Marilyn: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Rockin Rhonda & The Uptown Blues Band: Here comes Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Peter McCully: Welcome to The Pulse Community Podcast, where we bring you the heartbeat of Mid-Island. I'm here with my co-host, who's been working on his emergency preparedness ever since the recent wildfires in our region. And by that, I mean he's stocked up on snacks. It's Dave Graham.

Dave Graham: Thank you, Peter McCully. Hey, Peter, when crisis strikes, in my books, that's all the more reason to have the comfort of some yummy treats at hand. But the nearby fires have had me reviewing my preparedness. I learned that my emergency kit, which has always been 80% granola bars and 20% wishful thinking, is not adequate.

Peter McCully: The fire forced the issue for hundreds of people. For the rest of us, it serves as a reminder to not wait to start improving on emergency preparedness. The Wesley Ridge wildfire in Mid-Vancouver Island saw hundreds of firefighters tackle the blaze and hundreds of homes placed under evacuation order. Dashwood Fire Chief Nick Acciavatti says the community support was overwhelming.

Nick Acciavatti: I think right from the time that the community knew that there was a fire, they had our back because they know we got theirs. And we had cookies and muffins and Gatorade and water, and people offering support. And there was so much stuff coming in that I had a hard time even just keeping track of the voicemails and the emails and phone calls. And it was overwhelming to hear the support that we were getting, and so grateful to have that support from them. It really proved how cool our community is.

Dave Graham: Recently, we headed out to the beach in Parksville to chat with folks visiting the Mid-Vancouver Island area. Who are these people? What are they doing here? Where do they come from? Well, they're from all over the world, actually. And we'll hear from a few of them on our "You Said It!" segment.

"You Said It!" Segment:

I overheard that you have plans to move here, huh?

That's correct. Yeah. My son wants to move here too. He's twelve in three days, and he's with my in-laws right now, and he's excited. He likes it over here better than North Vancouver because the city's gotten crazy over there. So it's more laid-back and chill and relaxed over here.

Good thing you'll get in before we close the gates, because that's the plan. No. Yeah. Okay.

Good luck in locating just the right spot. Do you know whereabouts you're looking, or is it pretty open?

The Peaceful area? Yeah. Yeah, because that's where my in-laws live. They live at the Beach Club Resort.

Oh, nice. Yeah. So yeah, please don't shut the gates on us.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. Best of luck.

You too.

Dave Graham: On a future edition of The Pulse Podcast, we'll chat with James Vickers, the 15-year-old blues musician who will be playing Parksville as part of the Salish Coast Music Festival. This will be an opportunity to see a young man who seems to be very much on a path to greatness. You know, I'm trying to think back to when I was 15 and any significant accomplishments I might have had. All I can come up with is that occasionally I made my bed.

Peter McCully: We each go at our own pace, my friend. Also coming up on a future Pulse podcast, we'll talk with Robert Held and Brian Middleton, who are putting together a joint show at the McMillan Art Center. "Trip the Light Fantastic" uses multiple digital projectors and screens accompanied by a musical score.

Dave Graham: The exhibit is being billed as an immersive art experience in which visitors will be showered in a spectrum of rich, moving colors. Sounds like something out of the sixties. It opens early September.

Peter McCully: It's the last week of The Pulse Podcast "grill, chill, and fill" contest.

Dave Graham: We are giving away a Paderno portable propane grill, an Igloo cooler, and a $100 Smile Card from Thrifty Foods in Parksville.

Peter McCully: Enter either through our website, thepulsecommunity.ca, or our Facebook page, The Pulse Community.

Fireside Books: There's exciting news for book lovers: Fireside Books in Parksville now has a second location in Port Alberni. The Bookwyrm's used books are just $5 each, and be sure to ask about their volume discounts. The Bookwyrm, on the corner of Redford and Anderson, open seven days a week from 10 to 5. Fireside Books at 464 Island Highway East in Parksville is a book dragon's dream come true. Browse their extensive collection weekdays from nine to six and weekends 10 to 5. Both locations make growing your personal library easier than ever. New books, used books, activity books, puzzle books, and much more. Order online at firesidebooks.ca, and your books will be waiting when you arrive. Ask about returning books for book credit. Fireside Books and The Bookworm: two locations, one amazing adventure in browsing.

Thrifty Foods Parksville: At Thrifty Foods, we love to help nonprofits, charities, and schools. Our Thrifty Foods Smile Card bulk program allows organizations to immediately save up to 6% on the purchase of Smile Cards in bulk, allowing you to keep more money in your organization's pockets. Ask for details at Thrifty Foods in Parksville.

Jim O'Neill: Hi there. My name's Jim O'Neill. I'm a Qualicum Beach-based folk singer-songwriter, and I have a show coming up as part of the Route 19A Arts Festival with my buddy Lighthouse Jack. I've been here in Qualicum Beach for the last two years, and I've been on semi-hiatus from my music—or I play music my whole life, but I've been a little quiet lately, and I'm just starting to reconnect with that part of my life again. When I lived in Vancouver before I moved here to the island, I had an acoustic duo with my friend Zach, and we played as Zach and Jim, and we played a bunch of different breweries over there on the mainland and a few small kind of festivals there and here on the island too, actually.

But I'm originally—you can hear from my accent—I'm from Australia. I spent a long time playing music there. I played in a seven-piece indie rock band called Autumn Gray, and we had the great pleasure of doing some small tours and playing with an orchestra a couple of times. I also played keys and sang harmonies for my buddy Luke—Luke Legs and the Midnight Specialists—and he had the great pleasure of playing a lot of different folk festivals and touring up and down the East Coast and over to Tasmania in Australia. I'm looking forward to playing this show as part of the Route 19A Festival.

We are playing Tuesday, September 16th, between seven and 9:00 PM. You can get tickets from route19a.com. I'd love to see you there. Come along. Support local music.

Dave Graham: So, Peter, you're familiar with the phrase "the dog days of summer."

Peter McCully: Yes, the dog days are generally thought of as the hottest days of summer.

Dave Graham: Well, the dog days officially begin with the rise in the eastern sky of Sirius, also known as the Dog Star. And technically, the dog days ended August 11th, according to some sources at least.

Peter McCully: But we are still experiencing some hot weather out here on the coast, and the campfire ban remains in place. That's likely a source of relief for our next guest. Here's Marilyn.

Marilyn: The recent Wesley Ridge Wildfire saw 400 homes placed under evacuation order and almost 300 firefighters called in to battle the blaze. Here to talk about that is Chief Nick Acciavatti of the Dashwood Fire Department.

Peter McCully: Nick, welcome to the podcast.

Nick Acciavatti: I appreciate being here. Thank you so much.

Peter McCully: The Wesley Ridge Fire was history-making.

Nick Acciavatti: As far as I know, it's the biggest interface fire in Vancouver Island history, aside from maybe the fire in '38. It was probably the biggest that we've had here.

Peter McCully: Can you walk me through the first hours after the Wesley Ridge fire was reported on July 31st? What was your department's immediate response protocol?

Nick Acciavatti: I woke up at six o'clock with about 1,800 text messages saying that there's a fire at Cameron Lake. And we got summoned by BC Wildfire to have a couple of standby engines up in the village. And we started summoning our crew here. We ended up with two engines, a couple of tankers, and a wildland truck. And then I also called in mutual aid trucks from Bowser, Hornby, Parksville, and Qualicum Beach to help standby with us. Got up into the village, noticed that there was a very large plume of smoke, and our crews went right to work doing structure triage.

We set up some remote fill sites at different creeks that we have established and just started doing patrols and being out in the community and talking to the neighborhood. The terrain and the wind patterns, I understand, were very challenging. Meadowood has its own wind up there every day. It seems to be something different, whether it's blowing five or whether it's blowing 35, and it always comes up in the afternoon.

So for us, that's always a big concern. That's why we front-loaded the incident right away—to make sure that if something did pop off, that we had enough resources in there that we could mitigate any spot fires that came up.

Peter McCully: So Nick, tell us about the resources. How many Dashwood firefighters were initially deployed, and then how do you organize the crews for what became a multi-week operation?

Nick Acciavatti: With a fire that's encroaching onto structures, BC Wildfire has a structure defense program. They activate our provincial task force. So our crew of about 20, we had on standby for the first few days. By the time on August 1st—on Friday—when the provincial task force arrived, we had our crews set up like a task force. We had a task force leader. We had all our vehicles set up as if we had the provincial task force here.

So when the task force arrived on August 1st, we released some of the mutual aid units that we had here because we had the provincial units, and then we integrated into the BC Wildfire Service incident management team.

Peter McCully: And how many firefighters would have been on site at the peak of the fire?

Nick Acciavatti: At the peak, as far as I know, between BC Wildfire and structural firefighters, close to 300. So it was the largest fire department formed in short order on Vancouver Island, and they came from North Van, Port Coquitlam, down-island Metchosin, Salt Spring, Cranberry, Cherry Creek, Qualicum Beach—they were from all over North Cedar and then some from up-island, Oyster River, Courtenay as well. So a lot of familiar faces for us because we all work together, so it was like, "Hey, I know you. Hey, welcome. Our house is your house, so come on in."

Peter McCully: Can you describe the physical and logistical challenges of maintaining that schedule and trying to keep the firefighters safe and effective?

Nick Acciavatti: BC Wildfire also does an amazing job of taking care and tracking firefighters. So from our end, we do provincial deployments as well, and I work for BC Wildfire's contractor doing task force leading. So I have a good idea of what the operational periods are. So we set out in a 12-hour operational period from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The first few days we were 7:00 AM till midnight, but the first few days we had a lot of our crew out. But as more resources arrived, we started rotating our crews through in two-day operational blocks of 12 hours, 12 to 14 hours, so we weren't burning our own crew out as well.

Peter McCully: Tell us about the amount of equipment on site and in the air, because from my place, it seemed like there was half a dozen helicopters.

Nick Acciavatti: There was. The first few days, there was a lot of medium and intermediate helicopters. There was some light helicopters that the incident command staff had. We had air tankers in, we had skimmers in, then we had all of the structural firefighting vehicles as well. So we asked for specific vehicles to come into our community because the terrain is so hilly. We asked for more like bushfire-type trucks or Type 5, Type 6 trucks, and then single-axle Type 2 tenders, and then with a couple of our Type 1 engines.

So because of our local knowledge, I was able to work with BC Wildfire requesting the task force, saying, "Don't send us big trucks, send us smaller trucks that can get around the community," that could get into some of the driveways. So our local knowledge undoubtedly helped.

Peter McCully: You mentioned a skimmer. What's a skimmer?

Nick Acciavatti: So the skimmers—like Dusty Crophopper from the movie—they're like the aerial crop-dusting airplanes, and they're hugely effective on making really quick turnarounds on the fires and being able to pull out of small bodies of water. So they're pulling out of Horne Lake and Cameron Lake, and they were able to make trips every 20 minutes, it seemed. There was another group of five skimmers coming in, which was fantastic.

Peter McCully: Did you estimate how much water was dropped, as far as gallons go?

Nick Acciavatti: I think with all the buckets coming out of Spider Lake, I'm surprised there's any water left in Spider Lake. It was nonstop for a week and a half, bucketing out of Spider Lake and then Horne Lake.

Peter McCully: And what would the firefighters on the ground be doing to try to contain the fire physically?

Nick Acciavatti: Yeah, so the first day, Thursday, we were just doing structure triage. But then Friday afternoon, myself and our crew were setting up sprinklers at three properties up on Klein Ridge and Wallacewood. We got out of the truck, and I was just about to hook our trailer up, and I said, "We need to get off the hill because the weather's changing, and the winds picked up."

And then that night, crews went from structure triage and prepping into full defense mode for probably five hours. There was crews up on the hill from all over the province defending homes, wetting down properties. They were doing different tactics to save homes as well as shuttling water back and forth.

And then a couple of the properties that we had the sprinkler set up—due to the access issues, they were able to stay as long as they could defend those properties and the structures. Fire up the sprinkler unit on the homes and leave, because the way the hydro lines and stuff were in there, they all burnt off and would have blocked their access out.

So they fired them up, and then for the next several hours, they were just battling fire back from homes. And then the duration of the incident, everybody was into kind of a mop-up, spot-fire type mode. And that's long days, dirty work, getting into the dirt.

Peter McCully: So Nick, at the peak of the response, there's over 200 firefighting personnel, almost 50 incident management team members. From your perspective, were the resources adequate?

Nick Acciavatti: I think from the time we got the call on July 31st, we front-loaded our end of it. I could have stacked a few more bush trucks in there, but once the provincial task force and BC Wildfire incident management team arrived, it was awesome. We had two 53-foot trailers full of sprinklers. We had our sprinkler unit, we had tenders, we had engines, we had wildland firefighters, we had aviation. We're truly lucky to have the amount of resources we had dedicated to this fire.

Peter McCully: Captain Willow Bloomquist, who I've chatted with before about the FireSmart program, was providing BC Wildfire Service with local knowledge about some of those wind patterns you talked about. Can you tell us how that local expertise worked out with the overall firefighting strategy?

Nick Acciavatti: We've started doing pre-fire planning and structure defense plans in that community for the last 10 years. She's been working really diligently with the community up there for the past four years, working on FireSmart principles, creating that defendable space around properties.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a showcase for many years to come about how successful the FireSmart program is, because it allows us—when we have FireSmart homes and we have defendable space around properties—it allows less resources to be set up at those properties where we can dedicate maybe a place that's a little bit more adverse to the effects of wildfire that we can set up and put more resources in there to save those properties.

So having that local knowledge, working with the community, and having the community buy-in for us is huge because it's saved—it proves itself. It's proved itself at how successful it is.

Peter McCully: Nearly 400 properties were under an evacuation order at the peak of the fire. I'm wondering how the department assisted with those evacuation procedures and what was the process for ensuring all the residents in the evacuation zone were safely relocated?

Nick Acciavatti: Through our FireSmart program, Bloomquist has been able to set up neighborhood zones, and we have a complete list of all the property owners in each zone in that area. So when it came time to evacuate, we had an accurate, up-to-date list of all our residents. When it came time to say, "Hey, it's time to go," when the alert came on, there was a lot of our residents that were leaving on their own accord because we've tried to educate them to say, "Hey, when it's time to go, it's time to go."

And we really had only a few residents that questioned about leaving, and we were able to, through our relationships we formed with the community, we were able to have them leave after we had a chance to talk to them and say, "Hey, this is important. You should really leave." And they're like, "Okay, it's the fire department telling us we gotta go." And we evacuated hundreds of properties with very little issues at all, and they all left. They were all very respectful.

And I think some of the communication through our social media—we've had a lot of feedback through the community about how much they appreciated our updates and our timely updates—and we wanted to make sure that we get the people out, but we also keep them up to date with what's going on as well. We owe it to them. They're our people.

Peter McCully: Willow Bloomquist described that fire on social media as coming right up to the doorstep of some of the homes, particularly on Wallacewood Way. Can you detail how your structural protection team saved those properties?

Nick Acciavatti: Yeah, I know for sure two properties that, if we hadn't have set up sprinklers at them, they would have been burnt to the ground. Definitely, there's no question. At the time that we spent with the limited equipment that we had setting up, we would have lost those homes for sure. And then one of the homes had a lot of FireSmart principles. The other one was pretty close to being good FireSmart, and we were able to not dedicate as much resources to the other one, and we were able to save their home.

There was a window on the back of the house that the plastic was melted around the window. There was a dryer vent that was melted. There was a part of a plastic greenhouse that was melted, so the fire was literally knocking at their door, and we were able to save their home.

Peter McCully: You described the community support as absolutely outstanding. Can you give us some specific examples of how the community rallied around the firefighters and those firefighting efforts and the evacuated families?

Nick Acciavatti: I think right from the time that the community knew that there was a fire, they had our back because they know we got theirs. And we had cookies and muffins and Gatorade and water and people offering support, and there was so much stuff coming in that I had a hard time even just keeping track of the voicemails and the emails and phone calls. And it was overwhelming to hear the support that we were getting, and so grateful to have that support from them. It really proved how cool our community is.

Peter McCully: Nick, looking back, what worked exceptionally well in your department's response, do you think?

Nick Acciavatti: I think the amount of pre-planning that we've done—we've done the FireSmart programs, we've done structure defense plans, we've done a lot of training with our crew. We run a wildfire bootcamp every year where we run a weekend of wildfire training for our firefighters. It's like a deployment. So when it came time for our crew to assemble, it was like, "Yeah, it's time to go to work." They knew exactly what to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to do it, and then how they fit into the provincial system.

And I think from my experience with BC Wildfire doing task force leading and being on these crews over the last 20 years, it allowed me to figure out where we fit into the system and then also have trust in the system that it's going to work. So having really good access to grant funding so we can do FireSmart mitigation plans, we can do neighborhood recognition. We have the provincial support, we have the regional district support, we have the community support. All of these things all led into this success.

Peter McCully: We've talked about FireSmart, but what specific FireSmart recommendations would you give to homeowners in these wildland-urban interface areas to protect their properties?

Nick Acciavatti: I think overall, it's having good FireSmart building practices if you can, but clearing that space around your property, having that 30-foot defendable space around your property, having non-combustibles that are near your property, but have your wood piles stacked far away where you have some mineral soil space or some green space between your house and the forest. And it doesn't need to be done all in one shot. You could do a little bit this year, a little bit next year, and start from your house and start working out. And the more space you can clear, the better off you can do.

And then from our perspective, I think moving forward that local government needs to really look at building FireSmart practices into building codes. If you're going to build in the forest, in the intermix, in the interface areas, you should be having legislation or bylaws that say you have to have this defendable space. You have to have FireSmart building practices because when a fire does happen—and it will happen—it just allows fire crews and allows us to not have as many resources dedicated. It allows us to save more properties and reduce costs in the long run.

Peter McCully: These challenging fire seasons seem to be happening more and more often. What should residents know about evacuation planning and working with fire services during emergencies?

Nick Acciavatti: I think get to know your fire department, and because the fire department—and we had Arrowsmith Search and Rescue helping us in our EOC—looking at really good, simple evacuation planning, but also being prepared during fire season and having that grab-and-go bag, keeping the things that you need that are important to you to go in case something does happen. But also trusting that we've got your back, that as best we can—if we ask you to leave, there's a reason why we're asking you to leave.

And I think the success in our community is because we have worked with the community, we have educated them on these plans, so they trusted us. And trust is the biggest thing, right? For us, it's our community trusts us to provide a service, and they listen to us when we need to do it, and trust that we have their back as best we can.

Peter McCully: Nick Acciavatti is the chief of the Dashwood Fire Department. Thanks for all that you do, and thanks for you and your staff taking care of the Wesley Ridge Fire.

Nick Acciavatti: Appreciate the opportunity to speak on this, and we're grateful that we were able to do as best we could for our community. Our community means the world to us. We're in a service organization, and we're proud to serve.

Dave Graham: Our thanks to Chief Acciavatti for being on the podcast, and of course, our immense gratitude for the firefighters who kept the Wesley Ridge wildfire from being far more than it was.

Peter McCully: Firefighters remain on site mopping up and patrolling. And as for the public, be advised that a burned area is full of potential hazards, and smoke could be seen rising for weeks to come. As long as it isn't coming from outside the burn zone, it's okay.

Dave Graham: Let's keep hoping the wildfire stories are done for now, and let's see what else is out there for us to follow. You know, we welcome story suggestions, and it's easy to reach us through our homepage. Click on the contact link to send us a message.

Peter McCully: Yes, go to pulsecommunity.ca, and you can send us a text or email, or click on the "Speak to Us" link and leave us a voice message.

Dave Graham: We got some folks to speak to us recently. We'll be hearing the results momentarily.

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Marilyn: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Peter McCully: Every now and then, we hear at The Pulse Community Podcast are granted permission to go out in public, and we're even permitted to talk to people.

Dave Graham: And after that, things can get a bit unpredictable, and that's often fun. We always appreciate the chance to connect with people and hear their stories. That's what we're all about here, The Pulse podcast. Here's Marilyn to introduce our next segment.

Marilyn: Recently, Peter and Dave made their way to the beach in Parksville to chat with visitors to the Mid-Vancouver Island area about who they are and where they are from.

"You Said It!" Segment:

How about we start with a first name? Yours?

Yes. My name is Karen.

And where are you from, Karen?

Holland. And what drew you to Parksville?

Just seeing the island, and someone told us about the sculptures, so we thought, "Well, let's have a look."

Have you ever seen anything like this before?

Yes, because we're from the Netherlands, so there's a lot of sand and a lot of beach.

Yes. The circus theme is really special.

So our sculptures here rate reasonably high in your estimation?

Yes, it's high.

How much time left do you have here?

Another two weeks, I think. Yeah.

And what are your plans, if I may be so bold?

Heading to the other side of the island and then go back and see some nature, Banff, Jasper.

Have you been to Canada before?

Yes. About 15 years ago, maybe a bit more—20 years ago. But the other side, so Toronto, Quebec.

I have to ask then, which do you prefer?

Um, hard to tell because we've been here for about five, six days, but I like this side.

Yes, it's very diplomatic. Thank you so much. Welcome to Parksville. I appreciate your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye.

Cheryl, what brought you to Parksville?

Our daughter lives in Cumberland.

Oh, that's a sweet little town too.

It is. It's a beautiful place up there.

How long have you been in Golden?

I was born there, and so is my mother.

As someone who's lived and moved, more importantly, dozens of times in my life, in multiple countries, the thought of growing up and staying where you were born has a great attraction. How does that make you feel when you say that?

Proud. I love Golden. It's a great little town.

How is Golden great for you?

It's very friendly. It's not too big. I know pretty much everybody. It's grown a lot in the past 10 years with the ski hill coming in. That's nice. You go to town and [see] lots of friends and happy faces.

I take it, since you have a daughter here, you've been to Parksville before this occasion.

Yeah, just driving through, actually. Yeah, because she lives up-island in Cumberland. Parksville—how does it strike you?

What little bit I've seen of it seems really nice. Yeah. I've just been through this sculptures and—are they pretty amazing?

We're going to head south to Victoria next week where my hubby is from, so I'll visit all the family down there for a week and then head back home. We're going to stop in Mission and hit some more family up.

It's a pretty fabulous part of the world, isn't it?

It is. We love BC. Very BC-proud here. Yeah.

Steve, and you are from Qualicum Beach.

Okay. And you have a company here, you're showing off Parksville, a company. And who's with you?

My girlfriend and daughter and son-in-law.

And how's the day been so far?

Fantastic. Yeah.

And your summer, how's that going?

Very well, thank you. Yes. Other than the wildfire, I had a look at it today. It's just a shock to see in real life, isn't it? But they're doing a wonderful job, the firefighters.

Yes. What did you think of the sand sculptures?

Wonderful. We were here last year, and it just—it never gets old. It's just beautiful, and I think it gets better every year.

Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. It's fantastic.

You have company long enough to have made plans for the remainder of their time here.

Yeah. We're having dinner at my place tonight, and we had a nice little brunch today, so we're enjoying the day in Parksville.

Still good to talk with people who are just enjoying life right now. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you all. Thanks, Dave. Appreciate it. Yeah, cheers.

Maybe we could start with first names: Nate and Billy.

And you are from Alberta.

How long are you here for?

Another week.

How long have you been here?

I've been here for a day. I've been here for a week.

Uh-huh. And have you done other exciting things beyond looking at sand sculptures?

Yeah, we've done lots of stuff. What did we do today? Kayaking.

Yeah. So you've got some plans still for your time remaining.

Oh yeah, we have a whole itinerary today.

I'm just along for the ride. Is this your thing?

Oh yeah, always.

That's exciting. I knew someone else who did that for someone special in their lives, and that effort just seemed to pay off. It just created such an incredible, extraordinary day.

Oh yeah. I am always one for organization, so—

Yeah, I'm not, so I'm just like, it's awesome to just be part of a plan that works out all the time.

If I could just start with first names: Jaja and Warren.

And you are from where?

Calgary, Alberta.

What brought you to Parksville?

Our friend who lives here—we're coming to visit.

You're the Parksvillian who started this whole thing?

I did.

Can I just ask the relationship here? Just old friends.

Friends of my sons and friends of my family.

Okay, wonderful. So how has your day been so far?

It's amazing. We started with a really wonderful breakfast and then came over to see—wow—these like world-level sandcastles. This is like literally my first time in my life. Blow my mind.

World class. It's amazing. Literally, artists from all over the world contributing their art here, and coming from the prairies, we don't see this kind of thing very often, so this is blowing our minds.

What do you do back home?

We're musicians. We're the husband-wife duo called Ginger Beef.

Oh, right on. So we can find you online then.

Yes.

What style of music do you play?

I think we've settled on calling it instrumental pop. Think of the old hits—Chuck Mangione or a cover of the band Focus? The song is called "Hocus Pocus," my instrumental version, and I was like, yodeling with a flute.

Yeah, I should check it out.

Wonderful. That's wonderful. So when you have guests where you live, what do you do to impress them?

There's always the mountains. We're really close to the Rockies, so we take the hour or hour-and-a-half drive out to Canmore and Banff, and that's very impressive. And we also—Alberta beef, the world's best beef—and honestly, ginger beef, we've never had it, is originated from Calgary. It's like a Canadian-Chinese fusion. Yeah. Invented right in Silver Inn, which sadly closed its doors just a couple years ago, about 40 years ago. So they came up with a dish that would appeal to both Asian and Western palates.

So, wow. Thank you so much for the visit and do enjoy your stay. Pleasure meeting you both.

Thank you. Thank you.

I am Stephanie.

Where are you from, Stephanie?

I am from just outside of Portland. We have a little farm in Damascus, but it's pretty close to Portland, Oregon.

What kind of farm?

We grow Chinese herbs and native plants.

"We" being a small family unit?

Yeah, me and whoever is helping me.

Terrific. So what brought you to Parksville?

My husband's family lives close by to here, and his aunt was celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary, so it was an excuse to have a family gathering.

Very nice. How long are you here for?

We're here just for a few more days, but we're taking a tour of Vancouver Island, and we're going to go to Tofino and a couple other places.

Have you been to the island before?

Yes, one other time. I've not been to Parksville.

How about these sand sculptures? What do you think?

They're so cool, aren't they? I love it. Do you like the sand sculptures?

What's your name?

Lois.

And you like the sand sculptures?

Yeah.

What do you do for fun back home?

I have a one-year-old too, so there's a lot of like kid activities that we do outside together. You know, we go to the creek. We just try to be outside and hiking and things like that when we have time—sleeping. Also.

Real pleasure to meet you here by the sea. Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you.

Tracy, and where are you from?

I'm living in Vancouver, visiting family here on the island. We came from Cowichan Bay today.

Oh, lovely. And here we are with the sand sculptures. Have you seen anything like this before?

No, I don't think so. Didn't know what to expect. It's amazing. Is this annual?

Yes.

Huh? There you go. I'll be back. I got a tip about a foot-passenger service. Do tell.

The question I was asked was how often I come here, so I was saying that now it's more frequent because of that Hullo Ferry. It's just really easy for me. I find I can walk to it, really low weight, probably just because of the amount of people they can pack on there. And A to B, fast. It's upped my frequency coming to visit.

Thumbs up. Any issues for you with this service, Hullo?

No, I think in the winter they need some awnings because you have to wait outside at the water and could get rained on. But they're apparently working on that.

Any other plans during your stay here?

No, just visiting the family, so I do whatever they send me to do, ask me to do.

And my nephew right here.

Matthew, nice to meet you. You're going to be on a podcast. Is that okay?

Okay.

Thanks, Tracy. Take care.

My name's Miriam.

And where are you from, Miriam?

I am from Markham, Ontario, a little bit north of Toronto.

And what brings you to beautiful Parksville?

Ah, Parksville. It's the sand sculptures today, but the whole vicinity is—my daughter had a baby.

Congratulations to you.

This is very exciting. It's my second grandchild, but for her, it's her first baby, so we had to come and make sure that things were working the way they should work.

And all are well?

Everybody's doing great, so she had a baby girl.

Is this—oh, that's wonderful. So is this your first time at an event like this?

It is. I have seen sand sculptures but not live. So my husband once went out east, and I think he was in the Halifax area, and there was a whole display. So when I heard that this was going on, I said it's right up his alley. He's a photographer, and he loves to take pictures.

8-8-8-8.

Yeah, that's our anniversary. That was yesterday, I think, wasn't it?

Yeah, we were supposed to come here yesterday.

Belated congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you. You actually planned it that way.

Oh yeah, so we wouldn't forget.

So the eights otherwise are insignificant?

Apparently they're very good luck. Apparently 25,000 Asian couples also got married that day because eight is a very special number. But for us, we were just lucky enough to be able to find the right venue or the right spot and make it happen.

So what, if I may ask, what do you do back in Markham?

I am a retired nurse. I retired six months ago because when my daughter told me she was having a midwife—have a baby—I said to her, "Could you tell me a little more?" She said, "Mom, 70% of all babies here are born by midwives on the island." And I said, "Okay." And I said, "Tell me a little more." And she said, "You can come as a significant other, but you can't come as a nurse. You can come as my mom." I said, "No problem. I better retire then."

So I retired—but no, that's not really true. I was ready to retire, but that was the parameters. I was allowed to be present at the birth as long as I acted as a mom and not as anything else. And midwives were great. I was amazed.

Okay, so a good experience for you two then?

Yeah. Really good experience. Really nice integration of the hospital and the midwife as well, and also I was almost excited to see that home birth. A little nervous, but really excited. And it was a very well-integrated system. I couldn't say more about it, which I was nervous before.

So you had your eyes opened a little bit.

I certainly did. It was nice.

Thank you for sharing that. Nice to meet you. Have a great time while you're here.

Thank you as well. Thank you.

Let's start off with the first name: John.

John, where are you from?

Victoria.

Ah, my place of birth. Welcome, sir. How do you find Parksville?

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Are you a regular visitor?

First time. We try to come up at least once a year.

Does it coincide with the sand sculptures, or—?

Sure does.

So you're that much of a fan. What do you think of this here?

It's very good. Yeah? Talented. Very talented people.

Have you tried it yourself at all?

When I was like five, on a beach.

I think it would give us all a better sense of how difficult it is. We see these completed things with no idea what went into it, but some artistic skills, certainly. I can't even grasp the concept of the brain you'd need to have to make that happen.

What do you do back in Victoria?

I'm a marine engineer.

How does that translate into your average day? What do you do?

I take care of tugboats for the Government of Canada.

In your off hours, what do you have fun doing?

I am having fun with my family and hanging out with some friends and golfing when I can squeeze it in.

Yeah. Nice. And here we have this gorgeous day in this beautiful spot by the ocean. You have much more time left in this area?

We leave tomorrow morning, and then we're going to Kelowna.

It was going to be stupid hot.

Enjoy your time here on the coast. So nice to meet you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Keith and Ana. And where are you from?

Parksville. Craig Bay.

Okay. Have you been living there long?

I've been in this area 50 years.

So you are—either born?

Nope, no, but it feels like it. Prairie boy and East Coast.

You come to the sculptures every year?

Absolutely. Even from when they were on the beach and the tide washed them away.

Yeah. That long ago. You've seen them over the spectrum of these years and to today, what they can create. What does it make you think?

I think that the creation has stayed high level, but the use of getting public funding has definitely escalated in a good way.

Yes. I think that's one of the things I admire most about this whole arrangement—how the community as a whole benefits. Your thoughts, sir?

Oh, I love them. Every year is better and better, and the messages are always great. And then there's the overall message in the fact that a week from now, or thereabouts, they'll be gone.

Yeah. Somebody just suggested they should make that a public event where kids could pay to come in and actually knock them over. That would be a big thrill for them. I thought that was a good idea.

I'd pay to do that. Yeah, correct. I was going to say—or adults.

Otherwise, if you have guests coming to the area, what's on your must-do list or must-see?

My brother came from Calgary, and we sent him right down to see the sand sculptures. Otherwise, I'd say Parksville Beach, Rathtrevor Beach, golf—lots of golf—some pickleball. It's getting a little better. It's got a ways to go in Parksville. It's getting a little better.

You're enjoying your summer?

Absolutely. We always don't go anywhere because this is where everybody comes.

Who'd want to be anywhere else but here?

Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing your time with us. It was delightful to meet you both.

Your first name?

Jim.

Jim, where are you from?

Qualicum Beach.

Okay. And you are doing what here at Beach Festival?

I'm volunteering on behalf of Oceanside Hospice.

Okay. You're here at the gate. What are they getting you to do?

Actually, it's quite a bit of fun because the kids bring their tag on their pencil, and then we offer them stamps—some of them high up on their arm, mostly on their hands. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's been amusing. Yeah. And a lot of fun for the kids.

How much time are you required to be here for in total?

We're here—most of us volunteering today are from hospice, and so we're here from one till five.

And how does hospice benefit out of this arrangement?

Some of the proceeds get distributed to the various organizations that volunteer, so that's how we benefit.

How has your experience been?

It's fun. The sculptures are fantastic, and the people are obviously tremendously enjoying it, so it is good for us too.

Yeah, I provide music through the competition portion of this whole thing, so my job was done weeks ago, but I just find it so much fun to be associated with this event.

It's all positive.

It is. Yeah, the artistry is phenomenal.

Thank you, Jim. Pleasure meeting you.

First name: Joe.

Where are you from, Joe?

Originally in Nova Scotia, but I'm living on the Malahat.

Okay, and how come the move?

I was in the military, and this is where I retired.

Thank you for your service.

Oh, thank you.

What brings you here today?

We come up for the concert every year. We're camping there. We're just traveling around and seeing everything.

Cool. So we're at the exit to the sand sculptures. Have you been to these before?

I have, yes. Yeah.

So what do you think of this year?

This year's pretty amazing, just the talent—just incredible.

I'm told to ask about the Skywalk.

Skywalk is up on top of the Malahat there, and it was built—it's actually quite impressive. A little bit of a 20-minute walk into it there with all kinds of sculptures along the way, and then you take the walk up around the skywalk to the top, and you can take the slide coming down. It's quite impressive.

Recommended?

Absolutely, absolutely. The views up there are absolutely amazing. You see the whole Saanich Arm, Mount Washington, and all the way up across. Yeah, it's impressive.

Whereabouts are you from?

Anna: North Vancouver.

And what are you doing here today?

I'm actually here visiting my in-laws, and we just came down to see the sandcastle competition. I've been here before many times because I used to live here, and it's amazing, isn't it?

I know. Doesn't it get better every year?

Absolutely. Yeah.

I overheard that you have plans to move here, huh?

That's correct. Yeah. My son wants to move here too. He's twelve in three days, and he's with my in-laws right now, and he's excited. He likes it over here better than North Vancouver because the city's gotten crazy over there. So it's more laid-back and chill and relaxed over here.

Good thing you'll get in before we close the gates because that's the plan. No. Yeah.

Okay. Good luck in locating just the right spot. Do you know whereabouts you're looking, or is it pretty open?

The Peaceful area? Yeah. Yeah, because that's where my in-laws live. They live at the Beach Club Resort.

Oh, nice. Yeah. So yeah, please don't shut the gates on us.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. Best of luck.

You too.

Where are you from, Bea?

I am from Courtenay, but I moved from Ontario recently.

Okay. Another Ontario escapee. Where were you in Ontario?

Pembroke, Ontario. It's two hours west from Ottawa, and my husband's military. That's the reason I'm here.

What'd you get transferred to?

Comox. We live in Courtenay, which is just next door.

If I may ask, are you working right now?

I'm starting in September at the school board, so I would be working as a substitute teacher or EA, but yes, I start in September.

How about back home? All the way up in the Comox Valley. What do you do for fun up there?

Oh, we live by the river, so we go out for a swim sometimes. There's movie theaters, there's swimming—lots of swimming. I recently moved here, so it's taking us time—like I'm a visitor right now. I'm exploring and learning more about Courtenay-Comox and other places around it.

And so what's your overall impression of Vancouver Island, BC, this area?

It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. It's like I'm always on vacation. I can just pick a weekend and go somewhere for a hike or to just visit a waterfall, and it feels like I'm on vacation. I don't have to go and travel, and I can just be in my home, comfortable, and still have a vacation.

Oh, very well put, Bea. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Thank you so much. Have a good day.

Thanks.

Peter McCully: There you have it. Connecting with some of the folks visiting the Sand Sculpture exhibition at the Parksville Beach Festival.

Dave Graham: They had a lot of people visit the sand sculptures this summer. We didn't get to talk with all that many of them through the course of one afternoon, but these folks came from all over.

Peter McCully: Visitors were encouraged to leave a mark on the map of the world where they came from, and there were markers from the Galapagos Islands, Malaysia, the Congo, Tanzania, Mongolia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Norway.

Dave Graham: I noticed there were no stickers on Morocco, Aruba, or Equatorial Guinea. Maybe some targeted marketing will fix that. But then there were dozens of stickers on Antarctica, a place with no permanent residence. I don't know what that means, but none of that takes away from the fact that Beach Fest is a world-class event, and we're so fortunate to have it here—and all the benefits that come out of that for the entire community. They counted over 119,000 visitors to the sand sculptures this year. That is approaching pre-COVID levels.

The festival has ended for another summer. I'm sure the organizers will be meeting soon to start planning for the next year.

Peter McCully: Speaking of plans, shall we meet in the cafeteria and check out what Mabel has on special?

Dave Graham: Oh, I hear she's featuring a menu called "Say Goodbye to Summer."

Peter McCully: So what's that, Dave? Is that freezer-burned hot dogs or melted ice cream?

Oh, melted ice cream.

Dave Graham: Well, that's half the work done right there. Erase you.

Rockin Rhonda & The Uptown Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peer and Dave. They're on the mics all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.