eg Chil ANAHEIM, Calif. — A local group of dedicated volunteers proved it’s a small world after all when they helped make dreams come true for 73 termi- naily-ill, seriously-ill and Severely-disabled B.C. youngsters, who were airlifted Wednesday to Disneyland. Two North Vancouver children, Rebecca Crosby, 9, and Gregory April 15, 1990 News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222 Distribution 936-1337 4@ pages 25¢ dren’s dreams come true ‘ West Van millionaire gives most of it away f: (AFFLUENCE & : “INFLUENCE: 17 | 73 ILL AND DISABLED B.C. YOUNGSTERS AIRLIFTED TO DISNEYLAND BY FOUNDATION By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter Watson, 12, were among the fucky travellers to the self-proclaimed *‘Happiest Place On Earth.”’ Tue trip was organized by the Sunshine Foundation of Canada. Vancouver’s chapter of the foundation was established by Paul Johnson in May 1988. And Johnson spent two years laying the groundwork for the foundation’s first ‘“‘dreamlift’’ to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The $70,000 trip was supported and partially funded by the North Vancouver RCMP detachment, which rzised approximateiy $18,000 by bringing the RCMP musical ride to Mahon Park last year. The police also accompanied the NEWS photo Cindy Goodman THREE-YEAR-OLD Hana Davis meets Easter Bunny April Johnstone at Maplewood Farm in North IHSIDE: & COCKTAILS & CAVIAR: 15 y Vancouver. The farm will be the site today (Sunday) of a number of Easter activities including an egg & bant and egg coloring. children on Wednesday’s dreamlift and arranged to have over 50 vol- unteers from the Orange County sheriff’s department (a 2,400- member law enforcement agency) help handicapped children off and back on to the plane at John Wayne Airport. The Californian police officers then pzired up with the children to enjoy an afternoon in Disneyland. The yfesponse to the call for police volunteers was immediate and overwhelming according to Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, ‘‘We put out a notice ask- ‘ing for 50 volunteers and we had over 100 in a couple of hours. We take our hats off to the Sunshine Foundation and we’re glad to be a part of the process.”” Rebecca, a Lonsdale Elementary School student, experienced Disneyland for the first time with Orange County officer Ramona Buchlmayer. Rebecca suffers from See Disneyland Page 5 Versatile cioses drafting division BUT CEO OPTIMISTIC ABOUT FUTURE VERSATILE PACIFIC Shipyards Inc. closed its North Vancouver drafting division on Thursday, throwing 15 shipyard draftsmen out of work. But both the shipyard’s management and a union repre- sentative say the move was un- avoidable. Versatile chief executive officer Peter Quinn said the company had no choice but to shut down the drafting office because of a lack of work at the North Vancouver shipyard. “The drafting office is very much like all of our other offices and when the work is low we have to cut back,”’ said Quinn. “If any- thing, the drafting office has been kept going longer than most other offices.’” Quinn said he is optimistic that the North Vancouver operation will receive more business in the future, but added that cutbacks have to be made in the meantime. “With the outlook for new business, while it is good down the road in the area of ferry contracts, we had to take remedial action in the meantime and it is very pain- ful,”’ said Quinn. ‘‘It’s (layoffs) a very difficult thing to do.”” In addition to putting 15 draft- smen out of work, closure of the Versatile’s drafting department resulted in the temporary transfer of three other draftsmen to the company’s Esquimalt shipyard. Bob Briere, head shop steward at Versatile’s North Vancouver operation, agreed that the closure of the drafting office was un- avoidable, He blamed the move on the cancellation of the $680 million Polar Class 8 icebreaker contract. The contract had been awarded to the North Vancouver shipyard by the federal government, but was then chopped in federal Finance Minister Michael Wilson’s Febru- ary budget. “Ie definitely hurts us,’’ Briere said, ‘because if we get any new TRAVEL TIPS: 23 By SURJ RATTAN News Reporter customers coming in they would want to see our drafts. The major- ity of them (draftsmen) were work- ing on SAR’s (search and rescue vessel construction) and that was ‘With the outlook for new business, while it is good down the road -in the area of ferry contracts, we had to take remedial action in the meantime...’’ — Versatile CEO Peter Quinn Re ee supposed to hold them over until the Polar 8 came in,’’ said Briere. ‘*Fhey’re being let go with justification. They had to let them go because they (federal govern- ment) shafted us on the Polar 8.”" He added that the draftsmen be- ing let go will receive severance pay. In March, Versatile laid off ap- proximately 100 workers from its North Vancouver yard, and Ver- satile personnel manager Bill Evers said at the time that the layoffs were due in part to the loss of the Polar 8, which was expected to create up to 1,000 jobs over four years for Versatile’s North Van- couver and Esquimalt shipyards. Since the foss of the Polar 8, the provincial government has set up a lobby group, made up of repre- sentatives from the shipbuilding See Feds Page 5