Winter Holidays Grant
For the 2023 Holiday season, the SCS managed the Gwaii Trust Society’s Winter Holidays Grant for our community. We accepted proposals for projects, events, and other initiatives.
This year the funds covered things including Christmas Hampers, The Winter Lights Festival, a Community Dinner, gifts from Santa, thank-you appies for First Responders, and more.
Click here for more details and to get prepared for 2024 applications.
LOGGERS SPORTS DAY
Originally run by a subcommittee of the Moresby Island Management Committee (MIMC - See our History section), the Annual Loggers Sports Day is now run by the SCS and a group of dedicated volunteers. This event has been happening in Sandspit for more than 50 years and is open for anyone to participate in. There are lots of prizes and it is a fun time for all!
The 2024 Loggers Sports Day will be held Saturday, July 27.
Moresby Market
"Handmade, Homemade and Homegrown."
The Moresby Market is a local farmer’s market operated as a Committee of the SCS and ran by volunteers.
The Market is held at the ALM School in Sandspit near the pergola and operates seasonally from 11am-1pm on Sundays (excluding long weekends), from June until September. The market gives local artisans a chance to sell their goods to locals and visitors.
The 2024 Moresby Market kicks off Sunday, June 9, and runs until September 1 (no market August 11).
Questions? Interested in becoming a vendor? Contact Market Manager Kelsey at moresbymarket@gmail.com
THE SANDSPIT VISITOR CENTRE
The SCS has been operating the Sandspit Visitor Centre since May 2012. Located in the Sandspit Airport, this official Destination BC Visitor Centre provides information to visitors, employment to residents, and opportunities for local artists and craftsmen to sell products in the gift shop.
The Sandspit Visitor Centre is open year-around and employs approximately 4 people.
Sandspit Recreation Committee
Originally a subcommittee of the Moresby Island Management Committee, the Sandspit Recreation Committee has been a committee of the SCS since 2011.
The committee is made up of volunteers and organizes numerous recreation activities in the community. Some of these include sports programs for kids and adults as well as working with Haida Gwaii Rec to provide an exercise gym for residents.
In 2019, the SCS, together with volunteers of the Committee, leveraged a major contribution Grant with Gwaii Trust ($105,000) for the construction of a new basketball court at our local elementary school.
Wild Harvest Festival
Since the fall of 2015 the SCS has operated the annual Sandspit Wild Harvest Festival celebrating all things wild on Haida Gwaii. This is a festival where people can meet and share their knowledge of wild plants, animals and marine life, and visitors can join the many talks, activities, guided nature walks and forays organized throughout the event, and try wild foods, drinks, teas... It is all about nature and promoting a rich and clean environment for all.
Winter Lights Festival
The Winter Lights Festival was created in the winter of 2020, as a way of creating a safe, adaptable festival during the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the help of grant funding from the Gwaii Trust and the NCRD, the tennis court was transformed with lights, Christmas Trees decorated by community members, a wooden archway, and Santa sleigh, built with the ability to keep appropriate physical distance between Santa and the other sleigh riders.
While many of the affiliated, scheduled events had to be cancelled or adapted with changing Provincial Health Orders, the lights stayed on for the full month of December for residents to enjoy.
The volunteer committee has decided to postpone the festival for 2024.
We look forward to the evolution of this festival in the future!
Trail Committee
The SCS has entered an agreement with BC Parks and CHN to ensure trail maintenance in the Damaxyaa Conservancy. With this agreement, our Trails Committee is able to maintain the Dover Trail and volunteers have insurance coverage. Some work has started in the summer 2019.
The Trails Committee is also conducting trail maintenance on other trails of Moresby Island outside of the conservancy areas. It has also secured some funding for the purchase of basic maintenance equipment.
The SCS also works with the Sandspit Salmon Enhancement Society, in conjunction with BC Parks and CHN, on upgrades for the Dover Trail that have included a universal access trail to a salmon viewing platform on Haans Creek.
SANDSPITBC.CA WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
The SCS is working on the www.sandspitbc.ca website to promote the community of Sandspit, its services and businesses and offer information on recreation opportunities for visitors to Moresby Island.
The new version of the website went live in May 2019 and is under ongoing construction and expansion.
“A good place to live is a good place to visit”
Past projects
The Sandspit Inn
We successfully operated the Sandspit Inn from May 2014 to July 2020. The Sandspit Inn provided the only full-service, year-round hotel with onsite restaurant.
We employed approximately 16 people throughout the year, and had successfully begun to transition the business to local, private ownership, when Transport Canada decided not to renew the lease for the building.
We considered the Sandspit Inn to be essential to the social and economic well-being of the community and were extremely disappointed with the outcome due to Transport Canada.
The Sandspit Bus
The SCS started operating the Sandspit Bus, with a fleet of 3 vehicles, in May 2016, following the shutdown of Sandspit Taxi the previous fall. It employed approximately 3 people, often more in the summer.
Sandspit Bus provided transportation services to the Community of Sandspit.
Sandspit Bus also worked with the school board (SD50) to provide transportation for local high school students to get to the ferry every morning and back every afternoon so that they can attend class in the Village of Queen Charlotte. The Sandspit school only goes up to grade 7. The SD50 took over the student transportation in 2021.
THE SANDSPIT SEMESTER
The SCS worked with the Haida Gwaii Institute (formerly the Haida Gwaii Higher Education Society) from 2014 - 2019 to bring post secondary students to Sandspit for a semester in Marine Conservation. The program is an extension of the Haida Gwaii Semester program, itself a part of the UBC faculty of Forestry, which has been successfully operating in Skidegate and Queen Charlotte since 2010, and has recently been extended to Masset and Old Massett.
This project will significantly improve the cultural and economic health of our community in the winter months.
The Institute ran the inaugural program in January 2020. The program is currently on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Road Maintenance
In the spring of 2018 the SCS successfully leveraged some grant funding from Gwaii Trust for the maintenance of the Gray Bay road. The road was brushed from the main line out to Gray Bay, opening it up for RVs and contributing to the longevity of the road. The road was graded a number of times all the way from Sandspit to Gray Bay. The road was graded again in spring 2019 with the remainder of the grant.
We are hoping to set up a road user group in the future in order to bring together governments, departments, companies and organizations to share in the cost of keeping our resource roads in good condition.
This project provided work for 2 local contractors.
“As a director of The Sandspit Salmon Enhancement Society I have had the pleasure of working with several of The Sandspit Community Society members. We have combined efforts on a current project and we look forward to future partnership programs supporting local initiatives”