The Mack Laing Heritage Society held its Annual General Meeting and Art in the Park, behind Shakesides in Mack Laing Park, on June 11, 2016, and reflected on a year that brought both challenges and triumphs.
Despite the disappointment of watching Baybrook demolished, the group focused on Laing’s second house, Shakesides. At the eleventh hour this house was saved by the intervention of the Attorney General of BC, because it was protected by a trust bequeathed to the Town.
In the fall of 2015, the Society began a concentrated program of invasive plant removal around Shakesides, with the support of the Town of Comox Parks Department. As a result of this work, the area around the house is seeing native species return. The group has also planted fawn lilies rescued from the Tsolum River area, where the new inland highway connector will be constructed.
The highlight of the year was when the MLHS was presented with a 2016 Heritage BC Award for Education and Awareness, for its work to raise public awareness of the importance of history, and the heritage of Mack Laing himself.
The Society’s website has proven an effective and popular tool for distributing information. It has had thousands of visitors over the past year, with between 50 and 100 visitors a day during peak periods. Over 60% of visitors were between the ages of 18 and 35.
The comments received while working around Shakesides, and from the online petition to save Shakesides, make it plain that there is considerable support for a natural history museum in the house.
The Society participated in the BC Nature Annual Convention in May. Author Dr Briony Penn was presented with the Mack Laing Award for her biography, The Real Thing, about Ian McTaggart-Cowan, a student of Mack Laing’s.
The Art in the Park on June 11, despite the mixed weather, attracted many visitors and families and resulted in interesting conversations about the future of Shakesides, as well as making plain the support of regular visitors to the Park.
The Society voted to have future AGM’s held on or near the date of Mack Laing’s birthday, February 6th, an important date recognized with a special party for two years. The most recent, also held behind Shakesides, attracted over 50 people and was considered a great success.
The new Executive is committed to the Society’s mission ‘ to maintain and promote the dissemination of Mack Laing’s environmental values and legacy’.
The Mack Laing Heritage Society celebrates the rich natural history of the Comox Valley through the person of one of its most renowned naturalists – Hamilton Mack Laing.
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