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Terrace Founder's Day raises money for restoration of wartime items

Event features tea, sweets, wartime music and the Charleston
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This Second World War bunker at the airport is being restored.

The annual Founder’s Day Tea not only celebrates George Little’s arrival here 111 years ago but also is a fundraiser for the restoration of two local wartime structures.

The first structure has been referred to as a bunker and is at the Northwest Regional Airport, just to the left of the main road in from the highway.

It’s not a bunker at all, rather it’s a Second World War fighter plane firing or gun range “backstop.”

The firing range was used by the USAF to “zero in” their guns before heading up to Alaska during the Japanese invasion threat.

This information comes from Paul Hawkins, who is doing the work to get a Bristol propeller ready to be mounted as the main feature at the “bunker.”

The propeller is a de Havilland Hydromatic Constant Speed Propeller built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in Hatfield, England.

It is 14 feet in diameter, it weighs 600 lbs and was built in the mid-1950s then fitted to a New Zealand Air Force Bristol Freighter.

The plane operated with the New Zealand Air Force and civilian companies in the country until 1987 when it was imported and operated by Trans Provincial Airlines until 1992 and then Hawkair until 1999.

This propeller was removed for overhaul in 1998 after thousands of hours of flying time.

The Hawkair Bristol Freighter was donated to the Wetaskiwin Reynolds Museum in Alberta in 2004.

The propeller has been donated to the airport and City of Terrace by Hawkair Aviation.

The Founder's Day Tea with a Wartime Theme Honouring our Veterans is from 2-4 p.m. March 13 at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #13 here.

Celebrate Terrace Founder George Little’s arrival on March 10, 1905, 111 years ago!

There will be wartime tunes by Rusty Ljungh on the piano and Sandy Norman and Friends performing the Charleston. Sweets and tea by Emmy’s Catering.

Tickets on sale at the George Little House,

For more information, call Debbie 250-638-8887 or Yvonne 250-638-0423 or email littlehouse@terrace.ca.