Penny Cassidy can’t go by Oak Bay Marina without thinking of her husband.
Allan Cassidy passed away July 10, the day after the couple’s 35th wedding anniversary. But when the 59-year-old Oak Bay councillor was alive, he loved to look over the marina and count the sailboats.
“Every time we drove by there, he’d pull over and we’d get out and look at the boats. It was something he was very proud of,” she said, recalling how her husband started the junior sailing program at the marina, by fundraising for a fleet of sailboats when he was an Oak Bay Sea Scouts leader in the ’90s.
To honour Cassidy’s contribution, Oak Bay plans to install a new two-person bench swing in the park overlooking the marina.
Mayor Christopher Causton saw a memorial swing on his travels and got the idea that it would be a nice way to honour his colleague. He passed the idea on to the parks committee, which is looking at options for the design.
“Allan was very passionate about young people learning to be good community citizens,” Causton said. “The fact he set up the sailing program that is still around 19 years later, it’s something we’ll always remember him for.”
Another brainchild of Cassidy’s was the Recognition of Renovation and Building Achievement award, which he helped establish in 2004 to recognize residents who made quality upgrades to their properties. An architect by trade, Cassidy would help pick the award recipients, whom the district presented with a local artist’s rendering of their building.
Council recently renamed this award the Allan Cassidy Recognition of Renovation and Building Achievement award.
“It’s really nice to know his name will still be out in the community,” Penny said. “He loved his community and he put a lot of time into it.”
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