September 1979 saw the publication of Vol.1 No. 1 of the Joe Rich News. The Joe Rich Hall was nearing completion and the Fire Chief was Ray Wittur.

A community effort with the help of a McLaughlan donation of a Gestetner (like spirit ink and cut sheets and manual typewriters…like before word processing and laser printers). The editor was David Holman with the assistance of Elaine Williams (major typist) and Marg Benner (the home of the Gestetner printing party…all the kids had a turn at cranking the handle. Later, help came from Doreen Volk, typist and inputs and in 1981, Joanne Beaulieu… great art pictures on the covers for a few years. Still later, Marg Benner and Debbie Lutz became the assistants.

Special moments in the newsletter like the poems from Claude Pearce, or the FREE lunch at the Hall at 11:59 AM on April 1 st, 1980, the struggle through CORD Bylaw 176, all the activities we used to have like, scouts, and baseball and volleyball, or parties or pot-lucks, the Christmas play with lead Derek Crawford, the many recipes, the Cluster Fly poem by Adrienne Harasin or the crazy puzzles in the newsletter by the editor that stretched the mind.

The newsletter always struggled with delivery to the residences being so far apart, but young and old, walking and on bicycles and horseback, it happened. As early 1983 arrived, the editor was able to get access to a word editor on the big computer at Okanagan College and then the first printed copy. Ken Ross’ employer helped the community effort to run off the many copies. As Vol. 6 (year six) No. 24 (24 th printing arrived) the lead line was…”the time between newsletters gets longer and longer…” And so it was that Vol. 7 No. 28 was the last with David as editor. It was a fun run, especially the early days. The Newsletter under different names and random in nature continues to this day…!