Victoria Lapidary and Mineral Society > Event

Category: Event

BC Gem Show Field Trip

Posted on by Becci Simmons

To participate in this trip you and all members in your party must be currently paid up members of the Victoria Lapidary and Mineral Society.  This trip is open to minors accompanied by an adult.

Every year the British Columbia Lapidary Society hosts the biggest rock and gem show in BC, called The BC Gem Show.  This year the show will be on May 10, 11 & 12th, Friday to Sunday.  On Saturday there’s a the Rocklovers Roundup Tailgate sale.  The show is being held at the Chilliwack Heritage Park.

The Victoria lapidary club is planning to organize a trip to the show.  Participants would get themselves to the Swartz Bay terminal and buy their walk-on ferry tickets ($40 return) for the 7am ferry on Saturday May 11th.  Usually we all meet up in the terminal and hang out as a group on the ferry, but that’s totally optional.

A coach will meet us getting off the ferry at the Tsawassen terminal at 8:45 and take us to Chilliwack.  We would expect to arrive at Chilliwack around 10:30 am.  The day would be free to spend at the show (entry ticket $6) and tailgate then the procedure would be reversed, and we would catch the 7pm ferry back to Swartz Bay.

We have reserved a 50 seater coach that is wheelchair accessible.  We are asking club members to pay $25 per person attending for the coach which will defray about 50% of the cost of the coach – the rest of the cost for the coach will be paid from club funds.

I’ve attended the show with the group in the past and it has been a blast, as much for the tall tales told on the ferry and coach as for the show and tailgate itself.  Bringing a carry-on suitcase on wheels is recommended if you have poor impulse control where slabs are concerned.

Numbers are limited, so we would like to get an early handle on how much interest there is in this trip.  If you plan to attend (not maybe, but for sure) please fill out this form.

BC Gem Show Booking form 2024

If you have questions please address them to David Jackson at treasurer@vlms.ca

Annual Club Auction – May 1st, 2023

Posted on by Becci Simmons

Our auction yesterday was a great success. We managed to auction off all but one lot (sorry Sean) out of 102. We collected quite a bit of money for the club and it’ll go far to continue the funding of the clubs’ activities. There are many, many people to thank for the success of the auction.


I’ll begin with: Jay Prazma: His kind and generous donations of equipment and materials contributed immensely to the auction.


Thanks to all others who made donations and brought merchandise for the auction.
Thanks to Barb for making the clubhouse available for most of the afternoon, giving us enough time to set up.
Thanks to Karen for helping out with the auction process and keeping me on track.
Thanks to Allana, Kathryn and Karis for recording and keeping track of who bid on lots and paid how much.
Thanks to Dave for processing all the payments and keeping track of all that money.
Thanks to the members who helped set up, carry purchases to the cars of successful bidders and take down tables and chairs at the end.
Thanks to Becci for posting on our website all the pictures of items that would be available at the auction.
And most of all, thank you to all the members who most enthusiastically participated in the auction: you made this the great success that it was.
I apologize if I left anyone out.