Susie Quinn

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Kelly McGiffin, left, Dwayne Stern, batboy Jackson McGiffin and Kirk McGiffin are reviving the Port Alberni Cubs—this time as an over-55 baseball team. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

7th inning stretch? Island brothers reviving baseball for those 55-plus

Port Alberni’s McGiffin brothers ready to hit the diamond again in the autumn of their game

Kelly McGiffin, left, Dwayne Stern, batboy Jackson McGiffin and Kirk McGiffin are reviving the Port Alberni Cubs—this time as an over-55 baseball team. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Carol Brown from the Alberni District Fall Fair committee, works on the online feed for the 2020 virtual Fall Fair on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. (SONJA DRINKWATER/ Special to the AV News)

Alberni District Fall Fair wins national award for innovation

Long-running traditional Vancouver Island fair went virtual due to COVID-19

Carol Brown from the Alberni District Fall Fair committee, works on the online feed for the 2020 virtual Fall Fair on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. (SONJA DRINKWATER/ Special to the AV News)
A poignant Pandemic Postcard Project submission has led Lesley Wright and Graham Hughes of Literacy Alberni on a new path toward anti-racism education. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

‘I am not a virus’: How one postcard sparked a Vancouver Island pushback against racism

Literacy Alberni receives $50K in funding to create web-driven system for reporting racism

A poignant Pandemic Postcard Project submission has led Lesley Wright and Graham Hughes of Literacy Alberni on a new path toward anti-racism education. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Courtenay-Alberni NDP MP Gord Johns gives a thumbs up to active transportation during a presentation of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce's Bike SEAT program at McLean Mill National Historic site in Port Alberni on April 16, 2021. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Quinn: Island MP Gord Johns takes victory ride for cycling strategy

Johns gained a reputation as the bicycle-riding MP during his first year

Courtenay-Alberni NDP MP Gord Johns gives a thumbs up to active transportation during a presentation of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce's Bike SEAT program at McLean Mill National Historic site in Port Alberni on April 16, 2021. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Protesters attempt to stop clear-cutting of old-growth trees in Fairy Creek near Port Renfrew. (Will O’Connell photo)

VIDEO: Workers, activists clash at site of Vancouver Island logging operation

Forest license holders asking for independent investigation into incident

Protesters attempt to stop clear-cutting of old-growth trees in Fairy Creek near Port Renfrew. (Will O’Connell photo)
Protesters attempt to stop clear-cutting of old-growth trees in Fairy Creek near Port Renfrew. (Will O’Connell photo)

VIDEO: Clash between loggers, activists halts forestry operations over Fairy Creek

Forest license holders asking for independent investigation into incident

Protesters attempt to stop clear-cutting of old-growth trees in Fairy Creek near Port Renfrew. (Will O’Connell photo)
Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns tries out one of the e-bikes that are part of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce’s new Bike SEAT program. The chamber received a New Horizons for Seniors grant for the program. (April 16, 2021) (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Innovative Bike SEAT program gets seniors out on Alberni Valley trails with e-bikes

Chamber of commerce purchased six e-bikes with New Horizons for Seniors federal grant

Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns tries out one of the e-bikes that are part of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce’s new Bike SEAT program. The chamber received a New Horizons for Seniors grant for the program. (April 16, 2021) (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Minnie Paterson, known as the ‘Heroine of Cape Beale’ for her lifesaving efforts following a tragic shipwreck on the west coast of Vancouver Island, poses for a portrait with her dog Yarrow in 1900. Paterson’s husband Thomas was the Cape Beale lighthouse keeper at the time of the wrecks of the SS Valencia on Jan. 22, 1906 and the Coloma on Dec. 7, 1906. Minnie earned her nickname after trekking through rough terrain and weather to Bamfield to alert Coast Guard Service Quadra that the Coloma was sinking. All aboard were saved thanks to her heroic efforts. This photo is one of 24,000 included in the Alberni Valley Museum’s online archives, available for public viewing at https://portalberni.pastperfectonline.com. (PHOTO PN11869 COURTESY ALBERNI VALLEY MUSEUM)

Meet Minnie Paterson, the heroine of Cape Beale

How a lighthouse keeper’s wife saved the victims of a turn-of-the-century shipwreck

Minnie Paterson, known as the ‘Heroine of Cape Beale’ for her lifesaving efforts following a tragic shipwreck on the west coast of Vancouver Island, poses for a portrait with her dog Yarrow in 1900. Paterson’s husband Thomas was the Cape Beale lighthouse keeper at the time of the wrecks of the SS Valencia on Jan. 22, 1906 and the Coloma on Dec. 7, 1906. Minnie earned her nickname after trekking through rough terrain and weather to Bamfield to alert Coast Guard Service Quadra that the Coloma was sinking. All aboard were saved thanks to her heroic efforts. This photo is one of 24,000 included in the Alberni Valley Museum’s online archives, available for public viewing at https://portalberni.pastperfectonline.com. (PHOTO PN11869 COURTESY ALBERNI VALLEY MUSEUM)
Alberni Valley Hospice Society’s Ty Watson House, in Port Alberni.

Frustated Alberni Valley Hospice staff walks out

Hospice is still operating ‘as usual,’ according to Hospice Society

Alberni Valley Hospice Society’s Ty Watson House, in Port Alberni.
The bulk carrier ‘Port Alberni’ is berthed at CentrePort in Wellington, New Zealand on Monday, April 12, 2021. The carrier is 174 metres long by 29 metres wide, flies under a Hong Kong flag and was carrying logs. (CHARMEAD SCHELLA/Special to the News)

Logging ship a trip down memory lane for transplanted Vancouver Islander

The 174-metre ‘Port Alberni’, registered in Hong Kong, spotted in New Zealand

The bulk carrier ‘Port Alberni’ is berthed at CentrePort in Wellington, New Zealand on Monday, April 12, 2021. The carrier is 174 metres long by 29 metres wide, flies under a Hong Kong flag and was carrying logs. (CHARMEAD SCHELLA/Special to the News)
Crews from Bowerman Excavating Ltd. continue replacement of a fish ladder and renovation of the McLean Mill dam on April 16, 2021. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Work on Port Alberni’s McLean Mill dam continues, despite botched tender process

Mill project progressing ‘on budget’ says special projects coordinator

Crews from Bowerman Excavating Ltd. continue replacement of a fish ladder and renovation of the McLean Mill dam on April 16, 2021. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Logging Camp Nine on Great Central Lake overlooks a large forest fire across the lake in this historical photo from May 1943. Camp Nine was bustling, with residences for logging camp staff, a rail line and rail cars visible. This is one of 24,000 photos contained in the Alberni Valley Museum’s digital archives, available for public viewing at https://portalberni.pastperfectonline.com. (PHOTO PN12220 COURTESY ALBERNI VALLEY MUSEUM)

Fires and lumber: remembering the Great Central Lake sawmill

A peek at when Vancouver Island lake was known for acres of trees and massive forest fires

Logging Camp Nine on Great Central Lake overlooks a large forest fire across the lake in this historical photo from May 1943. Camp Nine was bustling, with residences for logging camp staff, a rail line and rail cars visible. This is one of 24,000 photos contained in the Alberni Valley Museum’s digital archives, available for public viewing at https://portalberni.pastperfectonline.com. (PHOTO PN12220 COURTESY ALBERNI VALLEY MUSEUM)
Aria Pendak Jefferson cuddles ChiChi, the family cat that ran away two years ago in Ucluelet. The feline was missing until Courtney Johnson and Barry Edge discovered her in the parking lot of the Canadian Princess earlier this month. Aria and her parents were reunited with ChiChi in a parking lot in Port Alberni. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

A little girl’s wish is answered as her cat came back

Courtenay family reunited with cat that went missing in Ucluelet in 2019

Aria Pendak Jefferson cuddles ChiChi, the family cat that ran away two years ago in Ucluelet. The feline was missing until Courtney Johnson and Barry Edge discovered her in the parking lot of the Canadian Princess earlier this month. Aria and her parents were reunited with ChiChi in a parking lot in Port Alberni. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Winston Joseph, with his grandchildren, holds a copy of the letter he wrote to Terry Fox in 1980, which was included in a 2017 exhibit at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. [photo submitted]

Port Alberni remembers Winston Joseph with Canada Day parade in April

‘Mr. Positive Port Alberni’ started Canada Day folk fest, lived a life of service and faith

Winston Joseph, with his grandchildren, holds a copy of the letter he wrote to Terry Fox in 1980, which was included in a 2017 exhibit at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. [photo submitted]
Coulson Aviation’s newest Chinook helicopter, N43CU, takes to the air above the Alberni Valley Regional Airport following a complete airframe conversion into a helitanker, April 8, 2021. (PHOTO COURTESY BILL MCLEOD)

Coulson Aviation’s newest helitanker takes flight

Converted Chinook helitanker off to U.S. for new paint job

Coulson Aviation’s newest Chinook helicopter, N43CU, takes to the air above the Alberni Valley Regional Airport following a complete airframe conversion into a helitanker, April 8, 2021. (PHOTO COURTESY BILL MCLEOD)
A photo and flowers are seen during a funeral service for Humboldt Broncos’ Logan Boulet in Lethbridge, Alta. on Saturday, April 14, 2018. The Alberta hometown for a victim of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash will name an arena after him, and will also make an exception to a decades-old rule that prohibited its mayor from issuing proclamations. Councillors in Lethbridge voted unanimously Monday to approve a name change that will see Adams Park Ice Centre become Logan Boulet Arena. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Rossiter

Quinn: Take two minutes and give the gift of life

April 7 was Green Shirt Day in Canada, celebrating organ donor awareness

A photo and flowers are seen during a funeral service for Humboldt Broncos’ Logan Boulet in Lethbridge, Alta. on Saturday, April 14, 2018. The Alberta hometown for a victim of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash will name an arena after him, and will also make an exception to a decades-old rule that prohibited its mayor from issuing proclamations. Councillors in Lethbridge voted unanimously Monday to approve a name change that will see Adams Park Ice Centre become Logan Boulet Arena. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Rossiter
Phoenix House, which operates Port Alberni’s sobering centre, is monitored by video surveillance. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Man stabbed in early-morning incident in Port Alberni

This is the second stabbing in a week in the same neighbourhood

Phoenix House, which operates Port Alberni’s sobering centre, is monitored by video surveillance. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Members of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation talk with Port Alberni RCMP on March 17, 2020 at Sutton Pass along Highway 4. (Nora O’Malley photo)

Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation asks travellers to stay home

Members of the west coast nation were at Sutton Pass trying to turn people away

Members of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation talk with Port Alberni RCMP on March 17, 2020 at Sutton Pass along Highway 4. (Nora O’Malley photo)
Wounded Warrior runner Mike Bowen, with the Canadian Coast Guard, runs the Hump—the Alberni Summit—on Highway 4 on the way to Port Alberni on Feb. 27, 2020. (JOHN W. PENNER/ John’s Photography)

Wounded Warriors run cancelled for 2021

Team had already rescheduled February event to mid-April

Wounded Warrior runner Mike Bowen, with the Canadian Coast Guard, runs the Hump—the Alberni Summit—on Highway 4 on the way to Port Alberni on Feb. 27, 2020. (JOHN W. PENNER/ John’s Photography)
Contractors have started working on structural improvements to the McLean Mill dam, near the Alberni Valley Enhancement Association’s fish hatchery. Work started the week of March 15, 2021 and is expected to wrap up at the end of April. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Construction work begins on Port Alberni’s McLean Mill dam

Site remain open during structural improvement project that has been on the books since 2018

Contractors have started working on structural improvements to the McLean Mill dam, near the Alberni Valley Enhancement Association’s fish hatchery. Work started the week of March 15, 2021 and is expected to wrap up at the end of April. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)