Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey
AMS Council has approved the placement of a memorial bench and plaque for Travers Wimble, a homeless man who recently passed away on February 8. But due to construction planned for the new SUB and closure of another entrance, Wimble’s frequented location in the south SUB lounge will likely have too much foot traffic to place a bench there.
“Because of the construction that’s going to go on, that’s actually going to be a main thoroughfare and all [the vending machines next to Wimble's old chair] are going to have to leave anyway. So, we might have to place it in a different spot,” said AMS communications manager Demitri Douzenis.
Nonetheless, the AMS will find a place for the bench in the current SUB and in the new SUB once it is built.
Erik MacKinnon and Paula Samper have spearheaded the memorial bench project, and intend for it to be funded, designed and built by students.
“This is something that students should have a part in, and students should take part in designing, building and creating because the students are going to miss this guy,” said MacKinnon, who is in his third year of the UBC pharmacy program.
“I just think [a bench] is really fitting for him. It’s simple, it’s not anything too extravagant,” said Samper, a fifth-year Science student. “He was known as the man who sat in the SUB, and so leaving behind a place for students to sit and remember him by, I think that’s quite fitting.”
MacKinnon and Samper didn’t know each other before Wimble passed away, but both reguarly interacted with Wimble. MacKinnon saw him often during work as an AMS security guard, and they would occasionally watch hockey together at Pi R Squared. Samper often had conversations with Wimble in passing throughout her years at UBC. “It would always be small talk…but I think that you can still have small talk with someone and have them mean something to you,” said Samper.
They plan to fund the bench through student donations collected through a website, which MacKinnon will put together over reading break. Costs aren’t expected to exceed $1500, and any additional donations over this amount could possibly go toward a scholarship in Wimble’s name or a donation to charity.
Student involvement in designing and building the bench should also keep the cost of the memorial low. “We have someone who has volunteered; he’s doing his Master’s in architecture [at UBC]. He’ll be doing the design,” said Samper.
Forestry Undergraduate Society president, Barbara Wong, has contacted to see if Forestry students would be interested in building the bench, and Samper explained that there is a possibility of having several design and plaque options on the to-be-launched website.
Overall, MacKinnon is glad there is something students can put together in Wimble’s memory.
“Maybe they’ll look back and wonder, and maybe it’ll trigger a change in somebody [to think], ‘Hey, if I see somebody every single day, maybe I should talk to them and say hello.’”
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
