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Residents of Boston Flats gathered for community barbecue

A cheque for $10,000 was presented, the result of a fundraiser in Langley on August 17.
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Residents of Boston Flats receiving a cheque for $10,000, the result of a fundraiser in Langley on August 17. Photo by Barbara Roden.

A barbecue for Boston Flats residents on August 27 was a time for laughter, tears, updates, stories, and a very special presentation from the B.C. Country Music Association, which held a fundraiser for Boston Flats on August 17.

The barbecue was organized by Joyce Buckland, Phyllis Rainey, LeAnne Davies, and Helen Crookes, who have been assisting the more than 70 displaced Boston Flats residents since the Elephant Hill wildfire destroyed 45 of the 49 homes at the site on July 7.

“People were so spread out,” says Buckland, who—with her husband Fred doing grill duty—hosted the barbecue at their home in Ashcroft. “These were family and friends, wondering ‘Where did people go?’ We wanted to get that connection, so we rung up people who we knew were in the area.”

More than two dozen Boston Flats residents attended, along with representatives from the United Way and the Red Cross who Buckland and the others have been in contact with. “It was about supporting people, helping out, providing emotional support,” says Buckland. “We wanted people to know the support that’s out there for them.”

She adds that Joris Eckering, one of the organizers of the Boston Flats Relief Society, has been “amazing. He’s been picking up items from as far away as Green Lake at his own expense, and if we call him and say someone needs something, he delivers. We gave him a gas card, and an Eco-Card [for the landfill] because people are dropping off items that simply can’t be used, and he’s disposing of them.

“But people aren’t being fussy. They’re happy to get anything.”

Buckland says that last week she received a call from Linda Corscadden, president of the B.C. Country Music Association, saying that the organization had done a fundraiser for Boston Flats, and asking if there would be a couple of people available on August 27 for them to present a cheque to.

“I said ‘We can do better than that; we can give you lunch!’ We had already organized the barbecue for that day.”

Corscadden says that Todd Richard, one of their artists, had said that the organization “had to do something” to help out. On August 17, seven artists performed at a fundraising concert at Gabby’s Country Cabaret in Langley. Close to 300 people attended, and Corscadden says they would have had more people if capacity had allowed.

Corscadden and several others involved in the fundraising were at the barbecue, and Buckland says she was expecting a donation of $2,000 or so. There was applause, cheering, and a few tears when a cheque for $10,000 was presented, with another donation of $3,000 from the same fundraiser presented to 100 Mile Haulers, which has been instrumental in transporting affected livestock to safety during the wildfires.

“We just wanted to get people together,” says Buckland of the barbecue. “People are getting—not into a good space, necessarily, but into a better space.”