Elida Peers - Sooke

Elida Peers has been the creative spark for community projects which have made Sooke a more interesting, more colourful and historically-aware place to live or visit.

A lifetime resident of the community, she helped establish the Sooke Regional Museum and became its first curator. A small art exhibition she started in the museum grew over the years to become a major juried art show. Last year, there were over 2,000 entries from which 345 were selected for exhibition.

Elida Peers has also been involved in placing heritage street signs throughout the community to help people find and understand points of interest and in working with the community school to organize heritage tours.

The Sooke Festival Society, of which she was a founder and co-chair, organized the 1990 Bicentennial celebration to commemorate the landing of Spanish explorer Emmanuel Quimper on Vancouver Island. This colourful re-enactment attracted 20,000 visitors including Spain's tall ship Juan Sebastian de Elcano. Although Elida Peers has retired from her position as curator of the museum, she remains active in the community. Her fertile imagination and awesome energy continues to keep her in the forefront of worthwhile community projects.