Keys Please
Are you planning, like Bob Cratchit, to make a little merry this holiday season? Ashcroft and Cache Creek has its very own service to make sure you get home safely, as volunteers with Keys Please Ashcroft/Cache Creek are fundraising for local events for the coming year by getting people home after holiday events.
The service will be operating from Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. to early Sunday mornings weekly through Jan. 1. Two services are offered: one is a standard door to door (DD) service, and the other is a “drive you in your own car” service (you must be insured).
Do you know what night(s) you will be going out? Booking in advance is recommended, as the service is likely to be busy. Call 1-778-207-4050 to book.
Suggested donations are $10 (staying in the same town, DD service; $5 for each additional address in the same town); $20–$40 going to the opposite town, DD service, plus $5 for each additional address; $25 for drive you in your own car in the same town; $35–$50 for drive you in your own car to the opposite town or to the outskirts of Ashcroft/Cache Creek.
Equality Project Christmas lunch
Are you alone this Christmas? You don’t need to be! The Equality Project—“People Helping People”—will be serving up a ham and turkey Christmas luncheon at their clubhouse on Stage Road in Cache Creek from noon to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 25. For more information call (250) 457-6485, email info@theequalityproject.ca, or go to The Equality Project Facebook page.
Grant writing workshop
Do you want to learn how to tell your story, create a budget, know which grants are for you, and learn tips about how to get approved? Then you won’t want to miss the two-day grant writing workshop at the Ashcroft HUB, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 30 and 31.
The workshop includes how-to tips and hands-on learning. If you have a special project in mind, then bring it with you and complete it during the workshop. The cost is $60 per person, and includes lunch and refreshments.
For more information, or to register, call the HUB at (250) 453-9177, or email ashcrofthub@gmail.com.
Rotary Citizens of the Year
The Rotary Club of Ashcroft/Cache Creek is seeking nominations for its Citizens of the Year, and is looking for people who have demonstrated outstanding volunteer community service in Ashcroft and area, Cache Creek and area, and a Youth nominee for the entire area.
Do you know a person who makes a difference in your community, and who you would like to see honoured by their friends and neighbours? You can submit a nomination, including a summary of the activities of your nominee, by Jan. 31 to theresatakacs@hotmail.com, or by mail to P.O. Box 11, Ashcroft, B.C. V0K 1A0.
This special event is brought to you by the Rotary Club of Ashcroft/Cache Creek, in partnership with Interior Savings Credit Union and the Royal Bank.
BC Achievement Community Award
Do you know an outstanding British Columbian? The 17th annual BC Achievement Community Award celebrates the spirit, imagination, dedication, and outstanding contributions that British Columbians make to their communities.
You can nominate a deserving individual who raises the quality and character of your community. The award recognizes the contributions of extraordinary British Columbians who build better, stronger, and more resilient communities, and who shine as examples of dedication and service.
Nomination forms are available online at www.bcachievement.com, and nominations must be received by Jan. 31, 2020.
Christmas Fun Fact
Movie franchises are a well-known modern trend, with a hit film often sparking numerous sequels, which usually bear diminishing returns.
Charles Dickens was an early literary precursor of this trend, with his successful A Christmas Carol (1843) prompting the author to write a further four “Christmas Books”: The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man (1848). The Chimes was the most successful of these “sequels”, but the diminishing popular success of the next three titles led the author to discontinue the series.
Dickens also wrote numerous short stories and sketches about Christmas, the first one—“A Christmas Dinner”—in 1835, when he was only 23, and more than a year before he vaulted to fame with the publication of his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, which contained a ghostly story (“The Tale of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton”) that was the inspiration for A Christmas Carol.
Christmas was a theme he returned to many times over the years, in essays and stories such as “A Christmas Tree” (1850), which begins with the line “I have been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas Tree” [referencing the recent introduction of the Christmas tree to England via Queen Victoria’s German-born husband Albert].
In 1854 he wrote a story called “The Seven Poor Travellers”. Mostly forgotten today, it contains a sentiment that, more than 160 years later, beautifully sums up the feeling of the season: “Christmas comes but once a year—which is unhappily too true, for when it begins to stay with us the whole year round we shall make this earth a very different place.”
editorial@accjournal.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
