by Christine Whelan-FEO
Jan 20, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 11
A few months back, I had gotten in touch with a Crystal Beach resident, asking about a story I was writing at the time. Orma Bleeks, I had found out, is no ordinary resident of “the beach”. Orma, I learned, makes things happen.
“I see myself as the co-ordinator. I don’t do the work. I just find the people who can do it or the ideas on how to do it,” she explained to me. “This is, to me, what community development organization is all about – connecting people to get the job done and then moving on to the next project.”
Born in an Ottawa hospital, Orma lived for her first twelve years in a small town outside of Ottawa, Metcalfe, on a farm. As her father got older, he didn’t want to deal with the farm anymore so the family then moved to Ottawa.
“I came to Toronto in 1967 when I graduated as a nurse.”Bleeks has always been drawn to helping others. This shows in her career choice, as a nurse, and everything she’s been doing in Crystal Beach since she arrived. This is her mindset.
When Orma Met Crystal Beach
“I came down, from Toronto to Crystal Beach one snowy day, in April of 1999. I was looking for a safe, sandy beach for my grandchildren, who were young — four and six — at that time. A friend of mine had a trailer at Sherkston Shores for many years and she told me about Crystal Beach. I came down. I saw the beach. And I was sold.”
She continued, “I first rented the cottage that I now own for a weekend, the May long weekend. The whole family came down. We all loved it.”
But she couldn’t afford to rent it on a weekly basis. It was expensive, even back then. “So, I rented a smaller place, which was still really nice but at less than half the price.” She explained how she had rented the original house, short-term, a couple of times over the years, as well as another two-bedroom place behind The Chill Shack. But she never again left Crystal Beach.
“Just by sheer luck in 2002, this house came up for sale,” she was referring to the house she currently lives in, the house she started out in. She found a way to make the down payment and bought it in January of 2003.
Once Settled, She Started Getting Involved
Orma recalled it was around 2005 when she first became a member of Friends of Crystal Beach (FOCB), a not-for-profit that formed in 2001.
Eventually, she and a friend left FOCB, forming Advancing Crystal Beach, with intentions of starting a beautification project.
“We formed Advancing Crystal Beach. We connected with people who were interested. And all together, we came up with the money needed to register as a non-profit provincially.”
She thought she might be Secretary but she was appointed President. It was because everyone else was too busy but as things have played out, it was meant to be. The community became her heart.
“It’s been a fun ride.” She admitted lightheartedly, “I had no idea what I was doing at the beginning.“
Orma explained how another member who had previous experience, wrote up the by-laws. “Then I sent in the paperwork. I’d never done this before so it was great fun and I’ve learned so much.
“So many things have happened by happenstance. For instance, there was no place to meet in Crystal Beach, for us to have meetings. One day, I happened to be driving by the Crystal Ridge Community Church on Elmwood Street and Pastor Frank was there. I had never met him before. But I went in and said hello, and I wondered, is there a possibility of our group of eight to ten people meeting in the church. And he said, sure, no problem.”
And things began to fall into place. “We just sort of started doing things.”
Welcome Packages
Phil Smith, according to Orma, came up with the idea of having a welcome package for new residents when they moved to Crystal Beach. “So, we developed a welcome package. One of our volunteers made really nice cloth bags out of material that was donated. She would put “Crystal Beach” on them.”
When asked if they are still doing this, Orma replied, “No, I haven’t been able to find a volunteer and physically, I can’t go up and down the steps of residents’ houses myself.”
Bleeks is still interested in getting this project back up and running if she could find a couple of volunteers who could help, “because it was a great way to meet new people and to introduce them to Crystal Beach, to give them info that may be hard to find.”
Gardening Project
In 2016, Advancing Crystal Beach got a grant from Niagara Prosperity Initiative to develop a community garden on Sexsmith Farm on Dominion Road, just east of Ridgeway. Orma commented, “If you remember that year, it was particularly dry and particularly hot. The well at the farm ran out of water for the first time in a hundred years.”
She explained another challenge to that project. “It was a great idea. We got a lot of beds made out there. But the farm was too far away from Crystal Beach for those who didn’t have access to a car to get there.” And this would be one reason it was decided not to be a continued project after that year.
But Orma found another way. “I started attending something called the Niagara Garden Network. They funded raised garden beds for people living on low income and those with disabilities. Now, over a three-year period, there are, I believe, 14 raised beds in the co-op in Crystal Beach. So, people have them right beside their unit. It’s easy for people to use. It’s right outside their door. The water’s there. They can go out, pick something, and cook it right away. And that, to me, makes a lot more sense.”
This project provides healthier food choices and saves money. “The families now grow all sorts of veggies. A couple of women there, grew lots of tomatoes so they made their sauces to freeze for the winter. Another woman makes jams. She has grown all kinds of things. We put in a second bed for her last year because she wanted to grow more. Her five-year-old son was our foreman. He’s such a cute little guy. He has autism and doesn’t talk a lot but he got used to us and took part in all the stuff. He carried soil that needed to be moved using a pail.”
Orma described more of his mom’s work with her garden. “She went all out. Decorated it, recycled an archway, putting it in between the beds. She grew vines across it so she now has this really lovely entranceway for her unit to be proud of.
There are just so many layers to this community project. It’s not just about food.
Farmers Market
“We started the Farmers Market. That went over well. We did it on a volunteer basis the first year. The next year, we got funding to hire a Market Manager for two years. It was at the Crystal Chandelier, in the parking lot. Carol MacKay was very accommodating to let us have it there. And now the people of the Crystal Beach BIA like the market. They think its a benefit to Crystal Beach so they’ve taken it over.”
I asked, and that’s a good thing? “That’s a very good thing.”
Orma described the ACB’s relationship with the Crystal Beach BIA. “We work closely with the BIA to promote them.”
The market is now moved to Queen’s Circle. “They expanded on it. Sandy Lyons from the Apothecathary Shoppe has had music coming to the Circle. She had someone there doing barbequed pig quite often. There was a variety of different vendors.”
Crystal Beach Business Brochure
The BIA asked Advancing Crystal Beach to take on the brochure last January. “So, we went around to all the businesses, got their sponsorship and made the brochure. One of our directors is a graphic artist and she put that all together. We’ve been distributing it.” The brochure was done two years ago. “We didn’t want to update it last year with the pandemic and the money needed to do it.”
With all the projects, Orma is in the middle, at the core of it. She connects all the people in the community who have the resources and skills.
And Now, The Fire Station As Village Hall
Orma and Advancing Crystal Beach are currently working hard towards obtaining the Crystal Beach Fire Station for a village hall and community centre. This includes doing the work to show the support of, and the need for the centre.
A survey was conducted during the summer on Facebook. Bleeks reported, “Over 400 residents responded, saying this is a great idea and we’d love to have the hall here. Over 100 people stated they would help as volunteers, either to help raise money or to volunteer in it to run it. We see it as being mostly volunteer run, as opposed to paid staff all the time.”
“The idea being that it would be multi-purpose and it would fund itself.” Orma described the proposed programs and matched them with the stated interest from the community. With this, they also worked out an intended schedule to accommodate this interest.
Beyond the programming, “There’s enough space, we can have community service providers come in and see people so that people don’t have to travel to Fort Erie or Niagara Falls or St. Catharines. They could be seen right here, in Crystal Beach.”
Orma added, “It wouldn’t just be Crystal Beachers. It would be for anybody in the area. It’s easier for people in Stevensville to come to Crystal Beach than it is to go to Fort Erie.
“It connects people. This is what we see this project as doing, connecting people in a safe way.”
A business plan and sustainability plan were developed. “They demonstrate very clearly that with the fees, we could bring in a minimum $112,000 a year which would pay for the required $20,000 upgrade plan and the yearly expenses. It wouldn’t take any of the taxpayers’ money.”
Crystal Beach Heritage: A Race For Time
ACB has written to the Heritage Committee, requesting to have the Crystal Beach Fire Station declared a Heritage Designation, “Not that it’s such a beautiful, heritage building,” Orma explained, “but it was an important facility in the community, holding important events for the betterment of the community. We are just gathering that information together now to send to the committee.”
Because of the current pandemic restrictions, the committee doesn’t know when they will next meet. It’s a race for time. “We don’t know if the committee will meet before the fire station goes up for sale.”
As the building’s heritage shows, it was not just a fire station, it was a community hub, and — as ACB, and hundreds of residents’ hopes — it will be once again.
Orma’s wrapped our conversation up with her message to the community, “Become a volunteer. You will meet the nicest people. And you will have the most fun you will ever have in your life!”
Photos provided by Orma Bleeks
