For those of us who live in the communities surrounding Bowser if you start a question with “I wonder who would know something about …?” You will most likely hear a common response: “Ask Brian at Lighthouse Feed & Garden, he has helped us out with that.… He knows who’s who in the zoo.”
Since purchasing the business in 2004, Brian has become woven into the daily rhythm of our little community—quietly, generously, and always with a twinkle of mischief that infers an unspoken acknowledgement: “You’ve come to the right place.”
Brian and his staff have built a thriving business that serves the community by taking care of our green thumb desires and nourishing our treasured pets & livestock. The business also operates as Lighthouse Country’s “fulfillment centre”—it has, over the past twenty years, become an unexpected hub of kindness and connection for those in need.
Clothes are dropped off here, sorted for distribution locally, and delivered to the weekly Sunday Station in Courtenay. There’s always a selection of donation cans at the till to aid you in choosing what to do with that spare change in your hand. A found dog awaits its missing owner, a cash donation gets transformed into a gas or grocery gift certificate, deals are made with generous suppliers to have goods from socks to tarps available for the unsheltered. Provisions of small moments of relief that ripple far beyond the moment they are offered.
This is the lens through which Brian sees the world: not as transactions, but as stories. Stories that deserve allies. Stories that deserve dignity. Anyone who has met Brian will wholeheartedly agree that Brian is a master of storytelling. He knows that to reach the heart you do it with a story…well, maybe two or three. Right Brian?
For the past eleven years Brian has also made his property available to run a perpetual bottle drive. Currently 7-10 organized local groups are benefiting from the community dropping off refundables, which are then sorted off site and exchanged for funds to support local programs/projects including those of the Beaufort Watershed Stewards.
Here’s where our story starts with Brian. Lise Lague, BWS Director, Fundraising Portfolio, shares the impact of Brian’s non-profit outreach.
“From the moment BWS began collecting refundables from Brian, back in the summer of 2020, it felt less like a logistical partnership and more like joining hands with someone who is so generous with his time and energy. Over the six years, we have collected an astonishing $49,500 from the bags of bottles and cans that you, the community, have dropped off at Brian’s.
These refundables account for 73.4% of our total income ($67,400)! This money is applied directly to all our operational costs for the society: insurance, technical subscriptions, postal box, outreach expenses and more. Because of this, our grants and donations flow straight to programs that work to ensure the quality and quantity of freshwater in our local watersheds.
Brian, we can reciprocate with stories of our own. On a late summer day, as Pam and I had just finished loading the truck, the wasps were particularly thick, actually attempting to fly away with our load! Brian stopped us on our way out, wasps circling our truck and handed us a wasp trap. That was very much appreciated by all, and a most thoughtful gesture. Another time, after our third load, he came over and handed us a couple of bath ‘bombs’ — saying he thought we might make good use of them!
On Nov 9, 2022 Brian emailed me this note when I asked him about where we were in the sequence to pick up our next load. I kept Brian’s note because I knew one day I would be involved with his recognition and this is the kind of note that would remind me how thoughtful and generous he is.”
Currently [the refundables are for] a gal and her pal to fund their trip to Calgary for a Cancer treatment. She is very brave and the treatment is scheduled for Nov 30. She had a 14+ month wait for the same treatment in BC. So, they have as many dives into the [bottle] drive as they can do until they turn it over. Then it will be all yours!
Can you imagine … doing a bottle drive to get Cancer treatment, and have your bestie with you?
~Brian
No fanfare. No announcement. Just uncomplicated compassion.
Thank you, Brian, for your big heart. Thank you for seeing need before it speaks. Thank you for living the kind of generosity that doesn’t ask to be recognized, yet deserves to be celebrated. Thank you for showing us what community can be when kindness moves quietly and steadily through it.
Because of you, the Beaufort Watershed Stewards can make a stronger stand, your community feels more connected, more supported, and more deeply cared for. And whenever you are asked why do you do all this, you humbly reply: “Because I can.”