Queen of the North survivors remember Hartley Bay

The Victoria Times Colonist features some interesting tales of gratitude for the people of Hartley Bay, from those that were rescued from the ill fated Queen of the North on that cold March night two years ago.

From socks to books, to a Christmas card for every resident of the village, that featured house displays on Vancouver Island that paid tribute to the "Spirit of Hartley Bay". The kindness of residents of the village apparently won't soon be forgotten.

Jack Knox, of the Times-Colonist shared some of the tributes in his column of February 7th.

Socks, books a salute to kind souls of Hartley Bay
Column by Jack Knox
Times Colonist
Thursday, February 07, 2008

Of all the individual stories to emerge from the sinking of the Queen of the North, it's the tale of Bruce Reece's socks that stuck with me.

.

'Reece was one of the 22 men from tiny, isolated Hartley Bay who piled into their boats and raced to the scene on that cold, black night in March 2006.

Among the people Reece rescued in his 21-foot cabin cruiser was a soaking wet little girl who, on the journey back to the village, huddled by the boat's propane heater, trying to warm her bare, frozen feet. Seeing her shivering, Reece peeled off his boots and gave her his socks.

Little did he know that back in Hartley Bay, his wife Betsy had ransacked the house for clothes to give the 99 drenched survivors of the sinking -- that she had, in fact, emptied his sock drawer. Once all was said and done and the passengers had been evacuated to Prince Rupert, Bruce Reece was left without a sock to his name.

There's now a followup to that story. The girl and her family came to Hartley Bay when the Gitga'at held a feast last fall. "They presented me with a couple of pair of socks," Reece said yesterday. You could almost see him wiggling his toes.

It wasn't the only expression of gratitude from survivors. This Christmas, every house in Hartley Bay got a card showing the outdoor-light display erected by a couple of survivors from Vancouver Island. They had decorated their house with the cutout of a ferry, festooned in lights and bearing the name "Spirit of Hartley Bay."

That was touching, says Jennifer Clifton, down at Hartley Bay's elders' centre. The centre is where the Gitga'at band keeps another expression of gratitude, the books donated to the village by the Times Colonist Book Sale. Last spring, Daryl Brown of AMJ Campbell Van Lines trucked several hundred volumes to Port Hardy, from where they were shipped to Hartley Bay by B.C. Ferries.

"The books are utilized very well," says Clifton. They get signed in and out just like at a library.
Reece says he sees people going in and out of the elders' centre with the books all the time.
Lots of reading time in Hartley Bay these days, what with the snow piled up head high, even rising above the boardwalks that take the place of roads in the community of 180. The weather has been so nasty that the floatplane to Prince Rupert, 140 kilometres to the northwest, hasn't flown for three days.

The books sent to Hartley Bay were chosen from the hundreds of thousands donated to last year's TC book drive. We're hoping to be similarly inundated at this year's 10th anniversary of the event, which so far has raised close to $1 million for education and literacy on Vancouver Island.

The final collection for this year's sale takes place this weekend at the former NOW furniture store at 2269 Douglas. People with good-quality books to donate are asked to drop them off Saturday and Sunday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

If coming by car, turn onto Queens Avenue off Douglas. It will help keep traffic flowing if you follow the volunteers' directions, stay in your car and let them do the heavy lifting.

It also speeds the process if you bring your books in bags or, better yet, boxes -- any receptacle that you don't want returned.

Sometimes the line of cars tails back a bit, so thank you in advance for your patience.

Good-quality books only, please. No encyclopedias, National Geographics, Reader's Digest condensed books, or out-of-date reference works.

The book sale itself will be held on the weekend of Feb. 23 and 24 in the NOW building, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

Last year's sale benefited 114 schools and literacy-related organizations on Vancouver Island -- and, out of gratitude for its generosity, one little village way up the B.C. coast.