February 11, 2010
Media contact: Kim Lawrence
Office: 604-864-4611
Cell: 604-302-6257
kim.lawrence@ufv.ca
Love blooms for two generations of UFV students
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Meaghan and Lewis Van Dyk.
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Richard McBride and Carla Kehler weren’t looking to get married when they began attending Fraser Valley College back in 1975. If anything, they were looking for a chance to make a better life. Richard was preparing to head north for work when a friend suggested he go to school instead, to do something he was actually interested in. Carla had dreams of becoming a teacher, which led her to enroll.
Classes at FVC were held in the evenings, in the empty classrooms of W.J. Mouat Secondary School, the back rooms of Central Heights Church, or at the Marshall Road campus, beside the police detachment in Abbotsford. During one of those nights Richard spotted Carla and knew right away that she was the woman he wanted to marry, but they did not meet until a group project brought them together. The two led very different lives but ended up falling in love and, in 1979, they decided to get married.
Four children and a home business consumed their attention for many years but Carla returned to what had since become University College of the Fraser Valley in the late nineties to earn her Resident Care Attendant certificate. Today, she has returned once again to complete her Library and Information Technology diploma at what is now the University of the Fraser Valley. Richard taught Continuing Studies classes in technology at UFV for many years.
Meaghan McBride is Richard and Carla's daughter. She certainly wasn't looking to get married either, when she began attending UCFV after high school. Meaghan wanted to become a better person, both in the civic sense and academically. She chose to become active with
The Cascade student newspaper, first as a volunteer and then as the editor-in-chief. It was through her work with the newspaper that she met Lewis Van Dyk, now her husband.
"Lewis was an agriculture student at the time, and we met during a volunteer appreciation dinner," says Meaghan. "At least that’s what he tells me. Allegedly he approached me to talk about some of my articles, which had intrigued him, and I blew him off. I honestly don’t remember it at all, but Lewis, who has always had more patience than me, decided to wait me out."
They met again during new student orientation in September 2007. "I really saw Lewis for the first time," says Meaghan. "We went on a date a week later, and we knew right away that this was it. My parents joke that we’ve started a family tradition, and while we’ll certainly be sending our children to UFV, we won’t be expecting them to find a future husband or wife!"
Lewis is currently working towards his degree in mathematics and Meaghan is exploring the field of journalism.
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