August 20, 2024

A is for Adaptability

When you live on an island, characteristics like resilience, adaptability and cooperation are essential. And that’s true not only for residents, but also for the organizations that exist to serve them. The Denman Island Community Education Society (DICES) is a perfect example of such an organization.

DICES provides staffing and support for a wide range of community and school programs that serve community members of all ages on Denman Island. Along with the Denman Island Community School they provide a variety of educational, support and recreational services, including programs that enrich the school’s offerings to lifelong learning and supports for teens and adults. They offer food bank services, recreation programs, support for small businesses, health and wellness education—and much more!

Making A Space for the People

One of the recent projects DICES has undertaken is the planning and development of a Covered Recreation Space that can be used for outdoor sports, free play time, concerts, community events and meetings, markets, fairs and the like.

Having a covered, open-air space where community members can gather has long been a dream on Denman. A couple of times planning has even been started, but something has always happened to stall or cancel the efforts. 

However, during the pandemic the lack of such a facility was deeply felt by residents, and that started the wheels turning to revive the old dream and bring it to fruition. At long last, this fall/winter DICES is making it happen, says Project Coordinator Dylan Gale.

“This project is going to be a really useful piece of infrastructure for our community,” Dylan says. “And It’s only been made possible through the work of many, many partners coming together, both on the organizing front and on the funding front.”

A Community Effort

Local builders, many community partners, as well as local donors and volunteers are coming together to make the Covered Recreation Space happen.

“It's really exciting to see what can happen when there's a vision and people who've put a lot of effort into making the vision become a reality.”

First Credit Union provided a $5000 contribution toward the project, which Dylan says came at a critical time in the fundraising efforts for the project. 

“The contribution from First came at a time when the project was at a real risk of unraveling. It was good for morale, and it gave some much-needed momentum to the effort.”

Once the project is complete it will be one more facility that will lend to the resilience of the Denman Island community.

“It will allow the community to have more consistency in terms of recreation and events and give us resiliency for future pandemics and climate change events—both shelter from the rain, as well as from heat waves.”

Learn more at dices.ca

Written by Emma Levez Larocque