The People of Belterra Cohousing
Belterra members have been attracted to the idea of creating a neighbourhood that is affordable as well as socially and environmentally responsible. We are a multigenerational community, whose members bring a rich array of life experiences. Households consist of singles, couples, families with children — and pets. We manage ourselves and make decisions together for the good of the larger group. As neighbours, we will respect each other’s needs for autonomy as well as our desires for social interaction and interdependence.

Stephanie Legg & Roger McGillivray

After more than ten years of rezoning, development, design, and construction, Stephanie and Roger finally moved into their home at Belterra in July 2015, and they recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of living in this incredible community.

Over those years, life carried on.  Four new grandchildren came into the world, doubling the number to eight.  Now, with five grown kids, in-laws and grandchildren, the Belterra Common house is a busy place with family celebrations and sleepovers.

After twenty-two years together, Stephanie and Roger finally decided to tie the knot in 2016, marrying in Niagara Falls during a motorcycle trip across the continent.  Their tenth (and thirty-second) anniversaries both occur this year.

Belterra has become the centre of their lives.  So many treasured friendships developed that would never have happened had they lived elsewhere.  The camaraderie of working and playing together, learning from each other and celebrating differences with respect and understanding, makes Belterra a great place to call home. They love the monthly workdays (Harambees), watching movies and World Cups and Grey Cups, Wimbledon and the World Series with their neighbours.  Christmas parties, birthday parties, dancing and spelling bees, special dinners and garage sales fill the time.  But when they want to pull back and have some quiet time or an intimate talk, that’s easy to do as well.

Stephanie and Roger still love to read, and Steph still enjoys talking to Roger while he reads.  The motorcycle trips are shorter now and are gradually being supplanted by other forms of travel.  The dogs are both gone and missed, but a good neighbour’s hairy golden retriever (“George”) is always up for a walk.  Music tastes are evolving, and laughter is easy to find in their forever home.

Stephen & Mary Ann

Stephen and Mary Ann have been a couple for 45 years. Mary Ann is a teacher and Stephen is a clinical counsellor. They have three adult children and four grandchildren who love to visit Belterra and Bowen Island.

They are easing into retirement. Mary Ann likes to garden, and has many projects on the go. Stephen is a tennis player, kayaker, and wanna be writer. They enjoy the sense of community and sense of connection that Belterra affords.

Stephen has Latin roots having been raised in Colombia. Mary Ann comes from a large family that had to work hard and together to survive. They appreciate the intentionality of our community and the process of creating an ecologically compatible community. They appreciate the efforts to create safety and dignity and to work out differences through process instead of power.

They appreciate all that Bowen provides in terms of nature. They wish to acknowledge that the land they live on and work from is the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Cindy Leitner

Cindy is an immigrant from Oregon, although she was born and raised in California. She loves the quiet, rural life on Bowen, and enjoys living with folks who have similar values about sustainability and community.

A former public school Reading Specialist and religious education consultant for the continental Unitarian Universalist church, she enjoys outdoor activities such as biking, hiking, and canoeing. She loves traveling and photography; reading; folk singing (limited guitar playing) and singing in choirs; movies; growing, cooking and eating homegrown vegetables; writing and editing; and games that make her laugh. She has been involved in many social justice issues and has worked for non-profit peace and advocacy organizations.

She immigrated to Canada when she married her second husband in 2007. She has two adult children from her first marriage and is really enjoying her four grandchildren scattered across the globe! Although her husband recently died, she remains close to her step-children, step-grandchildren, and her first great-grandchild! Family is everything to her, and she considers Belterrans as chosen and extended family as well.

Jane Kane

I moved to Bowen six years before breaking ground to further manifest the Belterra vision. I loved the natural environment, and ocean commute to work, occasionally in the company of whales and dolphins. I continue to appreciate new friendships and activities island wide, having been here now almost twenty years.

I had been involved in sustainable communities for over three decades and I looked forward to the physical manifestation of the beautiful plans we put in place, as well as living in closer proximity to the already created circle of Belterrans I enjoyed working and playing with.

I bring a wealth of community experience, as my two grown children will attest, having been raised by a village throughout their tender years. They promised to visit often from their distant homes, and have brought four grandchildren along to reclaim their Canuck heritage.

My interests and varied experiences include organic, deer-proof gardening (biodynamic and permaculture), delicious healthy cooking for large groups, ancient hula, a love of the ocean – as a mermaid, being a professional artist and currently, a newly retired Jungian art psychotherapist.

My oldest friends know that my colourful and optimistic life experiences are my greatest asset. To me, community represents connection, creativity, synergistic experience, collaboration, love, joy and exciting inter-generational interactions. I am grateful that we have cohabited the land successfully and together live our dream.

Loren Schein
 

Paul Tennant

Born in Saskatchewan (in 1938), I grew up in Kamloops, then attended the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Chicago. After fellowships in the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament, I joined UBC as a professor in 1966, specializing in Canadian and BC politics and the politics of Indigenous Peoples.  

I moved to Bowen in 2002, a few years before retiring from UBC. My property had a large garden and a well-equipped woodworking shop. It seemed the ideal Home. Then along came Roger and Stephanie — and Belterra.

I travel fairly often to Edmonton, Chicago, Eugene (Oregon), and Ladner, BC to visit my four sons and their families (three daughters-in-law, one son-in-law, and, as of now, 11 grandchildren). Additionally, some or all of us get together whenever we can at our lake-front family place — 100 miles north of Bowen in the Bridge River Valley.

Dan Kemlo & Lyne Brindamour

We both love living on Bowen Island. It is a friendly and welcoming community. We moved to  Belterra cohousing in 2014 and are part of a smaller community that works well together; we really enjoy working collectively to enhance the beauty of our community and as a group  often share meals and other pleasurable activities.

We both enjoy the swimming and hiking and the numerous trails that Bowen Island has to offer. It is very easy for us to have an active lifestyle living here. We are quite happy to have our home here with such a safe and friendly community.

Rebecca & Matthew van der Giessen
Our attraction to Belterra wouldn't come as a surprise to those who know us; the theme of community has been woven through our identity as a couple. We met on a short-lived community experiment in Northern Ontario. A few years later, we had moved to Edmonton with our four young children (and a dog!) and stumbled upon Waldorf schooling. Again, the attraction was not just of an educational approach that resonated with our values but to a community of like minded families, many of us who had moved into the neighbourhood around the school. We felt as if our identity and values as a family were nurtured as much by the other young families as by the education our children were getting in the school. These formative experiences have also strongly influenced our now adult children. Each one of them has become involved in some form of community networking in fields such as midwifery, community activism, environmentalism and health. We watch them pass those values on, in turn, to their children

Our discovery of cohousing has been a natural continuation of our positive experiences of loose-knit community built around shared values. We have felt drawn to the the community design process which has put so much influence on family and children. And we have appreciated the openness to the individuality of others with a commitment to creating a space that nurtures the best of our dreams for what community could be.

Rebecca is a social worker who has found her niche providing homecare for seniors on Bowen. She specializes in end of life care and is a trained Death Doula.  Matthew is a somatic practitioner and educator working with touch, breath and movement approaches to embodiment and healing. 

Catherine Shaw and Ira Applebaum

Catherine and Ira are both long term residents of Bowen Island and brought up their collective five children here. Catherine is a local Dr. of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture and Ira is a retired youth worker. They enjoy visits with their nine grandchildren, the beauty and outdoors lifestyle of the island, and their community of family and friends here on Bowen.

Rose-Marie Marsolais

I have been a member of the Belterra community for 10 years, although I only moved in 6 years ago. This community has been an opportunity to really get to know each other and learn from each other, I love it.

I am now retired, and enjoy travelling and life without too tight a schedule. I do volunteer work and visit my family and friends on the mainland often, which is still an enjoyable ferry ride, 90% of the time.

The nature of this island community is really something to brag about, every time I come home or look out my window I am grateful for the paradise we live in and the people that live here.

Tess Taylor
I was looking for a job and new beginnings when I left Vancouver and landed on Bowen Island in1989. During the summer time I would staff remote fishing resorts and always thought that I would move away when the next job was done. But Bowen felt more and more like home and, after five years, I was here to stay.

Until recently, I made my living setting up camps and cooking for mining exploration teams all over Canada’s arctic. I lived in tents heated by diesel stoves and got around in helicopters and 4-wheel ATVs. Now I enjoy working in the Planning Department at Bowen Island Municipality.

As one of the original “associate members’ of Belterra, I look forward to owning my first home. I get to stay on the island where I enjoy walking, swimming and being outdoors, and I will be living with a community of people I consider family.

Mike Trevillion & Sarah Godfrey

Mike and Sarah met while both working at the Vancouver Art Gallery where Mike continues to work, but cutting back (thank goodness). With this extra time he hopes to accomplish more oil paintings and get back to the clarinet. They have two daughters, Ani and Una, who love to visit and spend time on Bowen when they get the chance. Sarah continues to teach Iyengar yoga to her North Vancouver students three days a week and also offers a class on Bowen at the Yoga Loft. Mike has joined Bowen’s Earthsounds Choir and has participated in a couple of local Shakespeare plays.

We tell our friends and family that living on Bowen is easy. With the numerous outdoor and cultural activities, there’s something for everyone. We are grateful that at Belterra we are steps away from nature trails and hikes or moments away from a potluck, movie night or party. In this like-minded community of people with so many skills, talents and big hearts, we feel blessed.

Katy Michener
I immigrated to Bowen in 1986, my big move into independence. I moved from Horseshoe Bay. I chose Bowen so I could walk to my job at Texaco. A girlfriend and I moved into the summer house, which is now beside Doc’s. Legion membership was mandatory. It meant you were staying. We knew our neighbours and didn’t need to lock the door. I immediately signed up for volleyball and slow pitch baseball. Before I knew it I had a network of friends because of the commute and sports.

Since then I have worked at the Bowen building center, Leigh auto when it was in the center of town, the pub and the kennel. I now work for Vancouver Coastal Health, doing home support for my community - keeping the people of my community in their homes as long as possible. My son plays ball and is attending BCIT to become one of our local water taxi drivers.

I think we are part of Bowen’s fabric and would like to stay in a permanent affordable housing unit of our own. Belterra is ideal. An eco-friendly community within our heritage community – a place I can grow grandbabies, tend gardens of earthly and humanly kind. I am looking forward to companionship when needed and solitude when not, dining with others, working with other for the good of the whole.

I also hope to be watching many more ball games.

Elaine Cameron
I’m looking forward to life on Bowen Island and being part of the Belterra community. I’ve been living in Cranberry Commons Cohousing Community in North Burnaby since “move-in” almost 12 years ago and was involved in the development phase for two years before that. I’ve found cohousing to be a rewarding way to live. The Cranberry Commons Common House really has become our community kitchen and living room. It’s also been a space to welcome the wider community for events ranging from dream workshops to fruit canning to fund raising, valuable ways to share what we as cohousers have created.

I was an instructor for many (make that many, many) years at Douglas College in New Westminster and Coquitlam. For most of that time I taught adult literacy, but I also spent five years co-ordinating our instructional area (lots of responsibility, no power) and providing academic support in the college’s learning centres. I retired from the college about 5 years ago, but sometimes do contract work. I also work as a freelance editor. Substantive editing and clear language are my areas of primary interest.

But I’m way more interested in being retired than I am in working. Since retiring I’ve become involved in and passionate about issues of food security, and I volunteer with a group called Burnaby Food First. I’m a novice vegetable gardener and am really keen to learn from the Belterra folks who have gardening experience. I do a lot of canning and drying, so the idea of an outdoor kitchen is really appealing.

I have a son and a daughter -- both adults now -- a lovely daughter in-law, and a baby grandson. They all live in Vancouver and plan on remaining there, so I’m hoping they’ll be frequent visitors to Belterra.

Jack & Soorya Resels

Throughout our 50 years together, we've lived half that time in a variety of community situations.

From living with our best friends in a house we shared in Montreal that neither couple could afford alone, to time on a kibbutz in Israel exploring shared rural community life, to living in a meditation community – each in our individual dwellings in the Himalayas in India -- we’ve  sampled a variety of cooperative community settings.

In 2015 we realized our dream to be living once again in community when we moved to Belterra. And discovering the Bowen Island Community was an unexpected bonus.

Close friends of ours introduced us to Belterra in 2013 and we discovered the concept of co-housing. It took just a month of active inquiry and meetings to determine that Belterra and its members were for us.

The Belterra mission and values strongly resonate with us, as does the spirit of this community. We enjoy participating with the other members and appreciate our inter-relatedness in both work and play. We are an evolving community and it is great to feel and take part in its evolution.

We enjoy the natural and alive setting with talented and resourceful folks. And especially, the close knit neighbourhood we’ve created, where we can be there for each other when needs arise.

About us: We’ve been and continue to be teachers, relationship coaches and mentors in the areas of meditation, self-inquiry, conscious relationships and chanting. In addition, Jack has been an entrepreneur owning several successful businesses.

We love facilitating group work and coaching individuals and couples in the necessary practices that support conscious living and loving.

By entering into Belterra we have the opportunity to fully participate and practice embodying the values we cherish most — a lifestyle of simple wholesome living and inspired thinking, co-operation, freedom of choice, openness to learning, the natural outdoors, dancing, singing, chanting universal mantras, and making music.

We’re delighted to be part of this exciting co-creation.

Fae Logie
I am a visual artist whose work stems from issues and concerns relating to our environment and, in turn, an enquiry into an attachment to place. Coming to live at Belterra, I leave a long-time association of seasonal and then part-time work with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, as well as other science related jobs.

Initially studying biology, I have used this background for more steady income than art usually provides, doing everything from tagging groundfish, to working as a Park Warden at Robson Bight, to selling and repairing microscopes, to collecting and inputting way too much fish data. But the biology also informs my art practice, being a continuum to my relationship to the landscape and experiences.

Having lived and worked in many locations on or near the ocean, Bowen seems a logical choice; still close enough to ties in Greater Vancouver but a ways away too. When I first decided to up root, I envisioned finding at least five acres of forest and a view somewhere on an island. To have found this and realize it comes with a vibrant community of like-minded people has made all the difference. For me, it is a time of blurring the boundaries between losing and finding place, as I step from the house I was brought up in and associated with all my life, towards new possibilities.

Sally Purdy

After travelling, working and studying overseas for 27-years, Sally returned to her birthplace on the beautiful West Coast. Encountering the enormous changes that had taken place in the lower mainland since she departed in her early 20’s, a few visits to Bowen Island quickly confirmed that this was a community, pace and landscape that was reminiscent of the time and “home” she remembered. The move to Bowen was made in 2018.

Becoming a part of the Belterra co-housing community in 2024 was a blessing and a steady comfort, in the face of significant life transitions. With ample space for both solitude and social opportunities, Sally (and her dog Cody) are happy to call Belterra home.

Between traipsing the trails, enjoying time with her meditation and dance groups and meeting with her psychotherapy clients online, she enjoys spending time with her new and old friends and is a proud mamma of two delightful and independent children in their 20’s.

The Lanphears

Bruce and Nancy Lanphear joined the Belterra cohousing community in January 2014. By Bowen Island standards, we are still newcomers—but we no longer get lost on the trails. Our interest in cohousing developed over two decades, shaped in part by time spent at Songaia, a community near Seattle co-founded by Bruce’s parents, Nancy and Fred.

We continue to spend about half our time in Vancouver because of work and adult children and grandchildren. Nancy travels to Northern Health outreach clinics and works at the Bowen Island Community Centre, supporting children and families navigating developmental challenges. Bruce continues as a professor of health sciences, guided by the same goal: prevent disease early, fix problems upstream, and—if possible—put Nancy out of work.

Our three daughters—collectively known as REM—have launched in different directions. Rachel teaches at Langara College and spends the rest of her time chasing a toddler and a hound dog with her partner, Ryan. Ella lives in Burnaby and spends a good deal of time on Salt Spring Island with her partner, Shane Foster. Martha is beginning a degree in social work, and her partner, Rhys Fallon, who is embarking on a new landscaping venture. We are now grandparents to two small and wonderful humans: Marley, age six, and Leland, almost two.

We still enjoy cooking, reading, and hiking. We are grateful to live in a community surrounded by ocean, forest, mountains, lichen-covered rocks—and neighbors who make island life richer, funnier, and more humane.

Catherine Epps

Catherine and daughter Madeline have been living on Bowen Island since 2004.  Catherine thinks they are very fortunate to move to Belterra in 2017, just as Madeline was heading off to Montreal for university.

Catherine loves being able to walk everywhere, being so close to forest walks, Snug Cove village, and Artisan Square. When she is not working, or spending time with friends and family in Toronto, she is in the pottery studio teaching and making beautiful, functional stoneware pottery.

Catherine tells people that she has great neighbours (to be fair, we think she’s a great neighbour).  As an active member of the Bowen Rotary Club, she is a frequent community volunteer and likes donating her pottery to fundraisers whenever it’s needed by the Bowen community.

Matthew, Mimi & Ronan Ramsay
We have spent 11 out of our last 17 years together living in various intentional communities ranging from a shared group household in Seattle to well-established Zen Centers with up to 80 full time residents.

Having also experienced village life in other countries among intact traditional cultures, we both have a deep appreciation for what it means to raise our now six year old son, Ronan, among a multigenerational community rooted in shared values related to social responsibility, ecological stewardship, and mutual support.

Some of our family's favorite things to do together include gardening, hiking, skiing, kayaking, sailing, beach combing, and dancing.

We've been visiting cohousing communities and ecovillages throughout southwest BC for the past five years, looking for a semi-rural setting where we would have access to forest trails right out our back door and the opportunity to grow our own food.

Such a combination of wild and cultivated nature while living in community is what we've sought for the optimum wellbeing of our whole family and as an expression of how we (collectively) might respond to circumstances in this place and time. So, we are just thrilled to have found Belterra, a beautiful group of people celebrating the beauty of the earth together on this belle-isle called Bowen.

Carmen MacKay & Josie, Nikko & Isaac

My family and I were among the very first to move into this beautiful community, while much of it was still under construction. Every morning I wake up thinking how lucky I am to have found my way to Bowen, and to have found my home at Belterra. I was looking for community and connection when we moved here, and found it in spades.

I’m Carmen and I am the mom of 3 great kids and a dog rescued from Mexico.  I feel lucky to be able to work in the same community where I live. I am the teacher-librarian at Bowen Island Community School (BISC), the local public school, as well as a part-time employee at Bowen Island Sea Kayaking (owned by a Belterra neighbour).

My kids attend BICS and Rockridge (in West Van). Josie is quiet, hard-working, creative, and loves the outdoors. Nikko is friendly, outgoing, imaginative, and loves games of any kind. Isaac is quiet, thoughtful, artistic, and loves to play soccer.

We love the fresh air and laid-back lifestyle on Bowen, the many easily accessible trails, the ‘cruffins’ at Artisan Eats, and the millions of stars we can see at night. And we love to share all of these things with our friends and family.

Catherine Adkin

Cathy found Belterra Cohousing because of an ad her daughter Laura spotted on the Queen of Capilano Ferry. Having grown up in Victoria on Vancouver Island, Cathy left vowing not to live on an island ever again. But, something changed when she discovered Bowen Island. “I love living here because of the forests and the clouds and the snow, I have a different view every day.”

Work has always been a rewarding part of Cathy’s life. She moved to Vancouver to work for CP Air (now Air Canada) at the age of 20. She describes her 35-year career as a flight attendant as “more of a lifestyle than a job.” She has lots of memories – some amusing, like the time a woman tried to put her upright vacuum cleaner into an overhead bin.

Other experiences left deeply haunting impressions. In the 1970s, Cathy flew in planes filled with Vietnamese refugees seeking a new life in Canada. And, there were the days and weeks after 9-11 when her Critical Incident Team, trained in stress management, made calls to airline employees and their families in New York to see if they needed counselling or other forms of assistance.

As she recalls, “Every day was unique” and there were fun breaks, like five-day layovers in Amsterdam or London or Paris.

Cathy continues to work part-time in Snug Cove and makes at least two trips to the mainland every week to help a friend with childcare and attend Aqua Fit classes. Her daughter now has a career of her own – in the Vancouver film industry where she is a writer, producer and teacher.

After 22 years in Kitsilano, she moved to Belterra. At around 9 o’clock at night on the day she moved in, Cathy knew she had made the right decision. There stood a neighbour welcoming her with a bowl of hot stew. “I like the people at Belterra and the sense of community. Here, you can have privacy, but if you want company, all you have to do is step outside.”

Michelle Johnson & Jonathan Lyons

 In early 2013, we turned our backs on the professional rat-race of Washington, DC, set off for the West Coast, and settled in Portland, Oregon. We were seeking a simpler, more sustainable life, with better access to the outdoors, greater attention to our collective impact on the planet, and a deeper sense of community. After five fruitful years in Portland, Oregon, this same search has now brought us to British Columbia, where we discovered Bowen Island and the Belterra community.

Michelle, a native Oregonian, studied in Philadelphia before launching overseas, where she spent most of the 1990s first teaching English in Hungary and Japan and then working for an international foundation based in Budapest. With the advent of the new century, she returned to North America and landed in Washington DC, where she worked for the Department of State, developed a love of cycling, and eventually met Jonathan. Michelle is an avid reader and cook, a veteran traveler, an aspirational gardener - and hopes to take up kayaking next.

Jonathan spent 21 years with the Reuters news agency as a journalist, bureau chief, and editor, with posts in Moscow, New York, Istanbul, Tehran, Jakarta, and Washington. He is the author of four works of intellectual history and has a doctorate in sociology. Jonathan enjoys baking bread and pizza, and hiking and camping with Michelle and their labradoodle Ziggy Stardust. He is also an avid cyclist and an amateur bike racer.

Angie, Martin &  Meli  

Angie & Martin came to Belterra drawn by its intentional community, its mission values, and its self-organizing and co-creative culture. They moved here in 2021, after leaving Toronto the year before and exploring Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island for some time. Bowen is still charming them every day in a continual discovery of new beaches, trails, forests, and the amazing people that call this island a home.

Angie is originally from mainland BC. She spent a few years in Toronto where she met Martin and embarked on her journey to develop as an artist and systems thinker at OCAD in a program called Strategic Foresight and Innovation. This is where she was introduced to living systems thinking and regenerative design paradigms that ignited her interest in community life at Belterra. Her work is centered on co-creating data practices that promote inclusion in ways that systematically listen to diverse voices at scale using technology (e.g. AI, natural language processing), to modernize collaboration and civic participation.

Martin is passionate about social innovation, in particular about developing humanized AI and technology that can overcome cognitive biases and enrich social relationships. His current work is on financial instruments that are not constrained by previous wealth distribution. Born and raised in Macedonia, he moved to Miami at 18, and then to Canada a decade later. Martin is often described as too curious and incurably optimistic. He is interested in physics, metaphysics, history, hard sci-fi.