A bench dedicated to Chuck Chin was unveiled in Cottonwood Island park yesterday. (Sunday)
A crowd of about 150 people gathered for the unveiling of the bench, overlooking the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako Rivers.
“It was always something that I don’t think many people understood, that when he retired, and spent the last decade of retirement he went to thousands of events, and interacted with everyone at those events, he didn’t just walk around quietly,” said Dave Mothus, one of the driving forces behind the bench.
“It was shocking to discover how many people knew and appreciated him.”
Mothus said it was an emotional moment when they found that spot.
“I was walking with Shirley [Bond], we were coming down to just walk along the river to see if we could find potential spots for the bench,” Mothus said.
“We just came to this gap in the trees, we looked right and saw the bench, turned and looked at each other, it was funny, we both started crying because we knew, this is it.”
“It’s a very special spot for a very special person,” Bond said.
“We just knew that this was the place that Chuck would have loved, and would reflect who he was.”
Bond added the City of Prince George was an incredible partner in making the bench happen.
“The support of Walter Babicz at the City and the entire parks department made this possible, and that’s why I love this City,” Bond said.
“You can take a dream and an idea, and people will work to help make that happen, and that’s what you’re seeing here today.”
Mayor Simon Yu said Chin exemplified what a great citizen of Prince George should be.
“He would go out of his way, use his own money, use his family time, just to go around the community to exercise his passion of photography,” Yu said.
“He became family photographer for half the city. Every person who has been involved in sport in the last few decades remembers all the events, Chuck was there, taking pictures for the kids, for the teams, and any community celebration, he would make sure that he’d be there whenever can. He would use his pictures to tell the story of Prince George, that’s what he meant to us. He’s not just a legend, he is part of a community for many decades to come. It will take decades just to sort out all the pictures he’s taken, and these will be part of the memory of Prince George, and part of the history of our great city, and that’s what he meant to us.”
Chin passed away in January at the age of 73.
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