Thank you 100 Men Who Care!

We want to express immense gratitude to 100 Men Who Care.

On October 7, 2026, the Salt Spring Island chapter of 100 Men Who Care gathered at the Salt Spring Sailing Club for an evening of community generosity and giving. Members heard four heartfelt presentations from four deserving local non-profit organizations before casting their votes. And the result? The Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust was chosen as the recipient of an incredible $11,600 donation!

With 116 members each contributing $100 to this remarkable collective act of generosity, 100 Men Who Care has once again demonstrated the extraordinary impact of people coming together to support their community.

Roy Clery doing his speech at the 100 Men Who Care gathering on October 7

Our Communications Co-Ordinator, Roy Clery made a beautiful speech,

Excerpts from the speech are below:

"Burgoyne Valley Community Farm is 63 acres of protected farmland at the head of the Fulford Valley. 90 community garden plot allotments are there, used by families and folks that probably wouldn’t have anywhere else to grow otherwise. There are also working farmers, a Food Bank farm, a community composter, a cob oven, and an outdoor kitchen. 

What we don’t have is potable water. Everyone who comes to the farm has to bring their own drinking water, every time they visit their plots. 

A work party at the Burgoyne Valley Community Farm

This contribution from 100 Men Who Care means we can drill a well, which changes what becomes possible on the land. Burgoyne Valley Community Farm can start to be the teaching farm we think it can become. It means we can invite the community down for cob-oven pizza nights, and invite off-island learners to camp out on the farm. 

The farm has space — and zoning — for ten campsites. Imagine spending a week or two on a Salt Spring farm learning from the incredible experts here how to establish a market farm, food forest, build a permaculture garden, restore a wetland area or design a water system. Instead of taking notes in a workshop and going home, students would actually build something. 

And then, hopefully, take the innovations they learn about that have been developed by Salt Spring visionaries and dedicated growers, and spread them. Because farming is one of those professions where having other people steal your ideas is something that you celebrate.

A $10,000 contribution from 100 Men Who Care would allow us to get the well drilled — while allowing us to unlock an additional $10,000 in funding for the larger water project.

Anyone who farms on Salt Spring knows that water is increasingly the question. We can get too much of it in winter, not enough when crops actually need it, and lose a surprising amount because it is moving through the landscape in the wrong places and at the wrong times. So alongside the well, we are developing a larger plan for drainage, irrigation, water storage and culvert repair at the farm.

And running through that plan is Daniel Brook - our humble creek that is a tributary of Fulford Creek.

Salmon still come into this watershed. Part of our goal is to rehabilitate the creek so that, while we improve drainage and water management for farmers, we also improve passage and habitat for salmon moving upstream to spawn.

The question isn’t simply how to get more water onto crops. It’s how to hold water on the land, move it carefully through the farm, protect the watershed and grow more food at the same time."

An aerial shot of some of the Burgoyne Valley community garden plots taken last winter