The i? 6 ~ Friday, Navember 4, 1988'- North Shore News THE “SPECIAL NEEDS” KIDS — the cause to which showbiz people devote themselves — owe much to the lit- tle old West Van lady who died last weekend just six months short of her 100th birthday. Agnes Watts, who lived until a year ago in modest style in an older Believue apartment, looked every bit the typical elderly widow making ends meet on a pension. But a very different picture emerged when she hii the headlines in February 1982. Dur- ing the annual} Variety Club Telethon she stole the show by handing fiabbergasted Clu of- ficials a personal cheque for $250,000 — and every year after that she added ancther five-figure gift to the Variety Club pot. They called her ‘‘the children’s angel’’ and eighteen months ago, in Lon- don at 98, she was honored by the Duke of Edinburgh with a special Variety Club award in recognition of her donations totalling over haif a million dollars. In essence, however, her story is surprisingly simple. A pre- World War One immigrant from Apathy acclaimed Germany, on her own with her children from an early date, half a century of hard work until well past 80 — plus a remarkable talent for saving from her earn- ings and investing wisely. When it came to sharing the fortune for which she'd toiied with those “special kids,’ she spent her last years a happy woman. “‘! do it for the children,”” she said, ‘‘and I couldn’t feel better!’’ We'll remember you, Agres, for your generous heart — and for the lifetime of endeavor which let you to indulge it. o . 2 ON CIVIC HUSTINGS the envy of the other 30 North Shore can- didates in this month's mayoral, council and schoct board elections are Don Bell, Dorothy Lynas, Anne MacF’onald and Richard Walton, Nor.h Van District’s four schoo! trustves all re-elected last Monday by acclamation. It saves them at least $2,000 apiece by dispensing with the need for brochures, lawn signs and ads — a nice little Christmas bonus for good behavior. Best behaved of them all, of course, has to be Dorothy Lynas, 76, who has serv- ed on the school board for an un- broken 32 years — a provincial record. Which is why they're naming the new Indian River school for her ... If North Van District Mayor Marilyn Baker wants to know how many ‘‘il- legal’? suites the District has, all she need do is divide the votes for her challenger Peter Faminow by about 1.5. Top item in Faminow’s platform is a reversal of Her Worship’s tough bylaw closing down all suites not occupied by RTICIPATION IN North Vancouver District 44 school board elections continues to limp along at the bare minimum. Though 10 candidates stepped forward to contest four available school trustee seats in 1986, seven seats — three in 1987, four in 1988 — have gone without 3 struggle to incumbent trustees in the last twe years. Aud though it would be comforting to think that acclamation is merely a unanimous show of support by the electorate for those who have worked up the effort to offer their services to the community or a confident endorsation of the work they have done in the past, it more correctly is an indication of the chronic apathy that afflicts municipal elections ia North Vancouver. The same somnolence applied to local school board elections is also applied, between occasional spurts of participation, to North Vancouver City and District mayoral races. . North Vancouver City Mayor Jack Loucks has been acclaimed in five of his six terms, while North Van- couver District Mayor Marilyn Baker, though chailenged this year, has been acclaimed in two of her three mayoral terms. This year, with the federal election two days after the municipa! election, the attention. span of focal voters will be stretched to the limit, especially on the municipal end. And in North Vancouver City and District, where voter turnout to municipal elections traditionally ranges between 18 and 25 per cent, the thought of at- | tention spans stretched any thinner is frightening. INSIGHTS ‘angel’ who stole the show passes at 99 family members ... And West Van’s new aldermanic hopeful, Bob Fearn, is very much ‘‘at home’”’ there despite a iengthy absence. Raised and schooled in West Van, the 45-year-old airline pilot’s career took him away for 20 years. On returning in 1986, he found his parents’ old Caulfeild home (built in 1912) up for sale, promptly bought it, moved in with his family and is still busy renovating. Obviously, among other things, a ‘heritage’ candidate! a id o SCRATCHPAD: New ‘‘money man'’ director on the West Van Chamber of Commerce board is ex-Brit Roger Cayford. With a 25-year background in banking and finance (since 1967 in Canada), he and wife Cherith a settled in West Van last year after stints in the Okanagan, Central Interior, Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island ... Chairing the recently formed North Shore Tourism Committee is West Van‘s Kelly Millin, with North Van’s Judi Ainsworth as coordinator. Involving both West Van and North Van Chambers of Com- merce plus reps from all three councils, the new coinmittce’s job is to help North Shore businesses get the biggest bang possible from those tourist bucks ... And talk- ing of tourist attractions, West Van Mayor Don Lanskail official- ly opens ‘‘Ambleside Landing’’ and the Seawalk extension bet- ween 24th Si. and Dundarave Pier tomorrow, Saturday. The ceremonies start at 10 a.m. in the new park at the foot of 14th — after which the mayoral party will walk (or bus if it’s raining) to Peppi’s at Dundarave Pier for the second act of the celebration at 11 a.m. s s » WRIGHT OR WRONG: The pro- blem about getting what we want is that it so often makes us forget how much we wanted it. Photo submitted HIGH TECK £0 THE DISABLED ...North Van's Gloria Hayter (r), manager of the Kinsmen Rekabilitation Centre in Vancesver, shows Japanese students round its computerized and environmental aids for the physically handicapped. The Centre — supported by the Kinsmen Mothers’ March — has won a worldwide reputation for its state-of-the-art facilities. welcome envelope. suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph WI! of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed tc every door on the North V7M 2H4 Shore. 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