Elida Peers is the official Sooke Historian, and until summer 2009 ran the Sooke Region Museum. She is organizing the 2010 Volunteer Recognition Ceremony (to be held Mar.21/10 at Sooke Community Hall).

Here is the season's greetings message to the Sooke community that Elida Peers contributed to MapleLine Magazine's Holiday 2009 issue (released Nov.4, 2009):

Celebrating our community has been a big part of my life, and I often think how lucky we are to have such an incredible home to celebrate.

When I was a youngster the entire community got together to celebrate All Sooke Day; no question, this annual event initiated by community leaders during the “Depression Years” was the pride of all, young and old. Over the years there have been so many ways we have celebrated our good fortune – the Fall Fair is one – this showcase demonstrating community pride began long before 1934’s first All Sooke Day. It’s interesting to observe that we’re enjoying a “back to the land” movement and appreciating anew the agricultural and homemaking values we can share.

The first major celebration that I cut my teeth on, so to speak, was the 100th anniversary of Sooke School in 1972. Our school was the second public school in the province, after Metchosin, and the pioneering spirit was still a part of all those at the reunion. The Reunion Banquet attracted former students from all over North America, who had come together to bask in the fellowship of growing up in a community that offered so much.
It easily became contagious, noting how much enjoyment people had in getting together to share memories, good or sad. The best part, of course, would be so many people working together in neighbourliness, creating the occasions, projects and cultural events that have built our community traditions. The people from East Sooke to Port Renfrew are renowned for their sharing nature; they’ll pitch in and help with whatever project is needed, whether raising funds for a new ambulance, a benefit dance after a fire, or in 1977, the building of the region’s museum, spearheaded by the Sooke Lions Club.

Occasions to celebrate just kept coming along. In 1986 when the province was hosting EXPO, BC communities were asked to come up with ideas to highlight our culture and heritage. As artists were starting to establish a presence in our area, we decided to create Sooke’s own Fine Arts extravaganza. While not initially planned to be an annual event, its popularity was so great that we carried on with the support of hundreds of volunteers, to focus attention on our talented artists.

What a dramatic opportunity to be an exciting part of history when, from East Sooke to Port Renfrew, we all worked on organizing the BiCentennial Celebration in 1990, with the re-enactment of the Spanish Manuel Quimper’s journey into Sooke Harbour. As 10,000 people gathered on Whiffin Spit, we cheered with a thousand volunteers who not only contributed to that major celebration, but left a legacy for all.

What a highlight the next year when the Spanish naval training vessel Juan Sebastián de Elcano, with 400 cadets, sailed down the Strait of Juan de Fuca and honoured Sooke by presenting its 21-gun salute to BC off Whiffin Spit. How proud we were when Sooke Community Hall set a banquet fit for a king as our people hosted and entertained our visitors.

In 1994 it was a never-to-be forgotten thrill to watch 1,000 international athletes, competitors in the XV Commonwealth Games in Victoria, march onto our Sooke Flats in their sports uniforms, where the T’Sou-ke Nation, the Sooke Loggers Club, our local volunteers and businesses feted them royally. We heard later that the Sooke visit was a special memory of their trip to Canada.

A 1999 highlight was Canada’s Governor General Roméo LeBlanc and his wife Her Excellency Diana Fowler LeBlanc coming to Sooke to recognize 150 years of an incredible partnership of goodwill that has endured since the First Nations Peoples first welcomed the rest of us here as a community of immigrants. Hundreds of volunteers created the “Pageant of Sooke”, presenting the story of the years we have shared, to 1,000 viewers seated in the gymnasium of Edward Milne Community School.

What a great sense of accomplishment it was when our wonderful community volunteers, including international expatriates with fond memories, pooled their individual contributions to purchase the seats that made the theatre at EMCS possible. I’ll bet some of the donors have never even been to a performance there, but their loyalty and pride were such that they wanted to help support their town for the town’s sake.

Through it all, it’s been a great honour to have shared volunteer efforts with many wonderful caring people; the details here have only been a sampling of the ways that our fellow citizens, now and always, have celebrated their community. Throughout my years of being a young mother, businesswoman, executive director of our region’s museum, and participant in community activities, it is my privilege to have served, and to
continue serving, as a recorder of our Sooke area history!

Good cheer to all.  ~ Elida Peers, Sooke Historian

LEADERSHIP PROFILE ~ MM

Brief History of the Sooke Post Office (Feb. 2010)

Sooke at the Olympics - BC Streets Display at the OZONE venue, Richmond, BC (Feb. 2010)

Olympic Torch through Sooke (Oct. 2009)