The village of Dorchester is coming alive this weekend with its second festival of the summer, the Sandpiper Festival, running from Friday to Sunday with events at the Dorchester Veterans Community Centre (DVCC), the library, the Greater Dorchester Moving Forward Co-op, Palmers Pond, and of course, the Village Square. (Tonight’s concert in the square has been moved to the DVCC due to weather. The full schedule is available as a pdf here.)
It’s no coincidence that this weekend also marks the grand opening of Dorchester’s latest new business, the Peep and Keep Ecotique. Sandpipers—and their nearby migratory habitat on the mudflats off Dorchester Cape—feature prominently in the concept of the new shop, co-owned by longtime residents Kara Becker and Debbie Wiggins-Colwell.
The shop is dedicated in equal parts to environmental sustainability and cultural heritage, hence the “Peep and Keep” moniker. Becker says the pair wanted to “create that old time sense of community in Dorchester,” and also “celebrate our place in the Fundy biosphere.”
The shop provides information and support for the Johnson’s Mills Shorebird Reserve and Interpretive Centre, says Becker. As part of the Sandpiper Festival, this Saturday afternoon at 2pm, staff from the Nature Conservancy of Canada will make a presentation on sandpipers and shore birds at the Peep and Keep. That will be followed by a “mix and mingle” on the upper floors of the Bell Inn. “Folks can just get together and chat about everything that’s going on in the community,” says Becker.
The shop features the work of local artists and vintage treasures, says Becker. “We have unique gift cards, a selection of bird carvings, and of course, sandpiper items. We wanted to have an old time store that is reminiscent of Dorchester’s heyday as a hub in the Maritimes,” she says. The Bell Inn, where the Peep and Keep has set up shop, is one of New Brunswick’s oldest stone buildings, and was once a stagecoach stop on the Saint John to Halifax route. “We really want to give a nod to the past,” says Becker. At the same time, Becker and Wiggins-Colwell are looking to the future. “One of our passion projects is really to keep that Village Square alive,” says Becker. “We have a wonderful rural community. So we thought [this was] a way to contribute to making Dorchester come to life and doing something that everyone can enjoy.”
Wiggins-Colwell is what Becker calls a ‘serial entrepreneur’, previously having run a barber shop and started the Village Square Take-Out, now run by Debbie Shea. She’s also the Dorchester representative on Tantramar Council, and a former mayor of the village. Becker is a one-time village councillor as well. The two played a prominent role in the controversial re-creation and return of Shep the Sandpiper, which now sits in the village square.
The Peep and Keep had its soft opening during Dorchester’s Shiretown festival earlier in the summer, and so far, business has been going well, says Becker. “We’re really happy to see the local support that we’re getting from people stopping by,” says Becker.
The shop is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 4pm, but will stay open an extra hour this weekend during the Sandpiper festival, until till 5pm.
Becker says she’s still not sure what the winter plans are for the shop, and will decide later in the fall if it is to remain open all year long.
Hear Kara Becker talk about the Peep and Keep on Tantramar Report:
