Gabriola Health Care Society 2006 Tax Creditable Donations
Gabriola Health Care Society 2006 Tax Creditable Donations
Gabriola Sounder, Monday, December 18 2006
We intended to provide this information at our Town Hall meeting last month, but unfortunately weather forced the postponement of that to January 7, 2007, 2:00 PM, at the Community Hall.
If in the meantime, if you wish to make a contribution to the Society and obtain a credit against your 2006 Income Tax, please prepare a cheque payable to the Nanaimo & District Hospital Foundation, put "Gabriola Health Care Society" on the memo line or on the back of the cheque, and mail it to 1200 Dufferin Crescent, Nanaimo, BC V9S 2B7 before 2007. To obtain a receipt please include your name and address, and ensure that the contribution is for at least $20.00.
Non-tax creditable donations may be made by sending a cheque payable to the Gabriola Health Care Society to PO Box 269, Gabriola, V0R 1X0, or by making a deposit to the Society's account at the Gabriola branch of the Coastal Community Credit Union.
For further information, please see our WEB site at www.ghcs.ca.
Ingrid's lights, even more hopeful this year
Ingrid's lights, even more hopeful this year
By Bruce Mason, Gabriola Sounder, Monday, December 18 2006
Ingrid Versteeg has added about six thousand lights to her magnificent and very popular outdoor display - the Lights of Hope Festival - this year, bringing the total to more than 36,000.
Eighty per cent of the display is put up every year and she was finished that monumental task by Halloween. However, she has had to do her rounds through wind, rain, snow and deer, ever since.
She began her annual tradition back in Ontario to celebrate and show gratitude for another year of life after surviving cancer. And last year her husband Francisco Asimbaya also beat the disease.
2006 has brought another good reason to share her must-see Lights of Hope Festival: the plans of the Gabriola Health Care Society.
She will be accepting donations for the GHCS from folks on Boxing Day from 4 to 8 pm. And she agreed to turn her lights on again on December 30th, when society volunteers will be there to hand out information and answer questions.
A family illness requires her to be in Ontario just before Christmas, so her festival will be somewhat shorter this year. Like other Gabriolans she didn't have to be told twice that the island needs improved healthcare.
"My sister is a physician in Ontario and I know first-hand about the tremendous commitment and stress of doctors on-call," she explained. "And earlier this year a visitor here had a terrible allergic reaction to a wasp sting. We were lucky that it became severe during the day when we could get to hospital in Nanaimo."
This is the fifth year that she has staged her Lights of Hope Festival on Gabriola. The first year she contacted BC Hydro and requested an additional 200 amp service. "Not enough acreage," she was told.
"What about the danger of fire? I've got 20,000 lights," she responded. "Lady, no one has that many lights," she was told by an employee who smelled a marijuana grow-op.
Impressed when seeing her light collection for itself, BC Hydro recanted. Poles were installed and trees limbed. Francisco built an impressive storage area with an extra panel for the far-flung areas in the forest where lights hang high in the trees.
Three years ago she began inviting the public and two years ago when the Sounder put her on the front page, at least 1,000 folks showed up, donating $2,400 as they marveled at the wonders that await behind an unforgettable rambling driftwood fence, up the brightly-lit driveway, running through shrubs and salal, waving in the wind in cedar and fir trees, glistening from an arbour that welcomes the visitor over a bridge, past a fence that Francisco put together from unwanted skis at GIRO, to a warm fire and welcome in a gazebo with a rooster on top.
She has a ladder with a six foot platform which helps, but the poles that Francisco made for her are still essential, in the high spots. She makes drawings and plans from year to year, of places where she wants more lights.
"The wind is still my worst enemy; deer can create havoc near the ground and delivery trucks sometimes take out a few branches, along with some lights.
"I have invested more than $10,000 by now, and always have spare strings," Versteeg continued. "I buy most of the lights on sale just after Christmas.
"It's magical, almost like fireworks," she told the Sounder, when asked. "Why bother?" "I want people to enjoy my artistic creation, to lift their spirits, see the look on their faces and hear them say that it is wonderful that something like this exists on Gabriola.
"Donations also motivate me and this year I hope we set a record for our healthcare society," she concluded.
Don't miss the Lights of Hope Festival, from 4 to 8 pm, on December 26th and 30th, at 245 Ardry Road (continue up Norwich Road hill from Berry Point Road, turn right at Clarendon Road, and park on Ardry).
And please leave your dog at home, or in the car.
Ingrid is also hosting the elderly and those who can't walk up the driveway on December 20th. Call ahead at 247-0115 on that day.
Bring the kids, visitors and neighbours and don't forget cash for a donation.
If in the meantime, if you want to contribute to GHCS and obtain a credit against your 2006 Income Tax, make out a cheque to the Nanaimo & District Hospital Foundation, put "Gabriola Health Care Society" on the memo line or on the back and mail it to 1200 Dufferin Crescent, Nanaimo, BC, V9S 2B7, before 2007.
To obtain a receipt please include your name and address, and ensure that the contribution is for at least $20.
Non-tax credit donations may be made by sending a cheque payable to the Gabriola Health Care Society to PO Box 269, Gabriola, V0R 1X0, or by making a deposit to the society's account at the Coastal Community Credit Union.
For further information, see the website: www.ghcs.ca. The E-mail address is: information@ghcs.ca.