A British historical society dedicated a memorial last month to six RCAF airmen - including one whose family lived in Port Coquitlam - who lost their lives in a freak accident in 1944.
The Roade Local History Society and hundreds of villagers paid tribute on Nov. 9 to the Canadian servicemen including Sgt. Allan Hustead MacKimmie, an air gunner who was killed by lightening while aboard a plane over the English village.
PoCo is the place where the federal government recognizes as MacKimmie's hometown because of its ongoing correspondence with his parents, who moved to the city a year after his death. The story about MacKimmie was featured in The Tri-City News in May.
20 years
The Children of the Street Society has a new board of directors.
At its AGM last month at Coquitlam's Place des Arts, the non-profit group saw the return of members Kristal Low as president, Stacey Lambert as vice president, Sarah Harris as treasurer, and directors Jo-Ann Carter, Oscar Ramos and Stephanie Franco.
New to the board are Leanne Atkinson and Trevor Ritchie.
"When I started Children of the Street Society almost 20 years ago, I could never have dreamt of the success we would have at reaching children and youth through our school-based prevention workshops and services," said executive director Diane Sowden, a Coquitlam school trustee, in a press release. "Of course, 20 years ago, the internet wasn't what it is today and now our kids face a whole new set of challenges."
BEAN COUNTERS
A total of 29 chartered accountant students from the Tri-Cities passed their national Uniform Evaluation exam this fall.
The test, which was written over three days in September, was aced by: Kelsey Binns, Denise Chan, Shannon Chan, Anita Chang, Martin Cheung, Anthony Elliott, Brett Harrison, Chia-Hsing Huang, Miao Kang, Seon Kook Kim, Elida Kong, Joshua Kwong, Rachael Lee, Stephanie Medeiros, Jared Megyesi, Marc Mueller, Devon Ohlhauser, Asiyya Pisani, Nabeel Remtulla, Chrystal Santos, Derrick Schoeffel, Sean Stapleton, Wei Sun, Olga Tkachenko, Samir Virani, Luke Vitek, Bob Wang, Alireza Zarei and Yang Zhao.
CP+RCH
A company that has roots in Port Coquitlam chugged in $90,000 last month to the Royal Columbian Hospital, which serves the Tri-Cities.
CP Rail donated the money for cardiac care at the institution - $10,000 for every touchdown scored during the 102nd Grey Cup in Vancouver on Sunday. "The work being done at Royal Columbian, including four open-heart surgeries a day, is truly lifesaving," said Mark Wallace, CP's vice president of corporate affairs, in a news release.
BLESS THIS HOUSE
Members of the Pacific Grace MB Church took part in a blessed house dedication ceremony last month for their new $2.5-million church in Port Moody.
About 250 people turned out for the special event, led by interim lead pastor Rev. Tom Cheung.
The church is located at 2622 St. Johns St. and involved the relocation of a 100-year-old bungalow called the Moisio House to the corner of Clarke Street and Barnet Highway.
GREENTHUMB $
VanCity has pledged $250 a year to the Burquitlam Community Organic Gardens Society new bursary fund.
The Coquitlam non-profit group will match the annual cash for a student in the field of agriculture or horticulture, said president Humera Ahsanullah.
FOR THE KIDS
A total of 120 students between the ages of six and 12 were part of the inaugural Tri-Cities' Kids Conference at Pinetree community centre in Coquitlam last month.
Organized by the Tri-Cities Early Childhood Development and Middle Childhood Matters committees, the event focused on child rights as well as fairness, inclusion, respect, acceptance, respect for diversity, cooperation and responsibility as based on the Equitas International Play It Fair! curriculum, said spokesperson Angelo Lam.
WOOF WOOF
Pet photos with Santa - snapped at the Austin Animal Hospital last month - clawed in nearly $500 for the Coquitlam Animal Shelter.
Spokesperson Patricia Briggs said staff (and Santa) volunteered for the event and non-perishable food donations were also passed on to the Share food bank.
TIMMY JR.
Coquitlam's Roshni Kashya will be a junior host of the Timmy's Christmas Telethon on Sunday.
The telethon, which will be broadcasted on Shaw TV, helps fund Easter Seals such as Easter Seals camps and the Easter Seals House in Vancouver.
Kahya, 21, is taking a leaders in training course and has attended the Easter Seals camp for several years. She recently completed a VCC culinary class.
BOKS
Students at Coquitlam's Ranch Park elementary are getting early morning exercise at their school Tuesdays and Fridays, thanks to the Build Our Kids' Success program.
BOKS provides small grants for equipment - such as cones, balls and hula hoops - and a plan to help teachers get students fit. Last month, BC Lions linebacker Adam Bighill helped kick off the program with principal Donald Hutchinson and BOKS founder and executive director Kathleen Tullie.
