Bowness Community Association – Bowness Community Association

Originally published November 2021. Learn more about Faces of Bowness here.

“In 2005, I became a reluctant Bownesian, when we bought our first house here. I went to my first Bowness Stampede Breakfast in 2006 and realized that I had found my people. The next year I brought my husband to the breakfast – we were in.

We’re raising our kids here. We will never go anywhere else. My 13 year old son said the same thing, he doesn’t ever want to move out of Bowness, he enjoys it so much. I think that for a kid to say that he has a sense of community, that really says something.

We’ve noticed changes over the past 16 years about how houses are being built, but with all those changes, we’re also seeing new families come in, which is keeping the schools vibrant and relevant.

I love what the BCA does, my husband sat on the board for a few years, and he was a part of the Bowness skate park project, he got the ball rolling for that.

I was a ski instructor for 16 years at COP, but stopped when I had kids. We all ski now, so it’s nice to have access to that so close to home.”

Originally published November 2021. Learn more about Faces of Bowness here.

“My daughter Molly helped me find Bowness, which I absolutely love. We’re sitting right on the lagoon — a two minute walk and we’re at the river. There’s trails, Baker Park, it’s absolutely beautiful.

As soon as I moved in to my apartment, people were approaching me from inside and outside the building, saying “hi! welcome!” We have drinks on the rooftop on Fridays for happy hour and catch up.

I also walk a lot, and I’m working from home now, so I take breaks in the day so I can take walks in the park. It takes forever to take a walk because there’s so many people that stop and say hello or we chat; it’s a very social thing. I came from the Beltline, so compared to that, Bowness is a safe community. I’ve always felt safe here; I haven’t felt threatened.

There’s a ton of history if you stop and read those plaques on the park benches about people who lived here. There’s a bench that I try to go to everyday, it’s dedicated to Caesar T. Rottweiler. It was a dog that loved to run on these trails, little things like that give you a snippet into how people used to live.”

Originally published in July 2021. Learn more about Faces of Bowness here.

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“I’ve lived in Bowness for 40 years. I went to Assumption, TB Riley, and Bowness High. I had my child when I was 17, she was also raised in Bowness. She went to Panda Daycare, Assumption, and all the Catholic schools.

Our family loves and frequents The Dell – it’s a really nice, family run place. If you need to have some wings and drinks and play some pool, Bowness Pub is amazing, all of their staff is amazing.

My favourite thing to do in Bowness is the River – you just go and sit on the bank and you can play in the river, it’s a lot of fun down there, it’s a great place to take my dog.

I work at Crowfoot Wine & Spirits, it’s very neighbourhood friendly, I’ve gotten to know a lot of my neighbours just coming through the liquor store. It’s just a really great atmosphere when it comes to neighbourhoods, I’ve been working there for 4 years now, I’m the Night Manager.
My kid is 25 and she has her boyfriend, they’ve been together for 6 years and we’re all going to stay in Bowness.

I really like the pathway system in Bowness… I like to rollerskate the paths!

I like the community spirit here, there’s so many free food pantries and free libraries. Over at St. Edmund’s they have a food bank going on which is really great, they also do garage sales and stuff like that.

I feel strongly about harm reduction and I appreciate having places like the Clayton House here. I’m very much into supporting people who are not as blessed as we are.”

Originally published in August 2021. Learn more about Faces of Bowness here.

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Clare and John have lived in Bowness for 31 years.

“We like our neighbours, we like the street we live on… we always remark on how many trees are in the area, it’s a beautiful environment. Access to Bowness Park is terrific, we really do feel like we’re privileged to have that within walking distance, all of the bike paths and the river valley, it’s pretty wonderful. What you find about Bowness in particular is that the spring comes early because of the neighbourhood being so old, and then you have a late fall, which you don’t really get anywhere else in Calgary.”

Clare and John’s favourite location to spend their time at is Bowness Pub – they love the live music events which occurred regularly before the pandemic.

“We’re involved with the Irish Club in Calgary, they have an awful lot of events. We organize events, we have a golf tournament that we’re involved with, and then we’re involved with the Pub Night which occurs on the last Friday of every month. We bring in local musicians from Bowness to play. Bowness has a village sense that there’s a Mainstreet, and we use a lot of the businesses. We shop at The Bownesian, and we have Bowness Auto, which has come in handy a lot.

It’s a very stable community, both of our neighbours were living there; they stay. When we moved here 31 years ago, there weren’t a lot of children on this block, and now that has completely changed – a lot of young people are coming in, it’s great. Bowness is going to be vibrant for a long time.

It’s like the bike capital of Canada… and dogs… that shows you what the area is like. I could never see Bow Cycle moving out of here. Cadence has also been around for a long time; great coffee, great breakfast. There’s lots of social places.”

Their house, the Wallace house, was built in 1912 and is one of the oldest in Bowness.

Originally published December 2021. Learn more about Faces of Bowness here.

“I’m a lifelong resident, and I have always worked only in Bowness. I started at Gondola Pizza when I was out of high school at 15; so that’s 41 years now. After Gondola, I went to Bona Roma’s Pizza, Rocko’s Pizza, when I was 16 I told my friends that I would buy this place, and it took me 30 years, but I did.

People in Bowness are great. I love the location. It doesn’t matter how big the city grows. We’re in our little village in the valley, separated by the river and hills. We’ve been busy here. We have the best customers; they’ve kept us busy through COVID. I’ve kept it [the look of the restaurant] the same all these years.

I came to work here in 1996, so 25 years now, and my partner around the same time. He owned his own restaurant at the time, and then a cook position became available here and he thought that he would come join us. We serve pizza, pasta, steak, ribs, salad etc. The menu has stayed the same, I’ve even asked the customers if they want to change it, and they told me not to change anything. We use the best stuff, so our food cost is through the roof.

I’m chair of the Mainstreet Bowness BIA, I’m on the board of directors at the Bowness Community Association, I was on the planning committee for chair and vice chair for about 9 years. I sold Christmas trees at the scout hall on the -32 days when nobody else wanted to.

I’m the ‘Karaoke King’, I’ve been doing karaoke since the 80s when it really wasn’t even around, I would just invite bands on my stage and sing. I go to all the Bowness bars that have karaoke, I have probably at least 150 songs that I can run through, generally one of the better singers there I think. I have my own karaoke machine at home too so that’s always fun.”