Twenty years of community news

By Stephen Harrison

The James Bay Beacon turns twenty this year, a remarkable feat for a paper driven almost entirely by volunteer contributors and production staff. In honour of this milestone we are pleased to present an updated masthead and look for the Beacon, and we welcome your feedback.

The first issue of this paper went to press in 1992, but its origins can be traced back another 20 years. What started as a newsletter for the James Bay Community Association in the 1970s soon became the James Bay News, edited by Bob Pankowski. In the early days the newsletter and the paper reported on the perceived over-development of the James Bay region.

In July 1973, Bill McKechnie wrote that "one of the fundamental problems facing this area is the evaporation of the pride and sense of community which residents and homeowners feel for James Bay." He felt that the neighbourhood was at risk as houses gave way to apartment blocks.

James Bay's makeup has undoubtedly changed over the years, but Pankowski went looking for a sense of community, and he found it. He interviewed residents to discover what drew them to James Bay, what they liked about the neighbourhood, and what they might improve. James Bay was a growing and changing community, but it was still a community.

The paper was evidence of this community spirit. Driven entirely by volunteers, advertising sales, and donations, the James Bay News continued to thrive and publish until Pankowski fell ill. Rather than continue the paper under different stewards, Bob and his wife Mary decided to retire the name, using the paper's remaining funds to establish a journalism scholarship at Camosun College.

The James Bay Beacon was established shortly thereafter, debuting in September 1992 as the James Bay Chronicle. By October its name had changed to the Beacon based on the results of a reader poll.

The Beacon was still a volunteer paper. In 1993, the editor noted that the paper was run by committee, with "enough helping hands and people willing to share the chores so that the paper has eventually made it to press."

Much like today, the paper offered community news, profiles of James Bay residents, updates from local politicians, and the occasional fitness tip, and it still "runs on volunteer energy." Jim Gerwing has volunteered with the Beacon for the past ten years, and he describes it as "a tremendous community paper." He had written for newspapers before, and he began volunteering for the Beacon because of his wife, Sharon Max. She has been with the paper since 1996, and is still an active volunteer. Both Gerwing and Max have served as board members in the past, and they are currently involved in setting the paper's layout each month.

Dan Klein has volunteered with the Beacon for the past 17 years. He moved to James Bay in 1995 and picked up a copy of the Beacon that was delivered to his apartment, discovering that, as always, the paper was looking for volunteers. Klein "went to see what it was all about," and never stopped going.

Klein has had many roles with the paper over the years, from creating and laying out ads to his current position as the resident "technical wizard." He keeps the hardware and software in the Beacon office running smoothly, and says his experience with the paper has "been a lot of fun."

The Beacon has had many homes over the years. In the early days it operated out of the James Bay Community Centre School, with its volunteers cutting and pasting articles with X-Acto knives and glue sticks to put the paper together. Klein recalls that it was a big moment when the office got its first computer to assist with production.

The Beacon briefly published out of a house on Toronto Street before it moved to James Bay Square. The rooms currently occupied by the denturist and drycleaners were once home to the Beacon, which has since settled into its current location on the Croft Street side of the Square.

By virtue of its monthly publication schedule, says Gerwing, rarely does the Beacon beat the Times Colonist to a scoop, but the articles are relevant to James Bay and all original material. He praises the volunteers who put the paper together each month. For a paper that "operates on a shoestring," it's working, and he's "delighted to be a part of it."

That there have been enough volunteers to sustain a newspaper for decades speaks volumes about the community spirit that has always been a part of James Bay. The Beacon has been James Bay's community paper for 20 years, and as long as there are volunteers and businesses to support it, there will be a newspaper to give this community a voice.