If Frank Jameson deserves a community centre and Bob Stuart deserves a park, then my grandma deserves the beach.
By 2025 I would expect the Town of Ladysmith to celebrate the strong female figures that shaped its history in proportion to these women’s impact on the town. Up until this year there has only been one woman mayor of our town. This woman was Kay Grouhel and you’d be hard pressed to find a mayor that had a bigger impact on the Town of Ladysmith.
On Oct. 2, 2025 the Town of Ladysmith unveiled a sign and a poem dedicated to Mayor Grouhel. In the recent media release from city hall, Mayor Beeston is quoted saying: “Without Mayor Grouhel’s leadership and vision, Transfer Beach would not be the jewel that it is today. It is only fitting that we honour her legacy with an interpretive sign in the very place she envisioned years ago.”
Transfer Beach is often referred to as the town’s jewel. It is also the town feature that visitors tend to know about. “I’m from Ladysmith." "Oh, there’s a really nice beach there,” is usually how the conversation goes.
My grandma, Mayor Kay Grouhel, is the reason this beach exists as it does today. She is responsible for acquiring the beach land for the town during her term. But that statement doesn’t do her actions justice. She used legal means to rezone the beach in order to prevent large corporations from using the land for their commercial purposes. She was a strong force and a woman ahead of her time.
Not only did she acquire the land, but she found a way to transform the property, at nearly no cost to the town, by having college students do the labour in exchange for work experience. Then she upgraded the sewer systems so that it no longer drained into the beach’s water.
Mayor Grouhel also accomplished the following in her term: built the firehall and public works building, brought a new fire truck to the town, paved sidewalks, and beautified the town with dogwood trees. Do you live in the Davis Road area? She is the reason you are a part of Ladysmith.
I agree that it is fitting the town honours my grandma’s legacy; however, I find doing so with an interpretive sign to be an insult to the strong, impactful leader she was. I say it again, if Frank Jameson deserves a community centre and Bob Stuart deserves a park, then my grandma deserves the beach.
“Kay Grouhel Transfer Beach Park” sounds perfect to me.
Alison Grouhel
Granddaughter of Kay Grouhel
