for taking the cans every Saturday, and the town for dropping off and donating their cans and bottles. Thanks to Dennis for organizing the program and supervising the students and to Behn Cochrane for building a spiffy new cedar drop off box!

If you'd like to help more, please pre-sort into separate bags/boxes as follows:

- beer cans (any cans with alcohol)

- pop cans

- water bottle (lids off)

- wine bottles (lids off)

Lots of spooky fun was had carving pumpkins in the lead up to Halloween!

Big thanks to Mrs. Putterill for coordinating, to Sandspit Recreation for purchasing all of the pumpkins and pizza, to Kayla for making the delicious pizza, to Marlee and Supervalu for their help coordinating pumpkins, and to Joni for putting together the Halloween goodie bags!

Sandspit Recreation is always looking for volunteers to join our group!

If you have ideas for programs or have expertise in an area and would like to share or run a program please feel free to contact us.

We are dedicated to programs that get everyone moving and participating in this space, especially during the winter months.

Donations to pay first aiders and some instructors would also be gratefully received.

Most of our equipment is bought with the help of Gwaii Trust grants - If you wish to write a grant on behalf of Sandspit Recreation we would be more than happy to give you some info on how to go about it!