****January 2012 Focus - Focus Magazine

Focus presents: Victoria Hospice
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A thrift boutique with a difference
OUR CIVILIZATION NOW IS MADE
of the stuff: most of our buildings,
almost all of our roads, transportation
and big energy infrastructure, and a
couple of breakfast cereals I’ve tried.
form Ocean Cement, in turn a division of the
Leheigh Heidelberg Group, third largest global
cement producer. Must be something binding
about cement....
Cement—I oversimplify as only the amateur
can—is heated, pulverized (milled) limestone
mixed with some other minerals. Wikipedia
tells us that limestone is “a sedimentary rock
composed of grains; however, most grains
in limestone are skeletal fragments of marine
organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other
carbonate grains comprising limestones are
ooids, peloids, intraclasts, and extraclasts.
These organisms secrete shells made of aragonite
or calcite, and leave these shells behind
after the organisms die.”
I think it was John Wayne who said: “The
only good ooid is a dead ooid.”
Pour water on cement and something magical
happens: the grains reach out to hold
hands...tightly. Add sand and aggregate—small
stones of various sizes—and the result is concrete.
Our civilization now is made of the stuff: most
of our buildings, almost all of our roads, transportation
and big energy infrastructure, and
a couple of breakfast cereals I’ve tried.
While it’s impossible to know the number
of exploratory digs in promising locations in
and around the region, there is no missing
the legacy of successful operations: enormous
limestone pits now flooded; raw hillside gashes
exposing a vertical hundred feet of the planet’s
sandy history; and the still-lunar expanse of
the so-called Construction Aggregates Producer’s
Pit in Colwood, bisected by Metchosin Road.
Though now recently decommissioned, it has
been “in production” since 1919 (most of the
cement-related activity in these parts dates
from about that time) and in its day met local
needs and also sent countless barge-loads of
sand and gravel to the Mainland and Washington
State. After 80 years, it’s fair to guess that
there’s more Victoria in Seattle than meets
the eye. Who knows Maybe the Pike Place
Market is ours, all ours!
If I have my science right, the friction and
scraping from the formation and movement
of continental glaciers ground up, then picked
www.focusonline.ca • January 2012
Sally Crickman,Aileen Headon, Lou Green, Lisa McFarland, Jennifer Harley
We want to become a household name,”
says Lisa McFarland, supervisor of the
Victoria Hospice Thrift Boutique. Lisa says
the boutique does have many regular customers who
will routinely pop in after work as they know that new
items are always coming in.The boutique is known for
its high-end, designer and vintage ladies clothes, as
well as fashion jewellery and small household items,
many of them collectible.And
the best part, of course, is that
100 percent of the profits go
directly to Victoria Hospice, to
support quality end-of-life care.
The history of the Victoria
Hospice Thrift Boutique is evidence
of volunteerism in motion says
Major Gifts Officer,Tom Arnold.
Six years ago,Hospice volunteer
Penny Peck returned from a
conference in Vancouver where
she had attended a session on
thrift stores,very excited to establish
such a shop here in Victoria.With the encouragement
of Victoria Hospice staff, Penny gathered a volunteer
team, got a friend to donate the use of a garage to
store collected items and,in 2005,the Victoria Hospice
Thrift Boutique opened at 1315 Cook Street.
A team of upwards of 40 volunteers,ranging in age
from 18 to 88, keeps the boutique running under
the leadership of manager Pat Moench. Right from
the start, Penny’s vision was to be true to the idea of
a boutique, selling only quality items that are clean
and in good shape or even new.
Perhaps you’ve just received some items to donate.
If you got some Christmas gifts that weren’t quite right
for you,consider donating them to the Thrift Boutique
Photo:Tony Bounsall
to give them a more suitable home—and at the same
time benefit Victoria Hospice. Do you have pieces of
broken gold jewellery sitting in your drawer The Thrift
Boutique will convert these items into cash that goes
directly towards palliative care programs and services.
Silent auctions, held almost monthly, are a distinctive
and very popular feature at the Victoria Hospice
Thrift Boutique. Donated items that are particularly
high-end or collectible are
appraised (by another volunteer!),
and set aside for the
silent auction.Auction items
are posted on the website, but
bidders must come into the
store to bid. Lisa says extra
volunteers are always needed
for the exciting and busy closing
time for each silent auction.
Are you getting married in
2012 Keep an eye on the Thrift
Boutique as they make plans
for a special event in the New
Year to sell 60 brand new wedding and bridesmaid
dresses that were recently donated.
The Thrift Boutique grosses about $250,000 a year
to support end-of-life care at Victoria Hospice. If you
like to shop and you want your shopping dollars to
make a difference, or if you have some quality items
that need new homes, consider the Victoria Hospice
Thrift Boutique.
Victoria Hospice Thrift Boutique
250-361-4966
1315 Cook Street (at Yates)
www.VictoriaHospice.org
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Photo:Tony Bounsall