Earth Hour – a HUGE success!

On March 29, 2008 as 8:00 pm approached, we were busy ensuring all the lights were off in the home so that we could participate, with the millions of other people around the world, in turning off our lights in support of Earth Hour.

On Gabriola we have been accustomed to the occasional power outage, so are well equipped when there are no lights on… That, and the fact that the island does not have any street lights. Candlelight, good company, beautiful star lit skies – what more could one ask for!

BC Hydro calculated that by turning off the lights from 8 to 9 p.m., British Columbians saved 125 megawatts of electricity during Earth Hour, the same as switching off 2.5 million lights.

It was so easy to do that we are looking at ways of incorporating earth hour, into our daily lives!

The Scavenger Hunt…

Today we held our Fire Departments, first Scavenger Hunt. What a great way to spend such a beautiful day trying to find obscure items, sliding down a slide (with an audience), & there were even points for having a coffee, upstairs in Artworks. Since we helped organize it, we spent our time at the coffee check in point, attempting to slow the teams down to chat as they came in. The event all ended back at the hall, where we tallied everyone’s amazing finds, and I think most of the participants found out something they hadn’t known about the island before, ie. the address of the “golf ball” home, the hours of the Museum, how far it is from the Hall to Peterson Road, and what is on the plaque at the end of Berry Point.

The kids who participated did an amazing job on coloring in fire trucks, as did some of the older kids as well. The event finished off with the flying of the paper airplanes that were created on route, we were amazed how many of them crossed the 20 feet “fire” line that we put out. Just another day of island life!