The Toy Run celebrates its Silver Anniversary this weekend, marking twenty five years of roaring Harley’s, cash donations and toys for tots.
The local run, is the second longest running event in the province and is the long time “can’t miss” day of the year for the Harley riders in town. Providing one last chance to let er’ rip before putting the bikes away for another year.
From 1981 to present, organizers have delivered $140,000 dollars in donations to the Salvation Army and collected 6,500 toys for local children. The Run which will travel the streets of Rupert on Saturday will entice riders from as far away as Prince George and Alaska.
The Daily News featured the run on the front page of the Monday section, tracing the history of the event and what to expect this Saturday.
TOY RUN IS IN TOP GEAR AFTER 25 YEARS ON THE ROAD
Events organizers celebrate the long-lasting success of local fundraiser
By Monica Lamb-Yorski
Special to the Daily News
Monday, November 6, 2006
Pages One and Three
Prince Rupert Harley Riders have good reason to polish the chrome on their bikes for this year’s Toy Run, which is set to take place on November 11.
Any flash of silver will help celebrate the fact the run is now in its 25th year, making it the second longest reigning run in the province.
Organizer Marc Desaultels said in 1981 local riders had a party.
“They had some money left over and donated it to the Salvation Army.”
The next year, the group had some t-shirts printed, raised some money again, and the event has been carrying on ever since, with riders now coming from as far away as Prince George and Alaska.
Since 1981, the riders have gathered more than $140,000 dollars for the Salvation Army and donated 6,500 toys. When people buy a ticket for the dance held at the Fishermen’s Hall they are also asked to contribute a toy at the door. Extra funds are raised through coin jars, door prizes and beverage sales at the dance.
Desaultels said the totals have been better some years than others, depending on the economy.
This year, he’s urging the community to be generous.
“The Salvation Army has been hit with apartment fires, and the downsize of the community. They are in dire straits so if there’s any way the public can help it would be great.”
Tracey Gardiner, Desaultel’s sister also helps with the event. She said the main stars each year are the local musicians who donate their time at the dance.
“They are what makes the event such a success each year,” she said.
“Ian Lihou, Ross Garbutt, Dave Carlson, Gordy Olson, Paul Cox, Marc Giordano, Brian Miller, Bobby Okabe, Steve Little, Dan Sklapsky, Keith Shrubshall, Bruce Dawson, Rick Slavick, Pete Jackson, Mike Carignan, Derrick Lindsay, Nick Adey, Shane McLaren, Carl Oystensen, Darren Smith, Marc Ciccone, Mike Greene, Emily Greene, Loni Bryant, Patty Foreman, Tracey Mason, and of course Dwain Harrison on the sound, are some of the names that go way back.”
This year’s band lineup is yet to be finalized but will feature musicians from Prince Rupert and Terrace.
In addition to the dance, the Harley Riders will host a poker run where between 1 and 5 p. m. people who pay to enter visit five local establishments. At each venue players receive a card and at the last stop the highest and lowest poker hands are determined. There are two winners. The highest and the lowest split the winnings. Other poker runs take place on horses, boats and skidoos.
To mark the 25th, the 2006 Prince Rupert Harley Riders t-shirt will feature all 25 logos from the past years. They’ll be printed on black – a rider’s favourite colour, Desaultels said.
Tickets are available from Prince Rupert Harley Riders. People wanting to make donations can contact Desaultels at 624-4188.
Showing posts with label Prince Rupert Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prince Rupert Culture. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Friday, October 06, 2006
Metlakatla collection returns to Canada
One month ago we discovered a story about a vast collection of Northwest British Columbia art that was up for bid at Sotheby’s in New York, an auction that had many Canadian museum officials worried that they would not be able to compete in, due to financial limitations.
As things turned out the museums themselves probably were out of the running rather quickly, but thanks to the generosity of one of Canada’s richest families much of the collection is coming back to Canada.
The Thomson’s, one of Canada’s (and the world's) most financially secure families, stepped up on the bidding floor yesterday to bring back the much desired First Nations collection.
Spending more than $5 million dollars, the Thomson’s acquired a vast array of the Dundas Collection, which was acquired at Old Metlakatla in 1863 by the Scottish missionary William Duncan.
The 5 million dollars spent by the Thomson’s, was the largest part of 7 million spent by a number of individual bidders on various items, making it a record breaking day for Sotheby’s in the world of First Nation’s art auctions.
The Thomson’s are said to be making plans to donate their purchase to the Art Gallery of Ontario to be put on display in a space currently being renovated to accept his generous donations.
Some of the key items that the Thomson bid acquired for the AGO include a Tsimshian wooden face mask purchased for $1.8-million Tsimshian wooden face mask purchased for $1.8-million, a slave killer club of carved elk or caribou antler adorned with totemic forms, which went for $940,000, and a clan hat, purchased for $660,000.
Canada’s Museum of Civilization in Gatineau (across the river from Ottawa) was also in on the bidding though in a minor role as they acquired five items with a total price tag of $87,600. And Prince Rupert’s Museum of Northern British Columbia, acquired a Northwest Coast polychromed wooden spoon for $22,800.
With Government funding cuts becoming more common these days, it’s expected that unless other Canadian’s of financial means step forward; many other items will drift away from Canadian museums.
The Globe and Mail had full details of what was called a breathless auction. One which left many of the 70 bidders in the room shocked at the pace of the bidding and at the amount of dollars being bid during the event.
Native art trove heads home
SIMON HOUPT
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Friday, October 6, 2006
E-mail Simon Houpt
Read Bio
Latest Columns
NEW YORK — More than two dozen rare items of northwest native art will be returning to Canada for the first time since they were taken from northern British Columbia in 1863, after members of the Thomson family suddenly stepped up to the plate, spending more than $5-million (U.S.) during a record-setting auction at Sotheby's in New York.
The objects, which are expected to find a home at the Art Gallery of Ontario, include a magnificent Tsimshian wooden face mask purchased for $1.8-million, including Sotheby's buyer's premium, a slave killer club of carved elk or caribou antler adorned with totemic forms, which went for $940,000, and a clan hat, purchased for $660,000. The mask set a record for an individual piece of native North American art sold at auction, more than doubling the previous mark. The auction set an overall record, becoming the first sale of so-called American Indian art to fetch more than $7-million.
Last night, David Thomson said his family purchased the items with the memory of his late father, Kenneth, in mind. Before his father died last June, he donated a wealth of Northwest Coast and Inuit art to the AGO, which is in the midst of a massive renovation to add space for his collection.
Kenneth Thomson, the former chairman of The Globe and Mail, was the architect of a global media empire, as well as a passionate art collector and supporter of the arts.
“This was right into the centre of his psyche and his aesthetic. These objects that I selected, frankly, he knew of them — from poor photographs, from descriptions — but of course he passed away long before we knew the collection would be sold publicly.” The collection's history stretches back to its acquisition in 1863, at Old Metlakatla, near present-day Prince Rupert, by the Scottish chaplain Rev. Robert James Dundas from the missionary William Duncan.
The 80 items ranged from sacred pieces used in spiritual ceremonies to tribal art created for the developing tourist trade.
In 1959, after other members of the family deemed the collection to have no financial value, Simon Carey, a great-grandson of Dundas, took possession of the items and began research on their significance.
Over the past three decades, Mr. Carey held on-and-off negotiations for the collection with some of the world's top cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. When Mr. Carey chose last spring to let the market determine the fate of the items, government-funded institutions read the tea leaves and realized the collection would likely end up outside of Canada.
Mr. Carey is in a London hospital with cancer. His son Benjamin, who recalled playing as a five-year-old with the face mask and club, represented him at Thursday's auction.
The repatriation astonished observers in the cultural community who had expected that the high prices would prove to be out of the reach of Canadian bidders, primarily poorly endowed public institutions.
The Thomson family was represented at the auction by Donald Ellis, a private dealer based in Dundas, Ont., who also bid on behalf of two U.S. collectors and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He had been hoping to represent the Royal B.C. Museum but a special grant request made by the museum was denied late Wednesday, putting it out of the race for the pieces of Canadian heritage.
Only minutes after Mr. Ellis heard the bad news from the B.C. museum, he got a call from a Thomson family member who reportedly had been prompted to step forward by an article in Wednesday's Globe and Mail. In the article, Mr. Ellis, who said he has worked for more than 20 years to bring the pieces to Canada, decried the Canadian dependence on government funding for cultural support.
“I have no desire to be the lead hand,” Mr. Thomson explained. “It would be of immense relief to me if other wealthy individuals could step up to the plate and also partake of, and celebrate, and ultimately preserve Canadian culture.
“I know the government is under tremendous pressure; there's been a lot of criticism. There were very few funds available for this auction; I'm in no position to be critical. Life is life; governments make priorities. But at the end of the day we're Canadians — this is a defining moment, and we need to, all of us, share in it.”
The Canadian Museum of Civilization acquired five items with a total price tag of $87,600. The Museum of Northern British Columbia in Prince Rupert acquired a Northwest Coast polychromed wooden spoon for $22,800.
The auction at Sotheby's Upper East Side headquarters was a breathless affair with often spirited bidding that sometimes shocked the assembled crowd of about 70. Among Mr. Ellis's successful bids were $273,600 for a Tsimshian circular wooden bowl resembling a bird, $251,200 for a polychromed wooden headdress of Tlinglit or Tsimshian origin and $204,000 for a Tsimshian wooden comb that carried a pre-auction estimate of $10,000-$15,000.
There is one more piece of the Dundas collection that was not up for auction Thursday, but is of intense interest to Canadian research institutions: the 250,000-word journals of the clergyman from 1859 to 1865.
Mr. Ellis said he had been led to believe that being Thursday's big spender gave him first negotiating rights for the journals. “We moved the way we did with the assumption that we would now get the opportunity.”
As things turned out the museums themselves probably were out of the running rather quickly, but thanks to the generosity of one of Canada’s richest families much of the collection is coming back to Canada.
The Thomson’s, one of Canada’s (and the world's) most financially secure families, stepped up on the bidding floor yesterday to bring back the much desired First Nations collection.
Spending more than $5 million dollars, the Thomson’s acquired a vast array of the Dundas Collection, which was acquired at Old Metlakatla in 1863 by the Scottish missionary William Duncan.
The 5 million dollars spent by the Thomson’s, was the largest part of 7 million spent by a number of individual bidders on various items, making it a record breaking day for Sotheby’s in the world of First Nation’s art auctions.
The Thomson’s are said to be making plans to donate their purchase to the Art Gallery of Ontario to be put on display in a space currently being renovated to accept his generous donations.
Some of the key items that the Thomson bid acquired for the AGO include a Tsimshian wooden face mask purchased for $1.8-million Tsimshian wooden face mask purchased for $1.8-million, a slave killer club of carved elk or caribou antler adorned with totemic forms, which went for $940,000, and a clan hat, purchased for $660,000.
Canada’s Museum of Civilization in Gatineau (across the river from Ottawa) was also in on the bidding though in a minor role as they acquired five items with a total price tag of $87,600. And Prince Rupert’s Museum of Northern British Columbia, acquired a Northwest Coast polychromed wooden spoon for $22,800.
With Government funding cuts becoming more common these days, it’s expected that unless other Canadian’s of financial means step forward; many other items will drift away from Canadian museums.
The Globe and Mail had full details of what was called a breathless auction. One which left many of the 70 bidders in the room shocked at the pace of the bidding and at the amount of dollars being bid during the event.
Native art trove heads home
SIMON HOUPT
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Friday, October 6, 2006
E-mail Simon Houpt
Read Bio
Latest Columns
NEW YORK — More than two dozen rare items of northwest native art will be returning to Canada for the first time since they were taken from northern British Columbia in 1863, after members of the Thomson family suddenly stepped up to the plate, spending more than $5-million (U.S.) during a record-setting auction at Sotheby's in New York.
The objects, which are expected to find a home at the Art Gallery of Ontario, include a magnificent Tsimshian wooden face mask purchased for $1.8-million, including Sotheby's buyer's premium, a slave killer club of carved elk or caribou antler adorned with totemic forms, which went for $940,000, and a clan hat, purchased for $660,000. The mask set a record for an individual piece of native North American art sold at auction, more than doubling the previous mark. The auction set an overall record, becoming the first sale of so-called American Indian art to fetch more than $7-million.
Last night, David Thomson said his family purchased the items with the memory of his late father, Kenneth, in mind. Before his father died last June, he donated a wealth of Northwest Coast and Inuit art to the AGO, which is in the midst of a massive renovation to add space for his collection.
Kenneth Thomson, the former chairman of The Globe and Mail, was the architect of a global media empire, as well as a passionate art collector and supporter of the arts.
“This was right into the centre of his psyche and his aesthetic. These objects that I selected, frankly, he knew of them — from poor photographs, from descriptions — but of course he passed away long before we knew the collection would be sold publicly.” The collection's history stretches back to its acquisition in 1863, at Old Metlakatla, near present-day Prince Rupert, by the Scottish chaplain Rev. Robert James Dundas from the missionary William Duncan.
The 80 items ranged from sacred pieces used in spiritual ceremonies to tribal art created for the developing tourist trade.
In 1959, after other members of the family deemed the collection to have no financial value, Simon Carey, a great-grandson of Dundas, took possession of the items and began research on their significance.
Over the past three decades, Mr. Carey held on-and-off negotiations for the collection with some of the world's top cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. When Mr. Carey chose last spring to let the market determine the fate of the items, government-funded institutions read the tea leaves and realized the collection would likely end up outside of Canada.
Mr. Carey is in a London hospital with cancer. His son Benjamin, who recalled playing as a five-year-old with the face mask and club, represented him at Thursday's auction.
The repatriation astonished observers in the cultural community who had expected that the high prices would prove to be out of the reach of Canadian bidders, primarily poorly endowed public institutions.
The Thomson family was represented at the auction by Donald Ellis, a private dealer based in Dundas, Ont., who also bid on behalf of two U.S. collectors and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He had been hoping to represent the Royal B.C. Museum but a special grant request made by the museum was denied late Wednesday, putting it out of the race for the pieces of Canadian heritage.
Only minutes after Mr. Ellis heard the bad news from the B.C. museum, he got a call from a Thomson family member who reportedly had been prompted to step forward by an article in Wednesday's Globe and Mail. In the article, Mr. Ellis, who said he has worked for more than 20 years to bring the pieces to Canada, decried the Canadian dependence on government funding for cultural support.
“I have no desire to be the lead hand,” Mr. Thomson explained. “It would be of immense relief to me if other wealthy individuals could step up to the plate and also partake of, and celebrate, and ultimately preserve Canadian culture.
“I know the government is under tremendous pressure; there's been a lot of criticism. There were very few funds available for this auction; I'm in no position to be critical. Life is life; governments make priorities. But at the end of the day we're Canadians — this is a defining moment, and we need to, all of us, share in it.”
The Canadian Museum of Civilization acquired five items with a total price tag of $87,600. The Museum of Northern British Columbia in Prince Rupert acquired a Northwest Coast polychromed wooden spoon for $22,800.
The auction at Sotheby's Upper East Side headquarters was a breathless affair with often spirited bidding that sometimes shocked the assembled crowd of about 70. Among Mr. Ellis's successful bids were $273,600 for a Tsimshian circular wooden bowl resembling a bird, $251,200 for a polychromed wooden headdress of Tlinglit or Tsimshian origin and $204,000 for a Tsimshian wooden comb that carried a pre-auction estimate of $10,000-$15,000.
There is one more piece of the Dundas collection that was not up for auction Thursday, but is of intense interest to Canadian research institutions: the 250,000-word journals of the clergyman from 1859 to 1865.
Mr. Ellis said he had been led to believe that being Thursday's big spender gave him first negotiating rights for the journals. “We moved the way we did with the assumption that we would now get the opportunity.”
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