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VALTAC Picnic in the Park 2008 UPDATE: VALTAC EVENT ...HUGE SUCCESS See Event Details Participants of VALTAC's Picnic in the Park had a lot of fun being part of launching our NEW campaign initiative, a travelling billboard that reads "Bring Community Rail to the Fraser Valley Now!" Unfortunately someone stole my digital camera and I lost all the pictures of the event, I am collecting some from people who were there. Fortunately the temperature was warm enough for the few hundred who took a chance on the weather forecast and showed up to enjoy the fabulous music of Karen-Lee Batten Canadian Idol finalist from Abbotsford, many people said they were blown away by the caliber of entertainment for the event. We received a lot of positive comments about the displays of VALTAC, South Fraser OnTrax, Rail for the Valley and the Fraser Valley Heritage Rail Society. The citizens who can remember riding on the old Interurban enjoyed both of the two historical films, City Reflections produced by the Vancouver Historical Society and the Fraser Valley Heritage Rail Societies film of the Interurban. What is really interesting to me is how word travels. We appreciate that word of mouth and BLOGS are helping greatly to pass on the message of this campaign. We intend to take the trailer to many destinations over the next few months. Today it is out by the Abbotsford airshow. Tomorrow...well you will have to wait and see! Such as http://www.southfraser.net/ Stephen Rees of http://stephenrees.wordpress.com/ has posted his comments here...with a GREAT picture of the trailer I might add. LangleyPolitics.com www.langleypolitics.com VALTAC launches new campaign - http://vancouver.metblogs.com/2008/08/09/valtac-launches-new-campaign/ Thank you for all your support. Sonya Paterson President VALTAC 604-888-2066 www.valtac.org

VALTAC IS PLEASED TO PRESENT
2nd annual
Country Picnic in the Park

Saturday August 9th, 2008 12:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Douglas Park - 20550 Douglas Crescent Langley, City

See MAP - Google Earth

VALTAC invites you to our family event, a Country Picnic in the Park, please support our efforts to bring passenger rail to the valley by attending.

Please print out and post this event ad everywhere! Your help is appreciated.

Picnic in Park Ad

www.karen-lee.com

Karen-Lee Batten performing in the park! "BC's country sweetheart and Canadian Idol Karen-Lee Batten will show her support for bringing passenger rail for the valley and sing for you Aug 9th". Come out to a fun filled family entertainment day...guaranteed! Country Music Food Children's games

VANCOUVER TROLLEY VALTAC is excited to have the VANCOUVER TROLLEY participating in our Picnic in the Park. Come out and take a ride with your family on an old fashioned Trolley car on rubber tires. Take a ride BACK in Time!

http://www.vancouvertrolley.com/

Bring your chairs, have a picnic and enjoy the sun and entertainment in Douglas Park!

TOOT TOOT All Aboard!

Supporting Valley Transportation Advisory Committee

City Reflections VALTAC is very pleased to be presenting Langley showing of the recently produced Film titled "City Reflections" This film was lauched with a full page article appearing in the Province Newspaper Sunday, May 18th. See below... This 55 minute film was produced by the Vancouver Heritage Society and gives anyone who watches it a compelling and realistic view of Vancouver THEN and NOW! See More: Press Release

Film of 1907 Vancouver out on DVD Historical society retraces old filmmaker's path with new Granville movie Sunday, May 18, 2008 Lena Sin - The Province Staff Reporter Vancouver 101 years ago wasn't nearly the hick town one might have expected. Sure, the West End was still "a forest," but Downtown Vancouver circa 1907 looks strikingly similar to the 2008 version.

Don't buy it? See for yourself.

Thanks to an avid group of local history buffs, the earliest surviving footage of the city is being released on DVD, giving the public afascinating glimpse into our past.

The original, six-minute, black-and-white film was shot by Seattle filmmaker William Harbeck on May 7, 1907. He placed his hand-cranked camera loaded with 213 metres of film in the front of a streetcar.

It was a big enough deal that The Province, then known as The Daily Province, sent an intrepid reporter to cover the event. "Many prominent citizens were suddenly stricken with kinetoscopitis yesterday," read the next day's paper. "The attacks became epidemic shortly after noon, but the results so far have not proven serious."

Beginning at the corner of Robson and Granville streets, the streetcar rattled north, capturing primly dressed ladies in long dresses

waving to the camera and cyclists pedalling down the street.

"My first thought was how well-developed Vancouver was. Vancouver was only 21 years old," said Jim McGraw, producer-director of the rereleased film. "You expect ramshackle buildings with false storefronts. You're really not expecting the kinds of significant buildings that you see."

Among the featured buildings still standing today are the Sinclair Centre and the current home of the Vancouver Film School.

McGraw, along with other members of the Vancouver Historical Society, were so taken with Harbeck's film that they decided to retrace his path 101 years later in an effort to document how Vancouver has changed. The resulting film, City Reflections, will be shown at a public screening this Thursday.

In researching the film, some unexpected trivia was discovered.

"One of the interesting things that [historian Chuck Davis] found was he was looking through the city directory on Granville Street just after Dunsmuir Street and found one 'E. Carr, Artist' as being the resident. So it's quite conceivable Emily Carr may have been looking down on Granville Street when this was being filmed," said McGraw.

For years, Harbeck's film was thought to have been shot in Hobart, Australia. The film had been acquired by an Australian film buff, who in the 1980s donated it to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

It wasn't until the 1990s that someone rightly pointed out that the film was not of Hobart, but of some city in North America. The footage eventually made its way to Library and Archives Canada, where it was finally identified as Vancouver.

As for Harbeck, he was making a bit of a name for himself in the early 20th century. Just five years after he filmed Vancouver, it's believed he was commissioned to film the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

Both Harbeck and his mistress went down with the ocean liner. "Both of their bodies were recovered and brought to Halifax," said McGraw. "Now when the real Mrs. Harbeck showed up to claim his body she was a little cheesed off . . . that there was another Mrs. Harbeck."

For more info, visit www.cityreflections.ca.

lsin@png.canwest.com

MORE ON THE WEB

To watch a clip from the historic 1907 film, go to theprovince.com/multimedia

© The Vancouver Province 2008

VALTAC for the 3rd year in a row connected with thousands of citizens at several community events including Langley's high successful Canada Day event. We were pleased to have several local politicians visit our booth. VALTAC's Board of Directors and committee members managed the booth for the two long hot days and received extremely positive response from their visitors What we find is that for those who remember the old interurban passenger rail service greatly support the idea of reinstating the corridor with a modern passenger rail service. For those who don't remember it they simply support the idea of a passenger rail service to the valley because they believe we to get people out of cars and support a healthier economical mode of transportation for the valley. The pollution that clouds our summer skies speaks for itself.