When we visited, a young family was doing various projects one child was making a dream catcher while another was making a dinosaur terrarium. In addition to sodas and yummy appetizers! I loved being in his corner because he was in mine,” said Noel.If you want to add a little more fun to your adult splatter room session, Pinspiration offers an array of beers, wines, and other adult beverages. “He believed in the community and its opportunities.
17 will be renamed the Dustin Riley Soap Box Derby. Ucluelet’s Mayor Mayco Noel announced that the annual kids Soap Box Derby on Sept. Thank you for our friendship and always being there for people. I will always be so grateful to him for that. to speak his piece at the Celebration of Life. He kind of had to for the amount of times we had to go and grab him,” he said.īest friend of 30 years Mike Rasmussen met Riley in the South Surrey/White Rock area when they were teenagers. The best part of being on the backroads by yourself is when you broke down, you know he would drop everything and come help you. You really get to know a person on the road like that. “I jumped in his little red pick-up truck with a trailer towing a line that was way too big to be towed by this truck. But what makes it so special to me is that we stopped at every cabin where you could sign the guestbook, ‘The Riley brothers were here’.” We travelled the whole lake, stopping many times to hike, looking for a grouse that we never did find. It was meant to be a hunting trip, but it turned into just a great time together. He shared a memory about the last hunting trip they took with together a month before he passed. Testing each others patience and courage, but it always ended in a hug and an ‘I love you, man.’” said Jeremy.
He can now cook an egg way better than I can. “I am extremely grateful for what he taught my son (William). “He became the life of the party the instant he walked in the door,” said younger brother Jeremy Riley. He led the Ukee Days parade, volunteered his chefery for the annual Kennedy Flats backroads clean-up, and was notorious for throwing Halloween block parties and epic Christmas parties, inviting the whole town because he didn’t want anyone to be alone. In 2019, ‘The Blue Room Bistro’ was voted Business of the Year and Riley’s campfire style chili won People’s Choice at the Father’s Day chili cook off.
His community spirit was full tilt, and much of his extra time was spent dreaming up one-shot events like the Rockabilly BBQ and burnout contest of 2016 or volunteering for groups including the Ucluelet Children’s Centre, Tourism Ucluelet, and the Ucluelet Culinary Club. Riley had a gift for bringing people together with food, particularly great BBQ. We will forever love him and hold on to the happiness, love and light he brought into our lives,” she said. “My husband was my best friend, business partner and soul mate. “He was they type of man who would save someone’s life after a car crash and then a couple hours later he would be doing donuts in the Walmart parking lot.” “He wore his heart on his cutoff sleeve,” said loving wife Janine and mother of three children Carmindy, Gavin, and Kora. For those that showed up in fancy funeral shirts, a sleeve cutting booth was set-up in the back corner of the hall so they could scissor them off. Those that knew him best wore cowboy hats and sleeveless plaid shirts to honour the memory of the “Tailgate sittn’, Beer Drinkn’, Mud Slingn’, Red Neckn’” family man. 26, 2021.įamily and friends said their goodbyes to the small town hero at a standing-room only Celebration of Life at the Ucluelet Community Centre on June 18. Beeline to Mussel Beach, candied bacon in a Caesar, a man who lived his life with unrestrained laughter and no regrets. The self-proclaimed World’s Okayest Chef of Ucluelet’s ‘The Blue Room’ and the original ‘Tattooed Beaver’.
May we all crack a cold one and raise it up for Dustin Charles Riley. Dustin Riley with his wife Janine and kids Kora and Gavin share some laughs at the Ukee Days fairgrounds.