Services

James Paton Memorial Health Centre

Medical services are provided by the James Paton Memorial Health Centre, on the Trans-Canada Highway. The hospital opened in May 1964 and has undergone many changes since then, making it a prominent hospital in the central region. The hospital has a rated beds capacity of 92.

Gander Public Library

Steele Community Centre

The Steele Community Centre, previously named the Gander Community Centre, is a multi-purpose venue located on Airport Boulevard. The community centre, owned and operated by the Town of Gander, is used to host trade shows, conferences, sporting events and special events. It is home to the Gander Flyers of the Central West Senior Hockey League.

During Operation Yellow Ribbon, the people of Gander and surrounding communities donated large amounts of food and other supplies for the unexpected visitors. The Gander Community Centre became a giant "walk-in fridge" for the food donations.

Gander airport features in the Nevil Shute novel No Highway and the film adaptation, called No Highway in the Sky in Anglophone countries other than the UK.

in 2006, the miniseries Above and Beyond deals with the Atlantic Ferry Organization, tasked with ferrying aircraft from North America to Europe in the early years of the Second World War. The production was filmed primarily at the Gander airport, and details the development of the airport as a ferry stop.

In 2013, Come from Away, a musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein based on the events in Gander on and after 11 September was first performed at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, following a workshop there the previous year. It became a co-production of the La Jolla Playhouse and the Seattle Repertory Theatre, and opened in San Diego on 29 May 2015. The show saw a production in Washington, D.C., at Ford's Theatre, from September to October 2016, then, prior to opening in Toronto, staged a pair of shows in Gander. It opened at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre, running from November 2016 to January 2017, where it set a ticket sales record for the 109-year-old venue. It opened in New York on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on 12 March 2017, and returned to the Royal Alex in Toronto on 13 February 2018. In the year 2017, at the 71st Tony Awards, the musical was nominated for seven Tony Awards, alongside other musical award nominations, ultimately winning one for Best Direction of a Musical by Christopher Ashley. The show has gone on to be played in various cities around North and South America and Europe for over a decade.

Planetary nomenclature

In 1991, the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (IAU/WGPSN) officially named a crater on Mars after Gander. Gander Crater lies at latitude 31.5° south, longitude 265.9° west; its diameter is .

Public parks, walking and ski trails

  • Cobbs Pond Rotary Park: a small park located on the northern edge of Gander. Amenities include: picnic area, washrooms, wharf, playground and a boardwalk trail. It is also the site of the town’s annual festival, The Festival of Flight, which occurs on the first Monday of August. The site reopened with renovations in 2014.
  • Thomas Howe Demonstration Forest: an interpretive demonstration forest located east of Gander on the Trans-Canada Highway. Amenities include: three walking trails with interpretive panels, a picnic area, washrooms and snowshoe trails.
  • Gander Heritage Trails: meander through the streets of old airport sectors where Gander once existed, near Gander International Airport. Look for remnants of old building foundations, benches and interpretive panels.
  • Newfoundland Trailway: the old Canadian National Railway that passed through Gander has been developed for walking, biking, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Some sections between Cobb’s Pond Rotary Park and the Old Town Site have been paved.
  • The Airport Nordic Ski Club: located west of Gander on the Trans Canada Highway. The club has of trails groomed for both diagonal stride and skating by a Pisten Bully Groomer, and of dedicated snowshoe trails. Ski of lighted trails nightly from dusk until 10 PM (weather and snow conditions permitting). The club is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization that has hosted a number of provincial events including the KidsFest, Midget and High School Championships.
  • Gander Heritage Memorial Park: located in central Gander on Airport Boulevard. It holds various monuments to aviators and soldiers from Gander and from elsewhere in Newfoundland, and the town describes it as being "envisaged as a place of quiet thought and contemplation". There is a statue of Gander, a Newfoundland dog posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal, the "animals' VC", in 2000 for his deeds in World War II, the first such award in over 50 years.

Freedom of the Town

In 2017, the 103 Search and Rescue Squadron, RCAF received the Freedom of the Town award.

See also

  • North Atlantic Aviation Museum

References

Further reading

  • Town of Gander (official site)