Home Away from Home British Evacuee’S Love for Creston Runs Deep After 66 Years

Bringing the FREE Creston Valley together. October 2011 Home away from home British evacuee’s love for Creston runs deep after 66 years Martial Arts Creston Museum Outdoors Wandering judokas find Rigorous yet rewarding lives A ‘backyard’ so big a Place of their own of East Shore settlers you need wheels to explore it 8JOBOJ1BE %PZPVMJLFCMPHHJOH XSJUJOHPSKVTUDIBUUJOHBCPVUUIF$SFTUPO7BMMFZ 5IFOZPVDPVMECFUIFMVDLZXJOOFSPGBOJ1BE )PXEPFTJUXPSL All you need to do is write an article about something in the Creston Valley, an event, a place, a feeling or why you love Creston. Write as many as you like and attach a picture to represent it if possible. If we use it in our Daily Buzz (daily email) and you like our facebook page, your name will be entered into the draw that will take place on Monday, October 31st, 2011. There will be up to two articles used per day, so if you don’t see yours (or even if you do), remember to keep writing! You don’t have to be a professional writer, anyone can enter. Our goal is to try and help everyone realize what a wonderful valley we’re living in. "SUJDMFSVMFT )PXUP&OUFS tXPSET FEJUFECZZPV TVCKFDUUPPVSSFWJFX 4UFQoA-JLFPVS'BDFCPPLQBHF t/PEFSPHBUPSZPSOFHBUJWFXPSEJOHPSQISBTJOHJOBOZXBZo 4UFQo4VCNJUZPVSBSUJDMF FJUIFSCZFNBJMJOHXFCTJUF! Positivity always wins! JMPWFDSFTUPODPNPSCZQPTUJOHJUPOPVS'BDFCPPLXBMM t"MMBSUJDMFTVTFEJOPVS%BJMZ#V[[ EBJMZFNBJM PSJOPVS.BHB 4UFQo*GXFQVCMJTIUIFBSUJDMFJOUIF%BJMZ#V[[ EBJMZFNBJM zine will be entered into the draw and all rights to the story or use it in anyway, your name will be submitted into the submitted will be that of I Love Creston Marketing Ltd. for draw and you could win the iPad2! reuse in any of our publications. (you will always be cited as the author unless you would prefer to be kept anonymous) t"MMFOUSBOUTNVTUöSTUiMJLFwPVS'BDFCPPLQBHFUPCF DPOTJEFSFEGPSFOUSZ HPUPGBDFCPPLDPNBOETFBDIi*-PWF $SFTUPOw t"MMBSUJDMFTNVTUSFMBUFUPUIF$SFTUPO7BMMFZJOTPNFXBZ t/PMJNJUUPUIFBNPVOUPGFOUSJFTQFSQFSTPO UIFNPSFZPV enter the more likely that you will have more chances to win in the draw. &OUFSBTNBOZUJNFTBTZPVXBOUUPP %SBXUIBUXJMMUBLFQMBDFPO.POEBZ0DUPCFSTU *-PWF$SFTUPO.BSLFUJOH-UEt#PY $SFTUPO #$7#(ttXXXJMPWFDSFTUPODPN contents what’s inside Sports 9 T-Cats’ roster a work in progress. Mayor’s Desk 10 Team effort at Town Hall. Sports 12 Dojo dedicated to Meers. Agriculture 14 Try the 25-mile diet. Wildlife 15 Endangered frogs bouncing back. Halloween 16 Witches, ghouls, vampires, oh my! History 20 Perseverance on the lakeshore. Martial Arts British guest child 24 Finding your true identity. 5 John Hart remains forever grateful for the warm welcome that awaited him in Creston as a nine-year-old evacuee. Outdoors 25 Quadding a lifestyle, not a sport. The Magazine I Love Creston Magazine is produced monthly and distributed free of charge by I Love Health Creston Marketing Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohib- ited. Any advertisements or graphics designed in-house are property of I Love Creston 26 Put “whole” back in Marketing Ltd. and may not be used in any other medium without permission. Views wholesome eating. expressed in the magazine does not necessarily reflect those of the company. Letters to the Editor Letters to I Love Creston Magazine may be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to Box 143, Creston, BC, V0B 1G0. Letters may be edited for clarity and space. I Love Creston Marketing Ltd. www.ilovecreston.com Wendy Franz - Sales/Graphic Design email: [email protected] Justin Ziola - Sales/Financials emai: [email protected] Box 143, Creston, BC V0B 1G0 • Ph/Fx 250.428.2631 www.ilovecreston.com October 2011 3 this issue Mistakenly believing it would be It is titled: Two Boys Arrive; Two safe to go home within months, Young Men Return. Guest the Harts actually remained for “Both these boys were loved by the From the editor four-and-a-half years. When it local populace for their respectful finally came time to leave, they had ome people love Creston and courteous manners; their bonded so greatly they wished their because they were born here, willingness to put their shoulders S parents would move here instead of others because they moved here and behind the wheel to make every them having to return to England, still others because they vacationed effort, whether in the school band according to one of John Hart’s in the valley. In some cases all it or on the athletic field, a success,” school chums who still lives here, took was a drive-through for people the story reads. Gerry Ostendorf. It was Ostendorf to swoon at the scenic splendour of who began sending Hart copies “Creston was glad to have them, it all. of I Love Creston after receiving a and sorry to see them depart, John Hart fits in none of those surprise call two years ago. and there is not a person in this categories. He loves Creston valley who does not hope that in “The phone rang one day and I because he was evacuated here. the not too distant future they picked it up and (a voice) said, ‘Is More than 70 years ago. And he’s will pay a return visit to the that Geraldine?’ and I said, ‘Yes. I never been back – except via the valley.” know who this is,’ ” Ostendorf says. time travel of his own memories, “Of course, with his English accent, Ron did, attending a reunion of the which are razor-sharp as the well, I don’t know any other Johns old Creston Valley High School in gentleman approaches 81. Yet his who talk like that. 1989. But John hasn’t – at least not ardour for the place runs as deep yet. as the ocean that separates this “We’ve been talking ever since.” “If I remember correctly, there country from his own in the United Hart’s arrival in town was heralded used to be signs when coming into Kingdom. in a two-paragraph item on the town saying, ‘Welcome to Creston. Hart, a retired pastor, is profiled front page of the Sept. 13, 1940, Thank you. Come again,’ ” Hart in this edition of I Love Creston, Creston Review. (Ron followed 10 writes in one of several letters a magazine which is partly days later, having fallen ill with to the editor of I Love Creston responsible for rekindling a love scarlet fever during a health check penned this summer. “I was made affair that had barely dimmed in Vancouver.) “To date,” reads very welcome, and even in my 80s I despite the passing of decades and the blurb, “John is quite thrilled might come again. many of the people he befriended with the surroundings and likes the “P.S. I love Creston for so many here back in the 1940s. Canadian manner of doing things.” more (reasons) than the ones in my Hart and his brother, Ron, were Ironically, Hart keenly points out, article,” he adds, referring to his among 7,000 so-called British guest below the item is a photo of B.C.’s letters which inspired the feature children sent by their parents to then-finance minister who had story that follows. Canada to escape an impending visited Creston the week before, He concludes another letter with Nazi invasion early in the Second the honourable John Hart. (As a the statement: “I hope that Creston World War. The Children’s further aside regarding his name, continues to be a family orientated Overseas Reception Board placed he notes that his family is directly place and will continue to welcome the bulk of the youngsters in foster related to Shakespeare and that all who come its way.” care, but in the case of the Harts a signatory of the Declaration of they had relatives in Creston – Independence, another John Hart, What do you say? Let’s not let him an aunt, uncle and cousin who is an ancestor.) down. instantly embraced the pair as part An April 1945 Review clipping of the household. chronicles their emotional farewell. 4 October 2011 www.ilovecreston.com feature Ron, Aunty Grace and John, 1940, Canyon, BC. here’s familiarity, and there’s affection, and then there is pure, unadulterated love. The latter Tinspired an English octogenarian to maintain childhood ties to this Kootenay town over the span of seven decades and one ocean. When John Hart says, “I love Creston,” he really means it. www.ilovecreston.com October 2011 5 feature He’s hardly alone in that regard, but A subscription to a cheap long- among 30 children destined for a five- his circumstances are certainly unique. distance plan a couple of years day train trip to Vancouver. Hart fled to Canada from England ago prompted Hart to renew “The Prairie provinces seemed to early in the Second World War to acquaintances by telephone with as go on forever,” says Hart, who escape a suspected Nazi invasion, many old school chums as he could received vaccinations on the West one of thousands of evacuees known track down, including one who still Coast before being sent inland to as “British guest children” dispersed lives here, Gerry Ostendorf. She Creston. “Everything seemed big. throughout the Commonwealth began sending him copies of I Love The trains were big; the cars were countries of Australia, New Zealand, Creston magazine which he devoured, big; the trucks were big. Ron and South Africa and – in the case of sparking an insatiable nostalgia for the I felt so conspicuous in our short, 7,000 youngsters – Canada. place. grey trousers and with our Yorkshire The vast majority were placed in “It was quite an unusual but very accents.” foster care by the Children’s Overseas good title for a small-town magazine, Ostendorf remembers the freckled, Reception Board but, in the case of or for any magazine: I Love Creston,” red-haired Hart making a smooth then-nine-year-old Hart and brother says Hart from across the pond.

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