Posted April 21, 2010
Please select this link to view the 2009 Annual Report
Posted March 31, 2010
please click this link to see actual notice sent out
2010 AGM Agenda
Posted February 1, 2010
Charlie White: The 'wonderful life' of a fishing guru
CHEK co -ounder Charlie White with an antique camera at the 50th anniversary reunion on Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Photograph by: Bruce Stotesbury, Times Colonist
A sports-fishing guru who co-founded CHEK television and CFAX radio stations died yesterday morning after suffering a massive stroke last month.
Charlie White, 83, suffered the stroke while travelling to Hawaii on Dec. 14, said Darlene, Charlie's wife of 22 years.
He and Darlene flew home by private jet earlier this week. White died peacefully, surrounded by his family, early yesterday morning at Saanich Peninsula Hospital.
"In a way it was a blessing," said Darlene. "He was such a vital guy and he loved life."
"He said often that he's had a wonderful life, and it's true. He also used to say that you regret the things that you don't do, so he didn't have very many regrets."
An inventor, filmmaker and entrepreneur, White earned a civil engineering degree at Cornell University before serving in the navy during the Second World War, then going to work in water and sewage treatment.
He later moved to Oregon so he could fish the unpolluted lakes and streams. When he and his first wife Anne married, they came to Victoria for their honeymoon and White fell in love again, this time with the city.
The couple moved here in 1956 and White applied for a broadcasting licence to set up a television station, as he had done in the U.S. earlier.
Bob Wright, owner of Oak Bay Marine Group, said yesterday that he and White started out as competitors and ended up as friends.
They met in the late 1950s, after White and Art Phillips co-founded CHEK television and CFAX radio stations.
"[White] started out with Pacific Undersea Gardens at the Oak Bay Marina and we ended up as competitors when I brought in Sealand," said Wright.
After five years, White moved the gardens to the Inner Harbour. Today, Sealand is gone and Wright owns the Undersea Gardens.
One day, Wright recalls, White accompanied him on a fishing trip to Port Alberni.
"With me he got his first two big salmon," said Wright. "That triggered him and away he went. He was really hooked."
White was "absolutely fantastic" as a fishing-gear inventor, said Wright. One of those inventions, the Scotty downrigger, became a staple piece of equipment on Wright's sportfishing boats.
Son Chad calls his dad an inspiration: "He inspired us that we could be anything that we wanted to be as long as we put in that 110 per cent and a lot of emphasis on doing what you love."
White excelled at promoting his wares and had a television series called Charlie White's Underwater World. "He was always attracted to show biz and entertaining," said Darlene.
"He loved to get his face in front of the cameras. He was on TV and radio a lot."
Chad says his father was an entrepreneur who was able to put into effect "wild ideas" -- such as making ice-cream out of a three-bedroom apartment in Portland.
"They made it in the back bedroom," said Chad. "People would call in for an order and he'd go, 'Can you hold for a second? I'll put you onto production.'
"One of his roommates would come to the phone and say, 'Production! How can we help you?'"
Another wild idea turned into the Undersea Gardens, and as a youngster, Chad played a pivotal role in testing out the concept.
"He built a little test tube first. I remember crawling down this little ladder. It was an overgrown vertical pipe that had a little net at the bottom with some fish.
"He also had us selling his fishing boats on the docks when we were on fishing trips. We knew the whole sales pitch."
Gerry Kristianson, a member of the Pacific Salmon Commission, moved to the coast in 1973 after being in the foreign service. The first thing he wanted to do was get fishing, and he says most of what he learned in those early days was by reading White's books.
"He was also the guy who attached a camera to a lure -- and for all of us ardent fishermen, this was a chance to get the fish's view of things.
"When you think of thousands of Victoria anglers who've sat in their boats, staring at those lines in the water and wondering what the devil is going on down below, suddenly we had some sense of that."
Victoria cartoonist Nelson Dewey collaborated with White on 20 to 30 books.
"Another project we worked on was called Son of Hibachi -- he invented a little fold-up barbecue.
"He had an imagination that just went everywhere."
The Whites donated $600,000 toward construction of the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney. The town has named its performance hall the Charlie White Theatre.
Besides Darlene and Chad, White is survived by sons Kevin and David; former wife Anne; and stepchildren Jay and Brandy. He also has nine grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held Friday, Feb. 5 at 1 p.m. at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney.
smcculloch@tc.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
Posted January 8, 2010
To renew your MPS (Memorial Park Society) Membership, call 250-656-0275 ext. 221 or come in in person.
Posted December 3, 2009
Education culture and arts consultant program
Posted November 2, 2009
The Mary Winspear Centre is proud to announce Philip Sutton as the new Theatre Manager.
Please click this link to view the media release.
Media Release July 28, 2009
Media Release May 7, 2009
The popular UVic on the Saanich Peninsula program offered by the University of Victoria's Division of Continuing Studies resumes on the peninsula this fall with courses at the Mary Winspear Centre and the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney. Full details will be available at a program open house at the Mary Winspear Centre on Saturday, September 12 from 2 to 4 p.m.
"We're very pleased to be able to offer the programs that so many peninsula residents support every year. Our new locations in downtown Sidney make it even easier for some residents to particpiate in our continuing studies programs," says Program Director Heather McRae. "Many of our more popular programs will be returning and we'll be adding new courses and lectures as well."
Several new courses, many with a marine theme, will be offered at the waterfront Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, which has partnered with UVic to advance the dissemination of knowledge about the oceans. The SAGE - for stimulate, advance and guide education - study groups will be held at the Mary Winspear Centre along with Dine with Scientist, Peninsula Pursuits and a variety of classes and presentations.
"This is an important partnership for us," says Ian Hennigar, executive director of the Mary Winspear Centre. "We're extremely excited about the upcoming fall program since UVic on the Saanich Peninsula fits so well into the centre's mandate to provide a community service in addition to being a performance venue."
Additonal courses will be held in other Saanich Peninsula locations. Each year the Division of Continuing Studies processes more than 1,000 registrations in the peninsula program.
Media Contacts
UVic media releases and other resources for jounalists are availabe at communications.uvic.ca/media
Posted April 20, 2009
A special Thank-you! to the Royal Canadian Legion Peninsula Branch #37 for our newly redone Memorial Pond. Please come down and check it out!
Posted April 7, 2009
It was announced that the Charlie White Theatre is in the top 3 for the Peninsula News Reviews' Annual Readers Choice Awards.
The celebratory issue will be pulished on April 29th.
Posted April 3, 2009
Soccer Storms North Saanich!
Our Blue Heron Park is seeing major action this weekend with a Master's Soccer Tournament for ages 40+ and 50+ with over 30 teams from the Pacific Coast. Click on the following link to read an article printed in today's Peninsula News Review.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/peninsulanewsreview/sports/42199872.html
Posted March 18, 2009
Sidney & North Saanich Memorial Park Society
Trustee of
Blue Heron Park
and
North Saanich Memorial Park
the site of the
Mary Winspear Centre
February 26, 2009
Dear Society member(s),
This is your formal notice that the Annual General Meeting of the Society is
scheduled to be held at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at the Mary
Winspear Centre.
Yours truly,
Marianne Emmott
Secretary
Posted October 14, 2008
Read an article from Douglas - Victoria's Business Magazine, talking about Sidney with a little note about the Mary Winspear Centre at the end.
http://www.douglasmagazine.com/sidneyStory.htm
Posted October 2, 2008
Two of the Mary Winspear Centre's staff got their hair cut for Cops for Cancer on October 2, 2008 raising $1,800 between the two of them.
BEFORE
AFTER
