PORTAPIQUE, N.S. — Alana Hirtle was pretty much moved to tears when she stepped out of the Portapique Community Hall and saw a group of children playing nearby.
“They were laughing and giggling, and I started to get emotional. And somebody else came around the corner and said, ‘What’s going on?’ And, I said, ‘That’s why we’re here. That is what we’re here for. To enable these people to be able to find some semblance of normalcy and to have some return to the lifestyle they had before and hopefully improve their community connections,’” Hirtle said.
“And I think that’s happening already… the hall is almost a side benefit," she said. "It’s enabling them to come together and have some aspect of normal life again.”
Hirtle is the campaign chairperson with the Truro Rotary club, which recently embarked on a fundraising effort called the Portapique Community Build Up Project – the aim of which is to renovate and update the local community hall.
Her comments she shared above in this story are in reference to a sight she witnessed during a recent day when a group of community members turned out to spruce up the property by removing scrub brush and alders, demolishing an old shed and stripping off several layers of interior paneling.
The idea to refurbish the rundown old hall, estimated to be as much as 200 years old, came from fellow Rotarian and Portapique resident Andrew MacDonald as a way to rebuild the community spirit following April’s mass shootings that began on Portapique Beach Road.
“Rotarians are people of action and if we see an opportunity or a situation where we feel we can help, we feel bound to do so,” Hirtle said. “Portapique is such a beautiful little community, we didn’t want that event to become its story. We really wanted to be able to change the focus of the light that was shone on them back in April and help them rebuild."
Doing something positive helps with the healing purpose, Hirtle said. “Everybody in our greater community was touched in some way by that event and we just felt that we had to do something.”
Those sentiments were echoed by MacDonald, especially in reference to the sight Hirtle mentioned regarding watching the youngsters laughing and playing outside the hall.
“That’s exactly it,” he said. “We’re going to create a space where everybody can work together on it and if they have that sense of ownership and pride of community and at the same time, when they come to use it, they’ll feel like its theirs.”
While professional trades people are involved with things such as upgrading electrical wiring and so forth, the majority of the labour is being done by local residents.
The hall is being completely renovated, with a new heat pump and the construction next year of a 9-metre by 15-metre addition.
“That will give us some time to fundraise over the winter,” Hirtle said.
The property surrounding the hall will be developed into an outdoor space for all ages to enjoy, complete with a multi-purpose court, walking trail, a playground and more.
“It’s going to mean the chance to grow community in a way that we hadn’t had before. So, for me, to put it simply, just to meet my neighbours,” MacDonald said. "But it’s also just that sense of community where we can make new memories and grow something positive and forward looking and at the same time get to know everybody a bit better.”
During a recent barbecue at the site to announce the project, MacDonald said between 50 and 60 turned out to participate.
“That alone, if that’s the only thing we ever did, it was worth it,” he said.
“Every step that we’ve taken so far, we’ve been a little bit apprehensive about whether, are we asking for too much, or do we think this is a good idea or a bad idea? But every step we do, we do get that sense of excitement or, like Alana said, that kind of warm and fuzzy feeling that this is what it is about. And every time we take the next step and do the next thing, it just builds on it and gets more and more exciting and the community gets more involved .
“It’s working, whatever it is it’s working … . It just feels good, it’s been a really nice project.”
