The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 2, 2000 - C3

Captain, Queen
have solid roots
in the community

By JENNIFER LANG
FOR MANY Terrace residents, this year's
Queen and Captain of Riverboat Days will
need no introduction,

It's no secret thal Bill and Helene McRae are
well known for their professional and volunteer
contributions to the community and area over
the years.

_It's hard to imagine what Terrace would be
like without people like them. Both born and
raised in the northwest, the McRaes have seen
the Terrace and surrounding communities here
grow from small frontier settlements where life
was hard but rewarding, to the determined,
thriving places they are today.

Both explain their community involvement
in modest terms. Perhaps it's shaped by their
early years, when neighbours in the northwest
had to rely on one another.

Helene, who spent her early years at Kitselas
Canyon, started working at her father's sawmill
in Usk when she was old enough, She met
Bill, who was born in Smithers, when he
moved to Usk to take over his dad's store in
1948, after serving with the Royal Canadian
Scottish Battalion during the Second World
War.

Since Helene needed to use Usk's only
phone, located at the store, for business, it
wasn't long before she met Bill. “You met
everyone in town,” she explains.

The pair married in 1951, and Bill joined his
father-in-law's business, the Adams Lumber
Company Lid. Four of the McRae's five child-
ren were bora while the family lived in Usk.

Helene remembers hauling water home as a
young mom in the 1950s, a decade that saw
her continuing to work at the Usk sawmill of-
fice.

By 1959, the Usk sawmill had become ob-
solete, so the McRaes moved to Terrace, where
Bill and three Vancouver partners started up
Skeena Sawmills, a company that celebrates 40
years in business thig'‘Aug, 11. .

Still-active citizens, the McRaes claim to be

slowing down, despite all evidence to the con-
trary. Bill is a forestry consultant and Helene is

currently at work on Volume Two of Pioneer
Legacy, a book that continues the historical re-
search into the region's past begun by the late
Norma Bennett.

All proceeds from Pioneer Legacy went to
the R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation, a charity
that raises money to pay for medical equipment
at Mills Memorial Hospital, a facility that re-
mains close to the McRaes’ hearts, Helene
served for two decades on the hospital auxil-
iary, and Bill has been a member of the hospi-
tal board.

Both have been actively involved with the
hospital foundation. For four years, the Mc-
Craes organized and published cash calendars
for the REM Lee Hospital Foundation. The
popular prize calendars were a hit — and a
money-maker.

The calendars brought in thousands of dol-
lars to help with the community-wide effort
that resulted in the purchase of Mills Memor-
ial's CT scanner. Health minister Elizabeth Cull
awarded them with a joint volunteer award for
their efforts.

Bill has served on the hospital board, and as
a municipal councillor. He was a member of
the finance committee that made the Terrace
arena a reality, but suspects he was named a
Freeman of the City of Terrace, a ceremonial
title, for another reason.

He played an instrumental role in ensuring
the federal employment bridging assistance
program got off the ground in the northwest,
Bill says the program provided millions of dol-
lars in assistance for people thrown out of
work during the recession of the early 1980s
when the forestry industry took a severe down-
turn. In 1989, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
wrote to personally congratulate Bill.

This weekend, as Captain and Queen of Ri-
verboat Days, the McRaes will appear at as
many events as possible.

Bill's favourite event is the parade; which is
lene says che wants locals and visitors to.have
fun. “I hope they'll turn out to the events, and
enjoy themselves,” she says,

Northern
Motor Inn front
parking ot!

Cheer on your

favorite server!

Everywhere young people gathered, whe-
ther it was a kitchen party or a special
dance, Victrolas were an essential compo-
nent of any social event in the northwest.

RIVERBOAT DAYS Captain and Queen Bill
and Helene McRae with a Victrola gramo-
phone, a type of record player that was pop-
ular in the early part of the 20th century.

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