Village Vibe
news and views from the heart of Fernwood
www.fernwoodneighbourhood.ca
march 2006
Coast Capital Savings Cornerstone Saturdays
by Lisa Helps Shovels swinging and crowbars prying, staff from Coast Capital Savings Credit Union spent January 28th and February 18th at the Cornerstone. Although the building may appear mostly the same on the outside as it did when the FCCS (soon to be Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group – Fernwood NRG) took possession last August, the changes inside are immense. The past few months have been hopping and preparations are almost complete for the contractors to begin building the affordable housing units upstairs. The team of volunteers from Coast Capital Savings has been a large part of this effort.
Disregarding the almost-warm February sun beaming down outside on Saturday February 18th, eight Coast Capital staff spent the day inside shoveling insulation, prying up plywood to reveal the beautiful fir floors beneath, and pulling countless nails. When I asked Belinda Robinson what possibly possessed her to spend such a beautiful day inside maskclad and shoveling insulation, her answer reminded me of one of one the reasons that I myself love living, working, and volunteering in Fernwood. "I came out to help because I feel it's important to give back to the community. You never know when you're going to be in a position that you yourself need help. Volunteering to me is a way of life." When Fernwood NRG bought the Cornerstone building last August, we knew the challenges would be immense. How to convert a boarded up old heritage building into the beating heart of the village core? How to convince funders, commercial tenants, potential lenders, and so on that a small neighbourhood non-profit society could take on such a project? Now, seven months later, we are just about to have a contractor
descend on the building, which has been lovingly emptied out, 30ton dumpster by 30-ton dumpste. At this point, we realize that we’ve met this challenge largely with the help of neighbourhood residents and volunteers who have come out to work parties, who have donated masks, gloves, dumpsters, sandwiches, time, and money. We share the sentiments of Belinda who commented on what the Coast Capital volunteers had accomplished in just one day, "It felt good to see what a difference was made with all those hands helping." Expect to see big changes in the building over the next few months. Look for the grand opening of the Cornerstone Coffee Co. sometime in April or May. And, after neighbourhood residents are javahappy, the next milestone on the horizon is the occupation of the four market-based affordable