Save the free tree tours at Riverside Hospital

Hi, my name is Dale I am raising funds for the The Riverview Horticulture Centre Society. The non profit society has been running free tree tours on the former Riverview Hospital grounds (renamed səmiq̓ʷəʔelə) for 30 years.

In 2024 the tour that includes a unique collection of 1,800 trees of 160 different species, many of which were planted in the early 1900s, will have to start paying a $825 fee per monthly tour. I'd like to gather enough funds to pay the fee for the 7 monthly tours in 2024 but I need your help.

In a recent CBC article B.C. Housing said it will require the RHCS to pay the special events fee "in the interest of transparency, fairness and equity to other organizations and groups interested in hosting activities at səmiq̓ʷəʔelə." It says other groups using the site for special events like weddings, photo shoots, reunions, and filming are required to pay the same fee — a fee it says covers the cost of processing an event application and providing a liaison officer to oversee the tour.

I read that article and it made me angry. Of course I don't think it's fair for BC Housing to charge almost a thousand dollars for a volunteer tree tour. Alas I don't think there is enough time to start a grass roots campaign to convince the ones in charge to let the tree tours continue for free--I actually wouldn't even know where to start--so instead I thought why not make an appeal to the people, that's you. If we get enough small donations piled together we can cover the seven monthly fees of $825 totalling $5775 and we can have a happy tree filled ending. Where we look at nature's ageless giants and marvel at how blessed we are to have trees in our life. We can all gather under the majestic giants and have an existential awakening where we realize how small we really are in the grand scheme of things. We'll learn that maybe we've been treating life like it was too big and we can't make enough change to leave our mark in the universe. Instead what if we made a little change. What if we all put that little change together to make a pile of cash and give it to The Riverview Horticulture Centre Society.

There's a Buddhist saying "tend the garden you can touch", I think it's Buddhist or it might be Jack Kornfield but whatever, it doesn't matter. What does matter is the little part of the garden you can touch, if we save the tours and we all go rub our hands on trees. (I actually don't know if we're allowed to do that so pretend I didn't say it.) Anyway let's be the good guys and brag about our altruism, LET'S GO EYEBALL SOME TREES!