The Pender Post

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The Pender Post

Pender Island’s monthly publication featuring local updates, events, and contributions from our island community.

Published by The Pender Post Society, since 1971.

05/30/2026

In the new June issue of The Pender Post, you will find your go-to monthly island events calendar, and many updates from our fantastic local groups. A few highlights this month include:

📌 National Indigenous History Month
📌 Run, Walk, Wheel for Wellness with Pender Islands Foundation
📌 Gulf Islands Tour des Îles Arrives
📌 Pender Island Community Choir Returns
📌 Einars Hill Walking Trail with MAP-Moving Around Pender
📌 Solstice Show Fêted
📌 Pender Island Fire Rescue Chief to Retire
📌 Youth Summer Jobs and Internships

Dear print subscribers, your copies are with Canada Post, to be delivered soon — check your mailboxes! For online subscribers, your digital edition is up on our website.

Looking to buy a copy? Check our latest post in the Online Market group for a list of stores.

We hope you enjoy reading the first of our summer issues this year!

—The Pender Post Society Team

📷 E. Myles Clarke

05/29/2026

Our June issue is out now! It’s currently available at select island stores, and on the way to subscribers’ mailboxes. The first of this year’s summer issues, with updates from community groups, as well as your go-to monthly events calendar. Get yours while you can at:

📍 Pender Island's Tru Value Foods
📍 Talisman Books & Gallery
📍 Pender Island Pharmacy
📍 Truss Farm Food
📍 Medicine Beach Liquor Store
📍 Southridge Country Store

And as usual, it’s up on our website for online subscribers.

Thank you for reading,
— The Pender Post Team

📷 by E. Myles Clarke

05/28/2026

MAY 2026 COVER STORY. Reflecting on this month’s issue cover, before we move on to the next one.

As read on page 4: “While selecting a cover image each month, we aim to celebrate the essence of Pender Island at that time: a wet and mossy walking trail in March, beautiful cherry blossoms in April. One might have expected our May issue to feature blooming lilies or a colourful songbird. Last year’s May cover, two lazing lambs, can be seen at penderpost.org/archive.

This Banana Slug introduced itself along a trail near Magic Lake in mid-April and I paused, with the help of my son, to capture a spring moment I’ll long remember. I asked the Pender Islands Conservancy Association for some info about banana slugs, and they did not disappoint. Check out the [link below] to visit a recent blog post that contains a… cornucopia of fascinating insights.”

— Matthew Coutts, Managing Editor

https://www.penderconservancy.org/post/meet-pender-s-only-native-slug

Do you have a steady hand and love viewing Pender’s natural beauty through a lens? Send your pictures to [email protected], and be sure to share the details. It may be used on our website, as a “Pictured on Pender” feature, or a future cover.

05/16/2026

There’s still copies left! This long weekend, catch up on local activities with The Pender Post’s May issue. Get yours at these fine local shops:

📍 Pender Island's Tru Value Foods
📍 Talisman Books & Gallery
📍 Pender Island Pharmacy
📍 Truss Farm Food
📍 Medicine Beach Liquor Store
📍 Southridge Country Store

Enjoy this latest spring issue and the extended weekend, kicking off our islands’ buzzing summer time!

📌 Unveiling SDÁ,YES Welcome Signs
📌 Pender Islands Farmers' Market Season Returns
📌 Pender Islands Foundation Fund Run Arrives
📌 Expanding Repair Cafe at Pender Island Community Hall
📌 Time to Think About Festivals!
📌 Time to Think About Burn Permits! With Pender Island Fire Rescue
📌 The Noble Banana Slug
📌 Must Read: Pender Island Chamber of Commerce’s Sandra Tretick on Volunteerism

— The Pender Post Team

CORRECTION: In this issue, the monthly calendar and special events list on pages 36 & 37 incorrectly read APRIL in the header. It should have read MAY. We are sorry, and rest assured the actual calendar and event listings are for the month of May! Note library opening hours are 10 AM — 3 PM, when it reopens. 🤍

05/15/2026

An exciting new addition to the media landscape on Pender, meet Pender Radio this Saturday on the Pender Island Community Hall grounds.

05/09/2026

We made some errors! 🚫 Dear readers, our latest issue, May 2026, contained a few mistakes, including titling the monthly events calendar on pages 36 & 37 with April instead of May (shown here ⬇️). The dates and events are indeed for this month of May. Our apologies.

There are also a few typos and double printed text, which we did not catch during the nailbiting crunch of getting the issue out to print in time. Rest assured, we are on it, and are in the midst of streamlining some of our processes. Let’s call these “growing pains”, as we are slowly modernizing our beloved publication with much needed tweaks and expanding to connect with more readers.

We thank you wholeheartedly for your patience and understanding as we work out some of the small issues, like these, arising along the way!

As always, your readership is what drives us: why we do what we do, and why we’re making things even better.

— The Pender Post Team

05/08/2026

This month’s message from our President, May 2026 issue. // Good Morning, Pender Island!
“It is a distinct pleasure to watch Pender Island wake up from its winter slumber. As the sun stays longer and the air gets warmer, so too do the hiking trails become more attractive, the shops and markets more active, and the hubs that host our island events seem a little easier to reach from the comfort of my living room in Magic Lake.

Take the volunteer fair, hosted by the Pender Island Community Hall in late April. This is where I spent a recent Saturday, talking with people about the very thing to which this newsletter dedicates itself: bringing Pender Island together.

Over the course of one morning, I spoke with all sorts – from recent newcomers and a young woman partway through a two‑week volunteerism program that had her working at a nearby farm, to former Pender Post Society board members and current volunteers. Not to mention the like‑minded folks staffing other tables at the fair, like George Fowlie representing Pender Radio, and Carolyn Cartwright-Owers — who was on hand for the Pender Island Junior Sailing Association Program but could just as easily have been wearing hats for Pender Islands Parks and Recreation Commission, the Nu-to-Yu, and a list of other island groups too long to reprint here.

It was a delightful way to spend an early spring day on Pender Island. And when the market closed for the day, I returned refreshed and revitalized. It’s hard not to have a spring in your step after spending the day surrounded by those who so happily walk the talk: it takes a village.

After the fair, I retrieved my hound and set out on a two‑hour hike along the roadways of Magic Lake Estates. Tired but overflowing with good vibes and vitamin D, I marched down to the end of the dock, took a moment for myself and – stripping down only as far as was publicly appropriate – shortly after 3:15 pm on April 18, took my first plunge of the year into Magic Lake.

To be sure, it was a distinct pleasure to have Pender Island wake me up from a winter slumber of my own.”

— Matthew Coutts
President & Managing Editor
The Pender Post

📷 by Noémie Crépeau

05/05/2026

2026 CENSUS STARTS TODAY. AS SEEN IN THE MAY ISSUE, PAGE 10: Pender Island by the Numbers. // As a small, rural, island community, we benefit greatly from the data and information gathered through the Census process. From planning to services and their funding, residents and visitors, homeowners, renters, students, entrepreneurs, businesses, non-profit organizations, realtors, and more all rely on general participation for relevance and accuracy.

Every household across the country completes the census, and about one in four receives the long-form. The longer format allows the collection of useful detailed statistics like commuting patterns, industries, income, housing, languages, and more. It's easy to imagine how crucial it can prove for a small population like ours.

In The Pender Post's May issue, we published a short article (page 10) highlighting some of the local insights shared with us by Statistics Canada... but there's more to it! View the helpful graphs in this post, and find out more about their interpretation by reading the full, detailed article on our website. (Visit the Featured Articles page, or simply click the link below.)

"When Canadians participated in the last Census of Population in 2021, we helped create detailed snapshots of communities large and small—including Pender Island. As we look ahead to the 2026 Census (starting May 4, 2026) it’s worth exploring what we learned, how Census geography works on Pender Island, North and South, and why participation matters."
Read the full Statistics Canada article here: https://penderpost.org/census-2026-pender-island-by-the-numbers/

Be on the lookout for your Canada Census letter in your mailbox and for our local Census Enumerators!

05/02/2026

The Post’s May issue, with your most complete monthly island events calendar*, includes many local groups' recent updates. Some highlights:

📌 Unveiling SDÁ,YES Welcome Signs
📌 Pender Islands Farmers' Market Season Returns,
📌 Pender Islands Foundation Fund Run Arrives
📌 Expanding Repair Cafe at Pender Island Community Hall
📌 Time to Think About Festivals!
📌 Time to Think About Burn Permits! With Pender Island Fire Rescue
📌 The Noble Banana Slug
📌 Must Read: Pender Island Chamber of Commerce's Sandra Tretick on Volunteerism

Our dear print subscribers, your issues have been delivered to your mailbox. For online subscribers, your digital edition is up on our website.

Looking to buy a copy? Check our latest post in the Online Market group for points of sale!

* PLEASE NOTE: Our calendar event listing pages 36 & 37 have an error in their header, reading April instead of May. Pardon our team for the mistake, and note the events are in fact for this current month, May. Thank you for your understanding. 🙏

📷 This issue’s cover image was taken by our very own President & Managing Editor, Matthew Coutts.

We hope you enjoy this latest issue. Many thanks for your support.

—The Pender Post Society Team

04/30/2026

The May issue is out! Find it in stores now, and on the way to subscribers’ mailboxes. Read the latest updates from many of our community groups, as well as your go-to local events calendar*. Get your copy while you can, at select local shops:

📍 Pender Island's Tru Value Foods
📍 Talisman Books & Gallery
📍 Pender Island Pharmacy
📍 Truss Farm Food
📍 Medicine Beach Liquor Store
📍 Southridge Country Store

And as usual, it’s up on our website for online subscribers.

Enjoy this latest spring issue!
— The Pender Post Team

*CORRECTION: In this issue, the monthly calendar and special events list on pages 36 & 37 incorrectly read April in the header. It should have read May. We regret the oversight, and rest assured the actual calendar and event listings are for the month of May!

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http://www.penderpost.org/

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