On Sunday Oct. 9 the Bowen Community Foundation will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly created Garden Gateway and will simultaneously launch its annual giving campaign, For Bowen, For Ever.
The Foundation is particularly proud of what the team of talented and socially committed Bowen Islanders have produced at the entrance to Snug Cove.
Nestled up against the new Union Steamships Company building adjacent to the ferry dock, the Garden Gateway reflects, in the words of its creators, “a pride in Bowen’s natural beauty and history.”
Project lead and key driver of the initiative, Holly Graff (winner of the the British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects 2015 BCSLA Community Service Award), architect James Tuer, garden designer Wynn Nielsen and stonemason and landscaper Andy Rainsley have led a team that has created a small stretch of natural beauty on municipal land, leveraging more than half of the cost of the project through gifts and in-kind contributions.
In particular, without Andy Rainsley, Scotty and their crew from Bowenshire Landscaping, the garden would not be anything resembling the beautiful natural stone rockery that it is. Theirs was a huge community contribution of landscape expertise, craftsmanship and machine time. Bowen is a better place because of them!
Please join us at 2 p.m. on Oct. 9 to celebrate the success of this initiative and to begin thinking about how you and others, working with the Bowen Community Foundation, can contribute to further projects, making our island more welcoming, more aligned with the natural environment, and more sustainable.
Our Foundation’s mantra (For Bowen, For Ever) can be seen in the Garden Gateway, aptly described by Holly Graff as reflecting the Bowen Island Community Foundation’s “priorities of civic pride, community gathering places, and engagement.”