VictoriaB次元官网网址檚 Cool Aid Society is celebrating a milestone anniversary: 50 years of reaching out to its community.
To commemorate this, Cool Aid staff have dug through the archives and found 50 of their favourite photos and newspaper clippings and are putting them on display at their downtown community centre from June 14 to Aug. 10.
The photos range through the five decades, with an emphasis on the 1960s when Cool Aid began. The pictures include the long hair and shaggy beards of the days of flower power, when B次元官网网址渉ippiesB次元官网网址� were the ones trying to get the society rolling as an outreach centre for youth.
B次元官网网址淭hatB次元官网网址檚 how Cool Aid became cool,B次元官网网址� said Alan Rycroft, the organizationB次元官网网址檚 community relations manager. B次元官网网址淚t was 1968 and everyone was cool then.B次元官网网址�
The society started in the church at Fernwood and Gladstone B次元官网网址� now the Belfry Theatre B次元官网网址� and focused on helping youth. They also started a crisis phone line that offered help on everything from counselling in moments of personal distress, to providing information on local health offices, in the days long before the Internet.
| Circa July 1967- Founders of the Cool Aid Society Laurie Smith (left), Lynn Curtis and Charles Barber. (File contributed) |
Some of the founders have already seen the display.
B次元官网网址淲hen we took them into the community centre, they just went straight to the walls with the photos, they just had to see them,B次元官网网址� Rycroft said with a laugh. One of their favourites showed three of the founders standing on the roof of an old Chevy. B次元官网网址淭hey were talking about how solid that roof was, I donB次元官网网址檛 think that would work now.B次元官网网址�
Rycroft also appreciated the image, he said, as it looked like the three of them were looking forward to the future.
| Undated- A glimpse of Cool Aid's previous Street Link shelter at 1900 Fernwood Avenue (File contributed)S |
The pictures will be for sale for $50 each, with contributions going to the Cool Aid Society. Artistic work from some of the societyB次元官网网址檚 members will also be for sale.
The exhibit is on display at Cool AidB次元官网网址檚 Downtown Community Centre at 755 Pandora Ave. through Aug. 10. Admission is free, but donations towards the society will be gladly accepted.
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