Image Credit: FILE PHOTO
November 01, 2018 - 12:45 PM
KAMLOOPS - When Kamloops city council decided to hold off on immediately funding a $8,400 project to add poppies to street signs named after Kamloops veterans, one local man decided to take matters into his own hands.
Jeff Lodge, a local researcher and member of the Kamloops Heritage Commission, has a love for local Kamloops history.
In April, the Kamloops Heritage Commission submitted a budget request to council of $8,415 to fund putting a red poppy graphic on specific street signs named after war veterans. At the time, council voted to add poppies to street signs over the next several years as they aged naturally and needed replacing instead of approving the money to replace the signs as soon as possible.
“I was kind of disappointed actually, I respect the fact they made a decision to save money,” Lodge says. “But on the 100th anniversary (of the First World War), I thought we could do better.”
Over the next few months, Lodge began making cold calls, asking people and businesses he knew if they would support the street signs project. He even donated roughly $2,000 of his own cash.
He presented a $9,000 cheque to city council on Tuesday, Oct. 30.
“There’s another $500 coming from the Boy Scouts here in town,” Lodge says, adding he is still accepting donations.
Director of corporate service Kathy Humphrey says the donation will "pretty much fast track the whole entire project."
Lodge says there are 52 street signs in Kamloops that would receive the poppy.
"I just think (veterans) should be remembered, I want to get their stories back in the community and I figured the street sign project can do that," he says.
For anyone looking to make a donation, you can contact Julia Cyr at the Kamloops Museum and Archives at 250-828-3576.
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