Our newest Paul Harris award recipient
A community is not just a collection of buildings.
A community is people, people who are involved with their neighbours day to
day, season to season. Janette Glover- Geidt has helped to make Union Bay
a community through her tireless efforts that the Rotary Club of Courtenay
recognizes and has made a contribution to the Rotary Foundation in her name,
presented by Donald Gordon and Club President Robert Buckley.
Janette was born in Cumberland Hospital and grew up in Union Bay, B.C.
She attended Union Bay Elementary and Courtenay High Schools and then Victoria Normal School. She married Doug Geidt from Courtenay in 1953. Janette and Doug taught their first year in a 2 room school in Bamfield when the only way into the village was by boat or seaplane.
After moving back to Courtenay and then Union Bay Janette taught swimming and wrote and organized Union Bay's entries in Scattered Skits. Their 4th child Juliette
was born deaf so they moved to North Vancouver for her education.
While Doug taught school Janette was a stay at home mom working with Juliette on her communication skills and ferrying the other 3 children to music lessons and orchestra. She indulged her creative spirit with decorating, sewing, spinning, weaving and calligraphy. She volunteered as a swimming instructor for the handicapped, as a teacher at Jericho Hill School for the Deaf as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Junior Symphony.
In 1989, after all the children had graduated from school Janette and Doug moved back to Union Bay and built their dream home on the beach where they are generous hosts. Janette then had time to pursue another passion which was recording the history of Union Bay. She interviewed anyone who had ever lived in Union Bay in the early days (most have gone now), did extensive research in the Victoria archives and turned all the information she had gathered into a book called The Friendly Port. She received a literary award for the Friendly Port.
Janette then got involved in the Union Bay Historical Society (UBHS). Withh dedicated volunteers she has spearheaded many projects. In 1990 the UBHS bought the old Union Bay Federal Post Office which they renovated and now rent back to the Post Office, rent out part of the upstairs and use the rest themselves. The UBHS also renovated and moved the old Union Bay Goal to beside the post Office. It is used for a delightful Museum with changing displays. Maintaining the 2 buildings is an ongoing challenge. For fundraisers and fun Janette has written and directed numerous musicals called "History & Humour" for the Hysterical Society as Doug fondly calls them.