Mill Bay Community League

10/30/2026

During the Second World War, Canadian women played a vital role on the home front, and members of the Women’s Institute were among those leading the way.

Across the country, women volunteered countless hours sewing quilts, bandages and clothing for troops overseas, while also supporting military hospitals and communities in need.

Women’s Institute members raised millions of dollars for wartime causes, helped organize farm labour programs and encouraged urban women to assist with harvests during labour shortages. Through canning clubs and wartime cookbooks, they shared practical skills that helped Canadian families make the most of limited food supplies during rationing.

Their support extended far beyond Canada’s borders. Women’s Institute members organized seed donations for gardens in the United Kingdom, made jam for children and older adults displaced by war, prepared comfort boxes for soldiers, and provided maple sugar for sailors serving at sea. These supplies were packaged and shipped overseas by the Canadian Red Cross.

As we continue to celebrate Women's History Month, we remember the leadership, resilience and community spirit of these remarkable Canadian women.

Their contributions on the home front left a lasting legacy and remind us that service takes many forms.

Learn more about Women in Service: http://ow.ly/pNez30mm4k0

10/29/2026

The Trans-Canada Highway, stretching 7,821 kilometres from Beacon Hill Park in Victoria British Columbia to the eastern terminus in St John's Newfoundland, is the longest national highway in the world and one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in Canadian history, a road that took thirteen years to complete, cost 1.4 billion dollars, employed tens of thousands of workers, required engineering solutions to some of the most challenging terrain in North America, and gave Canadians for the first time a physical means of experiencing the full extent of the country they lived in. The idea of a coast-to-coast highway had been discussed in Canada since the early 20th century, motivated both by the practical need for road connections across the country and by a nationalist desire to match the transcontinental ambition of the CPR with a road that ordinary Canadians could travel. The Trans-Canada Highway Act, passed in 1949 by the St Laurent government, established the federal government's commitment to cost-sharing the construction of a paved two-lane highway across Canada with the provinces, with the federal government contributing 50 percent of construction costs on the federal standard sections. Construction began in 1950 and proceeded simultaneously from multiple provincial starting points, with each province responsible for the highway within its boundaries and the federal government providing funding and technical assistance. The most challenging section was the route through the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia via the Rogers Pass, a route through one of the most avalanche-prone locations in North America that required the construction of 14 kilometres of snowsheds, some of the longest in North America, to protect the highway from the avalanches that descend from the mountains above. The Canadian Shield section in Ontario, where the highway had to be carved through the granite bedrock of the oldest rock formation

10/27/2026

🇨🇦✈️ **The Day Canada Made Aviation History on a Frozen Lake!**

Imagine standing on a frozen lake in Nova Scotia in February 1909.

A strange flying machine is preparing to take off.

Its wooden frame looks fragile. Its wings are held together with wires. And nobody knows exactly how the experiment will end.

The aircraft was called the **Silver Dart**.

It was developed by the Aerial Experiment Association, an international group of aviation pioneers founded through the efforts of Alexander Graham Bell and Mabel Bell.

The team brought together Canadian and American inventors who shared an extraordinary dream: to make powered flight possible.

On February 23, 1909, a young Canadian engineer named J. A. Douglas McCurdy climbed into the Silver Dart.

He started the engine and accelerated across the frozen surface of Bras d'Or Lake near Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

Then something remarkable happened.

The wheels left the ice.

The Silver Dart rose into the air.

And for approximately 800 metres, it flew above the frozen landscape.

It was the **first successful controlled, powered flight in Canada.**

At a time when aviation was still in its infancy, this achievement represented an enormous technological breakthrough.

Aircraft were fragile. Engines were unreliable. Every flight involved considerable risk.

Yet McCurdy and his fellow pioneers continued experimenting.

Their determination helped establish Canada as an important part of early aviation history.

More than a century later, the Silver Dart remains a symbol of Canadian innovation and courage.

A frozen lake.

A team of determined inventors.

And one extraordinary machine that helped change transportation history forever. 🇨🇦

**Did you know Canada's first powered flight took place on a frozen lake in Nova Scotia?**

10/23/2026

During the Black Death, ships had to wait 40 days before coming ashore.
The Italian word for 40 is “quaranta,” which is where “quarantine” comes from.

So the word is literally a countdown, and we’ve been using it for centuries.
The receipts are the ships, the days, and a term born from plague-era logistics.

Humble pie for anyone who thinks quarantine is a modern invention, because irony says the concept is older than most countries.
Forty days, one word, centuries of use. ⚓

10/04/2026

Come see this and more at the Heritage Museum in Mill Bay. Sundays 11-3

For generations, sewing, mending, and remaking clothing were everyday household skills.

Isaac Merritt Singer’s patented sewing-machine design helped transform home and industrial sewing. Mass production, installment-payment plans and global marketing later helped make Singer a household name.

The Singer Model 27-4 in the museum sits beside examples of hand-pieced English Hexagon Rosette quilting—a pattern with roots in 18th-century England.

Do you remember learning to sew, or does your family have a sewing machine or handmade quilt that has been passed down?

09/30/2026

09/22/2026

BC Forest Discovery Centre Staff head South!

Yesterday the BCFDC team got a chance to tour the lovely Mill Bay
Heritage Museum. It is clear right from when you arrive how much passion and dedication has been poured into this site by its dedicated team of volunteers.

The museum is hosted in a converted church that is one of Mill Bay’s oldest remaining buildings. Their team really maximizes the limited space and you will be impressed with how much history they manage to pack into it.

The exhibits do a great job of connecting the past to the present both in terms of built heritage and the changes in social mores since the community was founded.

We had a lot of fun and learned quite a bit about the community. This museum is more than worth the trip, especially for any long term South End residents who have lived here a long time but not yet stopped in.

Currently, the museum is open on Sundays from 11 to 3, but they also
accommodate private tours on weekdays if you reach out to them directly.
Thank you to Maureen for the warm welcome, and incredibly knowledgeable
tour of the exhibits!

09/16/2026

Platforms are words. Promises are easy. Results are what matter.

Here's the gang at our Board Director's meeting last night (Sept. 15th)!

For the past five years, I’ve had the privilege of serving as President of the Mill Bay Community League, working alongside an incredible group of volunteers to make our community a better place.

From supporting local families and community programs to raising funds for local causes and helping move important projects forward, I’ve been proud to roll up my sleeves and get involved.

Community leadership isn’t about making promises. It’s about showing up, doing the work and delivering results.

That’s the record I’m bringing to this election.

Less is More.

VOTE SHANE RYAN FOR MILL BAY / MALAHAT AREA DIRECTOR