The Friends of Ruckle Park Heritage Society is delighted to announce that it is receiving its first and most generous grant to guide future improvements to Ruckle Park heritage.
The Heritage Legacy Fund has provided $10,000 to help with the creation of a “Ruckle Park Heritage Conservation Management Plan”, which will not only serve Ruckle Park, but will become a template for conservation work on all BC Parks heritage sites. Ruckle is ideal, because it has some of everything, from deep woods to fields, from old farm structures to modern interpretive features.
BC Parks has provided matching funds, to ensure the project’s completeness. The work will be directed by Heritageworks, under the skilled hands of Gord Macdonald and Ben Gourley. Some additional, volunteer help will be needed. Please contact Brenda, see below, if you have skills or interests to offer this project or future work.
The BC Heritage Branch has also contributed $40,000 for the development of this Conservation Management Plan, as well as for repairs to the historic lathe-and-plaster walls in the 1876 Henry Ruckle house, with work set to begin this summer.
The Friends of Ruckle Park Heritage Society (FRPHS)
“We started in 2016,” says founder and president, Brenda Guiled, “as an official BC Parks Volunteer Group. We were to move the old Monk farmhouse to Ruckle Park, a great community effort that failed, most unfortunately, in 2017. Since then, we and BC Parks have been working out what to do next, among so many possibilities. This Management Plan will provide the vision and guidance needed to keep the farm going, in keepng with the wishes and spirit of the Ruckle family.”
About the Heritage Legacy Fund
The Heritage Legacy Fund is the only provincial grant program that supports heritage conservation, awareness, planning and Indigenous partnership projects.
Since June 2005, it has provided $1.8 million of project funding, made possible through a $5 million endowment established in 2003 by the Province of British Columbia.
Applications are received from non-profits, local governments and First Nations, seeking funding to support all kinds of heritage work from building maintenance to large scale conservation, from signage to exhibitions. Funding for heritage planning projects was added in 2017, and in 2018 a new funding stream was created to support partnership projects between heritage organizations and Indigenous peoples.
Of the over 125 grants provided to date, projects have included life safety upgrades to the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Society building in Vancouver, the creation of a digital heritage trail on Bowen Island, the revitalization of the Miner’s Union Hall in Rossland and a BC Heritage Fairs online exhibit, to name a few.
This Year’s Grants
“The Heritage Legacy Fund Committee was impressed by the diversity of heritage project applications this year,” says Angie Bain, Heritage BC Director and Researcher with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. “Successful applicants have demonstrated the significant, innovative and meaningful ways that local communities, repositories and organizations are embracing reconciliation and working to protect, promote, and celebrate heritage on behalf of all British Columbians.”
The 2018 grants were overseen by a jury of four members and supported by Heritage BC staff.
About Heritage BC
Heritage BC is a charitable not-for-profit supporting heritage conservation across British Columbia through education, training and skills development, capacity building in heritage planning and funding through the Heritage Legacy Fund. We are passionate about building links between heritage conservation and tourism, economic and environmental sustainability, community pride and an appreciation of our common history.
Heritage BC’s Vice-Chair Lynda Lafleur says: “Every year many community heritage projects are received for consideration under the Heritage Legacy Fund. This year was no exception with a wide variety of excellent submissions from various regions of B.C. We appreciate the efforts of individuals, heritage organizations and local governments who choose to spend their time raising funds to preserve an important aspect of their local history.”
