The Oceanside Community Makerspace needs the help of the community, especially in the initial setup period, where expenses outstrip financial supply significantly, equipment and tools are still being acquired and installed and programs and events designed and the membership is still low, but growing.
BLT would like to thank the efforts and input from the volunteer Makerspace Interest Group for helping to shape the OCM and where it will go, and to Inclusion Parksville for welcoming a Maker facility as their neighbor and tenant. We are also grateful to the many world-wide Makerspace groups (and similar organisations) for their ground breaking work. We are especially happy to have Makerspace Nanaimo on our door-step to benefit from their pioneering work.
Again, thanks go to our new Landlord (InclusionPV) for making available their existing stock of tools and machines that were about to be re-purposed elsewhere in the community.
We knew we would need a good collection of stack-able chairs, and in good time, one became available. The PV Curling Club were sorting out their spares, after receiving a newer collection. So, we now have enough to get started with.
We have had many individuals drop donation items off at the Technology Learning Centre, but the first organisation to provide items was the Oceanside Volunteer Association in Qualicum Beach, who were in the midst of moving offices and had some spare furniture and an older PC – thank you for making these available.
At the Qualicum Beach Family Day event, Paul Manhas noticed our BLT2GoBus with our Makerspace notice stuck to the side. He approached me and asked if I was something to do with the Makerspace project. Turns out he is a Senior Sales Manager at 3DS and rep for Dassault Systemes, the provider of professional world-class 3D Solid Modeling software. He offered to try to get us a special educational license of SOLIDWORKS just for Makerspace organisations. After following through with this lead, we now have solidworks available at the OCM. Thank you Paul and Dassault Systemes, this is a very much appreciated piece of software, I’m sure we will make good use of it.
It’s time we had another shout-out for Makerspace Nanaimo who have lead the way in the local area for this type of facility and provided a number of useful documents for us to use as a starting point in our planning. In recent weeks, they have been having a bit of a clear out and looked to help us with a number of smaller tools that they have outgrown and that we were in need of. Such as a drill press, a band saw, some hand tools and a great deal from Ron Rattink on his MP CNC project, essentially complete with a host of valuable add-on tools and router bits. Thanks have to go to Vince Cenerini who is a member of both clubs and has been a valuable go-between, making it possible for us to know about these offers and actually get those items to our Makerspace using his business van. He owns the kitchen counters business in Parksville: Counter Measures, 25-1499 Huntley Rd, in the industrial area. Vince also sourced us a set of second-hand kitchen cabinets and is currently re purposing some counter-tops to go with them – this should end up with a wall of cabinets 13 foot long. Thanks Vince.
We would like to thank Peter Jorgensen of Jorgensen Osmond Ltd. 177 Weld St. Parksville BC, for his very kind and thoughtful donation of his HP DesignJet 500, 42 inch printer, still in full working order and including some paper and inks. This is yet another great addition to a club that is interested in CAD/CAM and Art. In fact, we have already used it to reproduce the Winning Picture from the Youth Art Competition – looks great at 24 inch size.
We applied for more Grants in 2018, and were lucky enough to be awarded $1000 from Parksville Qualicum Community Foundation, to buy electronics kits, which we will use to teach people programming (with an emphasis on youth and younger kids).
We also applied to the Regional District of Nanaimo Recreation, and were awarded $2000 to buy a commercial CNC machine: Shapeoko 3 – which we have purchased and setup.
While donated items are essential and very welcome, we will be more selective as to what items we actually need or can make use of, as the Space becomes more functional (and full). However, Cash is Always required and we will have significant monthly expenses. So, we are asking for Sponsors, in the form of annual pledges (we hope you will continue your commitment, but you can obviously stop at any time). We have defined a number of levels of Sponsorship, so you should be able to select a level that you or your organization/company are comfortable with. Each increasing level of support, will be rewarded by an increasing level of exposure through our advertising. For the current options, please download and review the following Sponsorship Options document and get in touch with us if you can help. Thank You 🙂
First Sponsor (23 Aug 2017), Gold Level, Parks West Business Products
Renewing and Upgrading Sponsor (23 Aug 2018), Diamond Level,
Parks West Business Products 114 Hirst Avenue East
Our very sincere thanks to Kevin Kinnear (President) at Parks West Business Products, for his early and on-going support of the Makerspace idea and our attempts to make that happen here in the Oceanside, Parksville/Qualicum area. Without this kind of community support, we would not be able to continue to occupy such a useful and centrally placed facility.
Parksville CityWe applied to Parksville City Council to request financial support for this program, as we transition from government funded project to self-sustaining service/facility. Council agreed to receive and consider a proposal in their Budget round, and allocated us a sum of $2500 towards our 2018-19 expenses. Thanks to the Parksville Mayor and Council, for their moral and financial support.
We need a few more Sponsors in order to become financially stable enough to be able to focus more on our outreach services into the community with projects and training – get in touch if you think you could help with this (at any level) – Thanks.
As of 1 March 2019The Makerspace has “grown-up” and formed its own Society, to be run and operated by the members that made it what it is today. Thanks to BLT for their initial support and being willing to try a new idea in their long list of community service programming. After 2 years of hard work and dedication, from many members that volunteered their time, energy, money, spare tools and amazing skills, including some that have moved on and one that passed away just before we opened our doors on 1 July 2017 (A.Z.), we now have many things ticking along.
New SponsorsOur Thanks and Appreciation go to Two new sponsors, Andrea Valis of Royal LePage and Clive Goodinson of Pixton Comics
Andrea Valis 173 W. Island Hwy, Parksville.
Pixton Comics Qualicum Beach.
