The Pemberton Canoe Association was featured in the Community Spotlight in the Question this week.

We talked with Hugh Fisher, coach and instigator of Pemberton’s paddling movement, to find out how the boathouse came about, and why it was such a crucial part of the Pemberton Canoe Association’s successes, which are many, and include the Laoyam Eagles 14 victories in a row at the Alcan Dragonboat Festival in Vancouver, and seeding national level outrigger crews.

What instigated the construction of the One Mile Lake Boathouse?

By about 2004 I didn’t want to keep trundling all the boats down on the trailer every day to do paddling. The Village of Pemberton let us keep the dragonboats at the north end of the lake, but I was still having to take all the other boats back and forth.

The Boathouse was built almost entirely with volunteer labour and donations. Who should be recognized?

Let me start from the ground up and hopefully I’ll remember everyone…

Ian Mcleod did all the site prep with his machine. The Village “donated” the site – allowing it to be built there, and included all the approvals and inspections. Dale Beattie acted as foreman and did the design work. Cardinal Concrete donated 25 yards of concrete, so we only needed about another 10 yards. Steve Phare donated the logs which eventually became the posts and beams and Scott Esseltine cut a lot of the wood that became rafters. Tom Bellhausen did all the wood work. The wood was cut and donated by Continental pole. Concrete work on the floor and roof was done by Dale Spencer at Kodiak Concrete. The roll on roofing – torchon membrane on the wood roof was donated and done by a local company. Rotary was involved. The forms were built by canoe club kids. The Phares through Home Hardware donated a lot. Deb Phare donated all the wire mesh in the door. Garth Phare and HH either donated material entirely or at cost, all the way along. The walkway down to the water – the materials were bought at wholesale and then work was done by Mike Tyler, and a crew, overseeing the kids. They built that all in a day. The roof railing was pretty much all Ian Mcleod and canoe club did the painting. Then Ian McLeod finished off the landscaping. Lots of the fill, and all the drainrock, was donated. Al Bush donated any equipment we needed to rent while it was being built. The racks inside – all that metal and work, was donated by Gary Sobchuk, who designed and installed it… There’s probably a lot of names I’m forgetting…

Why such a huge amount of goodwill from the local community?

Over the years many kids have been involved in the program and that means many parents and businesses have been involved. It’s been a program that’s been very successful. Even yesterday – the kids went to Vancouver and won the Guts and Glory event and came 2^nd in the pre Alcan race for grade 8s.

What did the boathouse mean for paddling in Pemberton?

It meant it could expand.

It was so limited by not having boats on site. Light boats are easy to pull around, but hauling a trailer and packing and unpacking boats is time consuming, and then your program is limited by the number of boats you can get onto the trailer.

So now we have a boathouse full of boats available all the time.

So in effect, what that means, is we’ve got 18 kids on the national outrigger team, Aleea Dahinden whose currently third in the world in Junior Outriggers (and the only Canadian girl to ever medal at the World Outrigger Sprint Championships), half a dozen kids on the national dragonboat team going to Hungary to compete in the World Championship, and adult champions who have gone through highschool and are now on the national open dragonboat team and going to Hungary.

I think overall water literacy has improved. We’ve got a lot of little rivers and lakes that are now being utilized.

It’s a good skill to have. It makes people water-smart. Paddling is basically a lifelong cradle to grave sport. You learn how to put a paddle in the water and pull a stroke, you can do it anywhere.

It costs for a whole season to paddle what it costs in a day to go skiing.

I think it’s one of the best workouts in town.

Photo by Karen Tomlinson

A lot of the kids on the program really haven’t had real success in sports, and you almost have to give them permission to push themselves. In a sprint, you get them to push their physical self to the limit, and kids aren’t often called on to do that. It’s quite a milestone, by the end of the season, to learn how to do that when you’re called on.

Plus, its’ fun. To get 50 kids out of bed at 8am on a Sunday morning down to the lake… it’s got to be.

Coach Fisher leads the dragonboaters in a yoga warm up at One Mile Lake.

We’re blessed to have a little lake that’s calm and warm and close to town with a boathouse full of boats that people can access any time of the day.

 You started coaching paddlers in Pemberton 17 years ago. The passion is still there?

Oh, I’m just an old canoe-head. I’ve been paddling since I was a little kid. I’ve always enjoyed it and I’ll keep doing it.

No plans to retire? My little boy is just 9 weeks old. Any chance you’ll still be coaching when he’s in grade 6?

Oh, more than likely.

What’s up for this summer?

Well, we’re in dragon boat season now, so we’re halfway through dragonboat training, with races every couple of weekends up until Alcan. Then a group of kids will go to flatwater sprints, a group will start training and racing outrigger and some are headed to Hungary for the Worlds in August.

All that on wee little One Mile Lake?

Well, it’s sprint racing, so most of the training is intervals. You actually forget you’re on a little lake. This little lake is bigger than some of the lakes that world champions have paddled on. Sure, it might be nice to have a longer stretch of water for the straights, but there’s downsides with that. One Mile is a very safe venue for people to paddle.

In 2009, local paddlers celebrate World Canoe Day with the grand opening of the boathouse.

]]> http://choosepemberton.com/2013/05/12/a-paddling-mecca-in-the-mountains/feed/ 0 DSC_0181 pembygrl Screen shot 2013-05-11 at 9.40.46 PM DSC_0181 DSC_0179 dscf0001 http://choosepemberton.com/2013/05/10/zombies-attack-without-warning-emergency-preparedness-week-will-help-you-out/ http://choosepemberton.com/2013/05/10/zombies-attack-without-warning-emergency-preparedness-week-will-help-you-out/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 17:29:51 +0000 Lisa Richardson http://choosepemberton.com/?p=3195 Read more]]>
Zombie attack. Solar flares. Chicken flu pandemics. Asteroid debris and nuclear winters. Nicola Jones runs us through a few dark disaster scenarios in a special “Emergency Preparedness” feature in the Pique.

But if preparing for a one-in-ten-million event is hard to prioritise in your current life, then consider the much higher likelihood of seeing another flood or highway closure in Pemberton.

And if you just answered, “yeah, yeah, yeah, there’ll be enough time to prepare when the emergency actually is here”, take a quick check of your fuel gauge and think again.

Plus, the things most people would grab if their house was burning down, wouldn’t really help them if the internet was down, the power went out and the grocery store closed.

Bettina Falloon was the eyes and ears of Pemberton Fire Department for 13 years, serving as Head Dispatcher until 911 service was extended here. In 2006, when the wildfires occurred, the Village of Pemberton staffer realised that emergency management was something she was really interested in, and she began pursuing it seriously as a course of study.

She is part of the team coordinating Saturday’s Emergency Preparedness Open House at the Community Centre from 10am to 1pm – which, for most local kids is just an excuse to sit in a fire truck or vehicle with a siren – but will also double as a chance to rethink your preparedness approach, with:

• 15% discount coupon on emergency kits ordered online
• visit from Smokey the Bear
• the Pemberton Fire Department’s famous Hot Dog BBQ
• information on everything from camp fire safety to home smoke detectors to personal emergency kits.
• art table to make a poster and enter the elementary student Shake Out poster contest

We asked her what all the fuss is about, and why Emergency Preparedness actually matters.

Why is it something that local governments get involved in?

So, what qualifications does a person need, to become a strawberry farmer?

It is not so much a matter of qualifications, but of passion and determination.  Carrie earned a chemical engineering degree, and Remi has a Ph.D. in Building Engineering with a focus on sustainable housing.  The degrees help in the sense that they taught us how to learn, and starting a strawberry farm, like any other business, requires a lot of learning.  Farming also demands a lot of hard work, with generally limited financial rewards, which is where passion comes in.  Determination is needed to keep on going after experiencing adversity, such as bears eating all our strawberries, or deer eating all the plants…

You, Carrie, grew up in Pemberton on a farm and worked summer’s for McEwan’s. Did you think that when you grew up, you would come back here, with your own family, and become a farmer?

Growing up in Pemberton and working for McEwans were really great; a small community like Pemberton offers so much for a child to learn and experience, just because of its small size.  At times during my youth I thought of being a farmer, but by the time I finished high school I was thinking about creating things that weren`t necessarily on the farm, and that`s why I decided to move across the country to Montreal to go to McGill.  But growing up on the farm, I had unwittingly developed a passion for growing and eating my own food.  At first, that passion was satisfied by buying my produce at farmer’s markets and through a local farm.  It was only when my husband and I started talking about how it would be both a great learning experience for the kids to grow up on a farm, and that it would help make our family more resilient, that we really started to consider moving back home to the farm. However, once the seed was planted, it didn’t take long for it to grow; Remi quit his job and we moved across the country.

Why strawberries?

Serendipity.  We moved back to Pemberton with no concrete farming plans.  After considering countless options, we decided to start a market garden.  We wanted to buy some strawberry plants, so that we could sell strawberries at the Farmer’s Markets.  Carrie chatted with the McEwans about strawberry suppliers at the Pemberton Farmers Institute AGM last year.  Shortly afterwards, the McEwans decided that they were ready to retire from the strawberry business, and so within weeks of chatting with them about strawberries for our market garden, they called us to ask if we wanted to buy their plants for the 2012 season.  We both thought it was a great opportunity that we could not pass up, so we jumped at it.

What’s the most important thing/ingredient to growing great strawberries?

Work.  There are many factors to growing a great strawberry, including having healthy nutrient rich soil, choosing the right variety of berries, and making sure they have enough water.  But the most important ingredient is work.  There are over ten thousand strawberry plants that need tending to.  It is important to take out all the weeds so that the plants thrive, which means being on your hands and knees pulling weeds whether the sun heated the sandy soil so that it is burning hot, or that it’s cold and raining, or if mosquitoes are out for a feast.

For people who don’t know where Camel’s Back Harvest is, (and are used to just hitting McEwans), can you give us directions/ a guided tour of the trip up the Valley (and help explain why those few extra kilometres are totally worth it?)

Camel’s Back Harvest is situated at the base of Camel’s Back Mountain, approximately 25 minutes north of Pemberton.  We are 20 km past McEwans’ Farm, on Pemberton Meadows Road, right before the pavement ends.  It is a very scenic drive up the valley, the same route followed by the Slow Food Cycle, and likely part of the bike route used by the Whistler Ironman.  You will find Camel’s Back Harvest at Kuurne Farms, which grow potatoes, as well as Pemberton Meadows Natural Beef.

And how did Camel’s Back Harvest come by its name?

It took a few weeks of brainstorming different names before we arrived at Camel’s Back Harvest.  The name comes from the farm’s location, which is at the base of Camel’s Back Mountain.  We didn’t want to have a name specific to strawberries, since we grow other produce as well, with our other main crop for this year being squash.

Tell us a bit about yourself. You and Remi moved from Ottawa to Pemberton last fall. How long had you been away?

I went away to university after high school and returned 13 years later with my family by choice in September 2011.  I received a B.Eng in chemical engineering at McGill, in 2003, and worked for a local non-for-profit environmental group in Montreal, before I decided to become a stay-at-home mom.

Remi grew up in Sudbury, ON, with no exposure to farm life.  He is a mechanical engineer with a Master’s and Ph.D. in Building Engineering.   He has been interested in farming since meeting Carrie and visiting her family’s farm in Pemberton. Last year he was working full time on the farm, helping to get things started.  This year, he has his own consulting business and will be working on the farm as much as he can between work and helping take care of the kids.

We met when we took the same environmental course together at McGill, and Remi asked me to do a term project with him.  I agreed, and we started dating at the end of the course and have been together ever since.

What were you doing in Ottawa?

Carrie was a stay at home mom, following Attachment Parenting principles while also taking care of a large family garden, and offering breastfeeding support through the local health authority.  Remi was working as a Senior Researcher in Sustainable Housing at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

What made you move back?

Our society is going full steam ahead following a fundamentally unsustainable economic system that has a general disregard for the environment.  If something is unsustainable, it cannot be sustained indefinitely.  We believe that within our lifetime our society will have to pay the price for not heeding to obvious warnings and will suffer economic and/or environmental collapses.  Given that belief, we debated and thought about what would be best to help improve our family’s resilience and help prepare our children for an uncertain future.  Given that we believe that strong local communities with thriving local economies will be more resilient, and that farming and growing your own food is a skill that will always be in demand, we decided to move back to the family farm in Pemberton.

What has been the best thing about being back in the Valley?

The best thing about being back in Pemberton has to be that we are living in the scenic mountains and the sense of belonging that comes from returning to your hometown.

What has been the biggest adjustment?

We moved in with my parents in my childhood home.  After years of living on our own, it has been a challenge to adjust to living as a larger family unit.  We are still making adjustments and trying to find a happy medium where everyone can live together and love one another, and still have the personal space we require.

And what’s the scariest thing about becoming Pemberton’s go-to UPick strawberry farmers? (Is it a failed crop and all those angry WI members chasing you down?)

It is the responsibility of being the go-to U-Pick strawberry farm.  As you say, if we have a failed crop, or if we can’t keep the bears from eating all the berries, it isn’t just us that will be disappointed.  We also feel a responsibility to keep offering u-pick strawberries into the future, regardless of what happens.

How old are you and Remi?

Carrie is 32 and Remi 33 (34 in April).

It strikes me as super exciting that you and your brother are both farming in Pemberton – how big a deal is that for your parents? Is there a lot of overlap between what you all do? Are Sunday suppers dominated by talk about farming etc?

I don’t think my parents ever expected that I would come back to the farm.  So, it has been quite an adjustment for them to go from having a nice big quiet house, to having pre-schoolers running around making lots of noise with toys strewn everywhere.   I think that they are excited to see the potential of having the family farm move on through the generations; I think we all are.  There is definitely overlap in what we do, as we both try to help each other out when we can.  Over the years, I would like to become more involved in the potato business, but for now we need something that will bring in some income to support another family.  Living and working together as a large family unit is proving to be interesting; we go through times that are great and we’re all excited about our future and what we’re doing, and then we have times when we’re in disagreement about what our path should be; the lifestyle of living and working together as three generations!

And what does that say about what’s happening in agriculture? Pemberton seems to be quite unique in the number of farmers under 40 here… as compared to the rest of North America.

I think the trend of having younger farmers is happening everywhere in Canada.  It seems that Canadians are starting to put more value to locally grown food, which is encouraging younger people to start farming.  I think we have a long way to go to help bring down the average age of farmers, but it is encouraging.  For now, it is extremely challenging for young Canadians to start farming and make a living at it.  They need to be passionate about it to put in the countless hours for the less than spectacular financial rewards.  A couple would have a better chance of making money working for minimum wage than getting into farming.

How many years of prep has gone in to getting Camel’s Back Harvest ready for operation?

In a commercial operation, you typically don’t harvest the strawberries in the first year.  So last year, we planted just over 2 acres of strawberries to be ready for this year.

Will you be ready for operation this summer?

Yes, providing our strawberry plants made it through the winter after the severe pruning the deer gave them late last fall.

What kind of operation will you be running?

We will be starting with a similar operation to what McEwans had, with a mix of u-pick and ready pick.  We will evaluate after this summer to determine where we may make any adjustments.

How many acres of strawberries? Are you just starting with 2? or do you plan to keep planting more?

We currently have approximately 2 acres of strawberries.  We will plant another acre this year, and the following year we will add another acre and a half, so that we will have a rotation with 4.5 acres in total, with 3 acres being harvested each year.

Anything else? All U-Pick? Will you do any markets or supply direct to anyone?

We are planning on being primarily a u-pick strawberry farm, but we are considering bringing some strawberries to the Pemberton Farmer’s Market, and we will take orders for ready pick.  There are a number of local restaurants, caterers and other businesses that are interested in larger orders, which we are looking into the feasibility of supplying.

Where can people find out more about you or get the updates when the strawberries are ready? 

You can find us on Facebook.

Custom Fit Online is perhaps Pemberton’s biggest, and yet least known entrepreneurial success story. Almost 20 years old, the local web design and strategy shop was recently named amongst Canada’s top 10 integrated search companies, web design companies and Internet marketing businesses.

Locally, they’ve worked with Tourism Pemberton, Village of Pemberton, Pemberton Valley Lodge, the Log House Inn, Pemberton Soaring, Pemberton Valley Supermarket, and the Pemberton Chamber of Commerce, but the boundary-less world of the web means they also do work for companies in Whistler & the Lower Mainland, Ontario and the United States of America. We asked founder and principal, Roy McClean, to give us a tour behind the scenes of his virtual brain-factory.

By way of professional bio, what are some of the committees you have served/volunteered on? Where would Pemberton people know you from?

• I was a founding member of Tourism Pemberton and have been on board for many years,
• was a Pemberton Chamber board member for several years but took last 4 years off; back on the Chamber board for 2013,
• coached hockey with Whistler Minor Hockey Association for about 12 years,
• but my own volunteering is dwarfed by what my wife, Arlene, has been involved with; she had two full-time jobs for over a decade – her paid job at SLRD and her unpaid volunteer ‘job’.

In plain English, what do you do?

We help businesses succeed by having a strong online presence.

We work with our 4 pillars of online success:

• BUILD – build stuff like websites, Intranets, mobile apps;
• ATTRACT – apply search engine optimization (SEO), socia media, blogging, content marketing & search engine marketing (e.g. Google AdWords) to attract the right people to our clients’ online channels;
• CONVERT – work at converting online traffic into business and relationships with landing page development, conversion optimization, online testing, email marketing, etc. and
• OPTMIZATION – using analytics to drive everything; we’re a data-driven company; we use digital analytics to help guide and improve our clients’ online business and profits

What would you say your specialty or expertise is?

I need to be well-rounded and know a lot of stuff but the most significant thing I bring to the table is probably my total commitment to our clients’ success, no matter what it takes (as long as it’s sustainable, legal and morally sound).

And I’m a pretty good (and certified) digital analyst. I graduated among the top of the class during the first session of UBC’s Web Analytics program, plus I have taken numerous certifications to stay up-to-date with this.

What is the problem that your clients typically come to you to solve?

Making the crazy constantly changing online world work for their business.

So many people are intimidated by the continuous change in this area.

Earning people’s trust provides us with the freedom to act appropriately on their behalf.

Your clients aren’t geographically limited. How do they discover you? 

Virtually all of our clients come from word-of-mouth. This is augmented by our various marketing activities such as social media, blogging, etc but it’s our (hopefully positive) reputation that creates a lot of new business for us.

What is the size of your business? Who are you competing against?

We refer to ourselves as a boutique business. We’re relatively small compared to many ‘big city’ web consultancies, but we have enough well-rounded resources to do almost all of our work in-house, plus we’re connected enough so that we can pull in people that we need for special projects.

Mostly, we’re competing against people expectations. Too many people don’t understand the value and the investment required to create a really successful online presence that returns a positive ROI.

Lots of people think everything online is or should be ‘free’ (e.g. “I can build my own WordPress site or hire a teenager to do this for a case of beer”… FYI, I have nothing against WordPress or teenagers who can build them).

The reality? There ain’t no free lunch and you, more often than not, get what you pay for or don’t pay for. If you invest in working with talented, skilled professionals you can get a great ROI (and that’s not meant to be a sales pitch – that’s just what I see from being in the business for decades).

Being successful at anything typically involves a lot of hard work and earned experience. Achieving business success online is no different.

Your website shows a team of 8. How many of your staff are Pemberton -based? How important is it to have the right people at the table? Where do you all operate out of? And what kind of secret web Ninja tools do you use that help you manage projects with staff across different locations?

We’re a virtual company. Most of us are local. Our webmaster lived locally for years but had to move to Ontario for family reasons and he still works with us. One of our associate programmers is based in Portland, Oregon.

We use web-based applications like Skype, 37 Signals’ Basecamp and Highrise, Freshbooks financial software, Dropbox, Intranets, etc to stay connected and organized.

We always have Skype open and we often communicate more with each other more than at places I worked where people worked in cubicles or offices in the same building.

Why does Pemberton work as the headquarters for your operation?

Because we have grown roots here. My wife and kids didn’t want to move anywhere else. Our kids have grown up and left Pemberton but still love coming back often.

What are some of the challenges involved in being based in Pemberton?

Working in an ‘outlier’ community does have its challenges – we just aren’t close to lots of big businesses that require significant investments in the online presence. But we manage based upon word-of-mouth and some good, targeted marketing.

Is it a lonely place for technology/strategy/creative professionals to operate from?

Pemberton is awesome but it’s not a major hub of the online world

It would be nice to go to lots of real-world meet ups and get face-to-face with other leading web consultancies and agencies. But I attend a lot of webinars and online sessions to stay up-to-date and I read a lot, watch a lot of videos, and am a member of some excellent online ‘mastermind’ groups pertaining to digital analytics, SEO, web development, etc. Being members of quality online communities is very important to us.

Pemby does boast quite a few satellite workers and indie contractors. What advice would you offer them about building their business from a remote location? How important is it to get some face-to-face networking in, given how easy it is to connect with people through social media these days?

Setting up business is so much about connections and relationships. Some can be developed online but face-to-face relationships still mean a lot. Online can be an excellent way of maintaining relationship but establishing them usually requires a face-to-face real world meeting and/or referrals from respected people. Having said that, we have some long-time clients that we have never met in person!

You need to be CONNECTED in some way to maintain the pipeline that brings in new business… the lifeblood of any business. BUT keeping your existing clients happy is easily the best and most sustainable way to stay in business.

Your website is really the virtual home for your operation. Can you tell us what your website reveals about you?

Our website is constantly changing – we’re tweaking it all the time, adding new content on the blog, optimizing and constantly tweaking page layout, content, etc. So I think this is consistent with how we operate – our business and life is a working in our online ‘petri dish’ or ‘laboratory’. It’s always evolving.

That’s what it reveals about me: in some things I am very conservative, but I’m also willing to constantly adapt, change and reinvent myself in many ways to stay in business.

You’ve been operating since 1995… What have been the most exciting changes in the web landscape over that time?

Better, faster online access. Faster, better technology available at lower costs. As a result, better access to online resources necessary to grow and improve.

People ‘getting’ the online world and its impact on business, and life in general (for better or worse).

And personally, I am getting a little wiser and hopefully a little more humble and better at the same time as I get greyer.

You guys are active and wonderfully entertaining on twitter and LinkedIn. How important do you think social media is to running a successful business?

Social media, done right, works. Social media, not done right, is a waste of time.

You need to define what you want from social media – is it just a ‘listening’ tool? (which can be worthwhile), or is it a business generator? How you work in this space is driven by your business needs and goals.

You noted us on Twitter and LinkedIn but we’re trying to be a lot more active on Facebook too. We think we got Facebook figured out a lot better than we did even 4 months ago – it’s proving to be very effective for us lately.

What one piece of advice about using social media would you offer to local businesses and groups?

Social media is a marathon, not a sprint. You must stay committed to it and constantly adjust to be effective.

Beyond just social media, what would be your advice to local businesses in 2013, to get ahead? Is there one single thing they can do to improve their bottom lines? So many of Pemberton’s business folk are doing their own marketing off the sides of their desk. Any particular trends they should be watching? Is there an easy thing they should incorporate into their operation – that wouldn’t require a lot of budget/resources – ie at the very least, have a Facebook page?

1. Not matter how good you are, the BUSINESS MODEL has be well thought out – what value can you bring to your market?
2. If you can’t bring value, you shouldn’t be in business. Once you bring value, you often need to make your clients aware of this (e.g. for us, showing and explaining how online revenues have increased year over year).
3. The tools or channels you use are based upon your business model and your customers / potential customers.
4. Whatever you use, be it Facebook, blogging or something else, it needs to be done right and you need to stay committed to it to really start seeing results.
5. Lastly, my favourite phase is “You Treasure What You Measure.” When you track key metrics for your business and act accordingly with your business, typically your chances of success increase. Often significantly.

As a little bit of personal background, Roy, can you tell us how you and Arlene ended up in Pemberton?

That’s a long story! But here’s the Reader Digest version:

We met when I was teaching skiing in Banff at Sunshine Village and Arlene was working at the hotel. For me, it was love at first sight. We both figured we were going to get married not too long after we first started ‘courting’. We moved from Banff to Ontario where my family lived and I ended up working in marketing management in the tourism sector. It didn’t take long for us to decide we wanted to get married soon and set up house for ourselves; and we did. Our son, Jason, and daughter, Emma, were born and we thought we were set up to live in Barrie Ontario for the rest of our lives but THEN, Arlene’s parents bought The Hitching Post Motel in Mt Currie. Her parents made a success of it with LOTS of hard work.

Arlene’s parents got into a car accident and they asked if we would come out and help them for a year while they recovered. Arlene’s parents recovered and 22 years later, we’re still here.

How did you make the professional transition from the ski and hospitality industry into web and strategy?

We morphed into web and strategy over many years.

When I left Whistler Blackcomb many years ago, I decided to set up my own business. I first developed business and marketing plans. Then I started working with clients with their branding and brand identity. As the Internet developed, I felt it was my calling, as it combined my marketing experience with technology – I was born part-geek and studied computer science during my undergrad work. When doing business planning and branding work I often found it very frustrating ‘proving’ to clients that our work helped them. The online world was different – suddenly this new field of digital analytics was born and I could see and ‘prove’ to clients that our work was making a positive impact on their business. I was sold on the idea and that’s why Custom Fit Online exists today.

What has been your biggest learning over the last 18 years?

Do your best, be diligent, take pride in successes.

Acknowledge and learn from mistakes, then put them behind you. (Uh, I’m still working on this.)

It’s not just what you do, it’s how you do it.

Time flies, so stop and smell the roses while you can. (This is way more relevant to me very recently than it was even a few years ago.)

My great family is, by far, my greatest success.

What are your favourite professional development resources? Do you choose to attend conferences, seminars, do courses online, or stay up to speed basically through online reading?

Being located in Pemberton, the vast majority of my resources are accessed online, but I cherish the opportunity to attend real-world events on occasion to meet the actual people I follow and interact with online.

If you follow my Twitter account, our Facebook page, or our blog I try to share my favourite resources, but HootSuite (the social media dashboard) and Google (RSS) reader are two of my favourite tools for keeping up-to-date. I follow the best thought-leaders in each online ‘space’ and learn from their teachings. I also try to interact with those thought leaders and have had some success with this.

What are the 3 blogs/websites/publications you couldn’t live without?

• SearchEngineNews.com
• http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
• SEOmoz.org

Do you ever log off?

Nope

Well, yes, but maybe not often enough.

I use tools that help schedule social media posts throughout the day so it sometimes seems like I am never offline but I am.

What do you do, to unwind and get away from the busyness of business?

I love to walk/hike around Pemberton and area, soak in the views and get some exercise; enjoy my family; read; floss my teeth; watch a little hockey, NFL, premiership soccer and college basketball on TV; drink good coffee; tease my wife (constantly); volunteer.

What goals have you set for 2013?

Kick butt and grow the business so that I can walk away from it one day and see it continue to thrive.

Are there any questions you wish I’d asked?

Why do people always confuse me for George Clooney? (Haha… just kidding!… really!)

To get into the swing of spring, we checked in with Lisa Griffith and Laura Zgud, to find out how a garden grows, and what it a communal growing space says about a community…

Plots measure approximately 10 x 20 feet and sell for $50 for the first year, and $30 every consecutive year after that.

Those people interested in obtaining a plot can email: pemcommunitygarden@gmail.com to be placed on a waiting list, or attend one of the Spring sign up events.

• The upcoming Garden Fundraiser and Registration Night will take place at Mile One Eatery this April. Everyone welcome. A portion of food sales will be donated toward the PCCG, plus there will be prizes donated by Rona, and people can sign up or add their name to the waitlist. The date will be determined shortly…either April 9^th or 16^th  – more details coming shortly~!!!
• Earth Day Spring Clean Up on April 22^nd - all gardeners are encouraged to come out and help organize the shed, tidy the greenhouse, inventory the tools, put out hoses, pick up garbage, etc. etc.

To keep up to date, join the Pemberton Creek Community Garden facebook group.

Also, new this year, Laura and Mike Zgud will share monthly updates, photos and gardening tips from the Community Garden at The Wellness Almanac.

Lisa, you’ve been involved from the outset, haven’t you? What has the Community Garden meant to you and your family?

LG:  I began as a volunteer member of the Village of Pemberton’s Garden Committee, and was closely involved when we broke off as an independent non-profit group with the Village’s blessing.

The garden has meant many things to me and my family. Being a community planner by profession, being involved in the Pemberton Creek Community Garden (PCCG) has been an amazing opportunity to facilitate the development of a tangible and positive ‘community’ of like-minded people – people of all ages and backgrounds, with varying levels of knowledge and commitment, all bound together by the pleasure and/or necessity to grow their own food, herbs and flowers.

Being a health-conscious individual, it has allowed me grow my own organic vegetables, which is something I have been striving to eat in abundance for over 25 years.

AND being an advocate of social sustainability – practices that respect the earth, support local families, embrace inclusivity and celebrate diversity – being involved with the Pemberton Creek Community Garden is a no-brainer!! My contributions satisfy both my type A, detail-obsessed need to organize, and my do-gooder, green, community-minded tendencies!

The garden has also given my very adept husband a public outlet for his carpentry skills, as well as an opportunity to discover his (before this) unbeknownst green thumb.

For my son, the garden has been a place to grow up, a place to grow his own pumpkins for Halloween jack-o-lanterns, a place to grab a cold drink of water from the hose and a snack of peas and mini carrots on a super-hot summer day, and a place to play with other kids. The sandbox, although completely communal, is referred to as “his”. (We built it with him in mind as a helpful distraction for planting parents…)

And for all of us, the PCCG is a source of great pride and connection with new-found friends and neighbours.

Apparently, it also holds some great street-cred – it is because of my involvement with the community garden that I am on a first name basis with some of the most respected Pemberton farming families, and have even been invited to sit as a bona fide member of the Pemberton Farmers’ Institute!

Any volunteer commitment is huge… why do you keep going with this one?

I think that can be inferred from the above!

But one thing I haven’t mentioned is that every spring I get so caught up organizing fundraising events & getting people signed up, that I don’t always have a lot of time to do much in my own garden. My husband takes care of deciding what to plant, starting seedlings, digging up the soil, adding compost, planting and watering.

I eventually weed. And harvest. And prepare meals. We have a very mundane division of labour.

What’s the connection with the garden and Stewardship Pemberton? Why’s that a good fit?

It was my idea to have the garden fall under the Stewardship Pemberton umbrella, rather than jumping through the hoops of becoming our own society. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. Now with the Nature Centre just across the creek from us, it makes even more sense and we have many commonalities and overlapping goals. And with Stewardship Pemberton now a Canadian Registered Charitable Organization, it means we can issue tax-deductible receipts for membership fees, access more grants, and achieve even more together.

What are the best changes/developments you’ve seen over the 7 years that the Garden has been going?

The addition of the greenhouse, the foodbank garden plot and the popularity of it all. Plus our facebook group which keeps us all in the loop: Pemberton Creek Community Garden.

Are there 60 plots at the garden? Who has a plot? Is it all neighbouring residents from the condo complexes there? Is it more families? Or singles? Is it a good place to meet new people, if you’re new to town? 

There are now over 60 plots – I think 63 was the total in 2012. We are always trying to create more plots to keep up with demand. They majority of plots are ‘jointly-run’ or shared between families, friends or roommates. As well, I would say most of our members come from nearby townhouse complexes, but there are others from different neighbourhoods involved. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join – as long as they actually live in Pemby! I have heard of someone who faked a Pemberton address but were actually from Whistler! Isn’t that ironic!! I can’t get too upset, as we obviously have a beautiful thing going here that is surely coveted by gardening lovers residing in Whistler!

How does it change the nature of a neighbourhood to have a community garden to work in?

It is a natural meeting place, and an amenity to take pride in. The proximity of the garden to Pioneer Junction and the Peaks can’t be beat! But it is totally a community wide asset.

And we have to thank people like the Beks and Doug LeBlanc and Rona for their yearly donations of manure, trucking and prizes respectfully.

What is the demand like? Is it still as high and constant as ever? Do most people keep their plots, or is there a pretty decent turnover? 

The demand exceeds our expectations every year. Our waitlists have steadily been growing larger every spring. But luckily enough, we always seem to be able to accommodate everyone so far, either by natural turn-over and  by finding more space to create new plots. We are so fortunate to have such a large piece of land – most community gardens are condensed little patches compared to our sprawling mini- acreage!

However, we really want to stress that part of being a member is committing to donate time toward communal duties, and we may have to crack down on those who do not contribute, especially given the keenness and sheer number of  those on the waitlist.

What do you think hooks people on growing their own food? 

I’d like to think it’s the satisfaction of enjoying a truly locally produced “1 Mile Radius Diet”, or biting into something you have grown yourself and savouring how much better and sweeter everything tastes. However, everyone gets hooked for their own unique reasons…

When did the Food Bank get its plot? 

In 2011-2012.

Who initiated that? 

Mike Czerculan from Shaw Cable who is a long term member of the garden spearheaded it with the Food Bank. We give them a large plot at no charge at the far end of the garden (a spot that does not have close watertap access) and in exchange they haul their own water and maintain it.

Laura, you’ve been involved since 2009, right? Why do you spend so much time at the garden? What does it mean to you?

LZ: I love being in the garden, it’s a meditative place for me, working with my hands in the soil is extremely grounding & therapeutic. It makes you feel good, it connects you to the earth and to the food you eat. It makes you proud of your meal because you know what went into creating it. I spend so much time in the garden because I’m drawn to be there, drawn to nurture the soil & plants, I also really like the garden people, friendly & natural folk! I’m always looking forward to checking on the progress as the garden grows and get such a fullfilling sense of accomplishment to harvest fresh veggies.

Of your 60 members, what are the main reasons that people keep a plot?

LZ: To cultivate & harvest their own Organic produce. To teach their children about taking care of a garden. To reduce their grocery bill while increasing the quality of food they are eating. To spend time outside.

What size are the plots?  What can be grown in one? Does the size enable people to actually be a bit self-sufficient?

LZ: The Plots are all measured out to be 10feet x 10feet or 100 square feet depending on the shape.

To give you an idea of what can be grown in a plot I’ll give you an overview of what I grew last year on our plot:
55 Garlic, 100 Onions half Red half Yellow, 20 Kale Plants half Curly half Laciento, 3 Rainbow Chard Plants, 60 Beets that were of mixed varieties, 60 Rainbow Carrots, 20 Sugar Snap Pea plants, 4 Potato Plants, 20 Parsnips, 9 Tomato Plants.

This gives you plenty of food to create your meals throughout the summer & fall. We also set ourselves up with enough Onions to last us until the end of February and enough Garlic to re-plant 80 cloves and to have enough to last until this year’s crop is ready to harvest. This is a huge savings as Organic local garlic is usually $3-$5/bulb.

What are the foolproof plantings for Pemberton, that you could suggest to a newcomer to gardening, for maximum success and satisfaction?

LZ: Foolproof: Lettuces, Kale, Potatoes & Garlic…everyone has their own opinions on what grows well & what doesn’t depending on their own success. I think were pretty lucky here, with some love you’ll be quite impressed with your green thumbs no matter how new you are to gardening.

Do you ever have to worry about garden plots being raided? ie naughty boys snacking on people’s sugar peas?

LZ: I don’t like to think about this happening, because so much effort and care goes into the final products. We have a pretty respectful community here luckily enough. We encourage any extras that anyone has grown to be shared amongst other gardeners. We have signs people can place in their plot if they are away on holidays that offer people to care for and harvest what is ripe so it doesn’t get left to spoil & waste…

How many hours does a person need to allocate to maintain and tend their plot?

LZ: Maintain vs Maximize are two different thoughts on caring for your plot.

As part of the contract of having a plot everyone is asked & expected to have their soil worked & prepared by end of May and gardens Planted by June 15th. Everyone also needs to keep their plots adequately maintained which means weeding regularly. On top of your personal plot care of 1 hour/week minimum we also have all gardeners commit to devoting 2 hours/month of overall community garden care. That includes joint garden clean up days we always have one day in the Spring and one day in the Fall. The upkeep and regular cleaning of the Garden Shed, tools, hoses, common pathways and the up keep of the green house. Your plants need water almost everyday in our hot dry summers so unless it Rains & Pours you would expect your garden tending to be a daily occurrence, it might be the highlight of your day!

Ever contemplated adding greenhouses to the zone, so people could get seeds started or grow year-around?

LZ: Yes, we do have a Green house that is ideal for starting your seedlings in the Spring it’s even set up  with Misters so that the watering is taken care of on a timer system to ensure you get off to a great start to your gardening season!

Is there a lot of knowledge, seed and harvest sharing going on, between members?

LZ; I know I asked questions when I first joined. I looked at the guy who had the best crop of Garlic growing as well as an impressive garden in every division and I befriended Matt, who I had before this referred to as the “Garlic Guy” then I  followed his lead, his every move! Planting on the same day as him, measuring how deep he was planting and matching that! The second year I was planting on the same day as Sharon and she graciously shared her Organic Bone Meal fertilizer with me that was a tip that someone had shared with her and now I pass on to others ( gets the roots off to a strong start!) . Gardeners definitely take it as a compliment if you seek out their advice!

In the Spring when everyone is planting we are trading seeds so that we all get the benefits of a diverse garden. I find a lot of generous trades in harvest time, “Would you like a zuchinni that’s as big as your arm?” Accepted and happily responded: “Please take as much as I can pile into your basket of green beans!”

What have been the learnings over the years? ie if you were asked to put together a presentation to another community (or another location in this community) to provide advice and best practices on setting up a community garden, what would it include? What would be the top 3-5 tips?

LZ;

1. Encourage & Establish Community Garden involvement with caring for common areas, fundraising & sense of “community” in garden.
2. Respect for your Plot and Respect for the entire Garden
3. Organization: stay on top of staying organized

What are the most important tools/supplies for the Community Garden? Where were those funded from?

LZ; We have two Spring Fundraisers which are also the two days we encourage gardeners to come out, support and pay your plot renewal fee.

Last year we did an evening at Black Bird Bakery & an evening at Mt Currie Coffee Co, both evenings included a portion of the money generated from sales being donated from the generous establishments as well as our 50-50 draw money and raffle ticket money with  great gardening prizes being donated for our Raffle draw from Rona!

It’s really important to get the gardeners out to support these events as it our main source of funds raised to supply the garden with the tools & equipment needed to supply everyone’s gardening needs.

We also use the money from everyone’s plot fee’s to purchase garden supplies. With so many gardeners using the tools most hand tools need to be completely replaced every season and a few hoses as well as many hose guns ( all could use a little more love when used ) Wheel barrows use a large portion of the budget as they are “big ticket items” and then we have Shovels, Forks, Hoes & Rakes!
We are lucky to have a very supportive local Rona store that always is happy to help out with a Community Garden Discount which has been a huge help. Last season we were able to have the greenhouse updated with the misters and all thanks to TBI Irrigation for giving us a discount to make that possible for everyone who utilizes the green house to benefit from.

We also have a beautiful picnic table that was refurbished for everyone’s pleasure. My husband & I also donated our time to create new plot sunflower signs for every garden and the materials used were funded from the garden. Lisa & Shane have donated countless hours to maintaining and creating this garden as well as everyone who helped out with the green house and donations from the WB Foundation for making the green house possible.

Pemberton has a chronic dog poo issue. Is the garden immune from that?

LZ; The dog poo stays out of the garden. We have a “no dogs in garden sign” that is completely respected from non-gardeners and the fence around the garden keeps it that way. Inside the garden we have gardeners who respectfully bring their dogs on leashes and their hasn’t been any issues with dogs on leashes hanging out at the end of the gardeners plots or in the shade of the garden shed. They like carrots too!

Have you had any unwanted wildlife encounters?

LZ: We have had Bears in the garden and ask that no Berries or fruit trees be planted in the garden to keep the attractants down. We have also had Deer, Rabbits and of course the usual suspects of Slugs, caterpillars & beetles eating away at our goods! That is all part of the deal, at least you know you have Organic produce when the bugs want it too.

What kind of “courses” /speaker nights have been the most successful/valuable?

LZ: Every year we organize three local garden Speakers to come to one of our Spring Fundraising/Renewal Fee nights to share their knowledge and answer questions. We would love to have more people attend these events and benefit from the value of information shared. Jordan Sturdy has shared his wealth of gardening tips with us for the past few years with all his North Arm Farm experience I always learn something new to improve upon.  Last year I took away a better understanding of when, where, why & how much Lime to use on my garden. We also had Peter Gorski of Inspirearth Organics speak on extending & experimenting with the growing season utilizing the green house and hearty crops. We have had in past years different local Potato Farmers share their stories as well Compost experts.  I can’t wait to see who we can have as speakers this year.

What is Pemberton like as a place to grow things, generally? I mean, obviously, the soil is pretty decent. But is it a pro-gardening culture, too? Is there a lot of support? Is the farming community supportive, as a general rule? Do you enjoy a lot of actual financial and advisory support as well as theoretical support?

LZ: Very supportive gardening culture here, great soil, awesome farmers who help out as Speakers, donating manure is a huge bonus for everyone as well!

Is it competitive? Do you find you’re looking at other people’s plots, thinking, ooh, their spinach is going gangbusters? How do they get their corn to look so good? I wish I were artistic like that? Ever thought about giving out awards?  If you did, who would the 2012 winners be?

LZ: It’s competitive if you’re competitive. There are some beautiful plots, and it’s a very nice habit to walk  up & down the pathways and see everyone’s masterpieces. It gives you creative ideas of what you can do with your own plot. You get to see how other plants are growing and what others thought of that you didn’t. You get inspired to work on your garden, you get passionate about creating a garden that you enjoy and are proud of. Or you realize that you need to get in your garden get your hands dirty and get some work done or you might lose your privileges of having a plot so that it can go to someone on our wait list who is going to utilize the plot.

I love the idea of honoring the gardeners with awards, let’s make it official, we will crown some top gardeners this year! 2013 Pemberton’s Next Top Gardener, the challenge is on!

For 2012, if you were proud of your garden and felt the benefits in your body of what growing & eating your very own organic local vegetables feels like, then you are all winners.

What do you think are the biggest benefits in having a community garden plot?

LZ: The benefits are more then you would imagine. Having a place to go to that is able to relieve your stress by connecting you to the earth, that’s able to feed not just your body but your soul. A place where the vibes are sweet, the feeling is good and your thoughts are cleared. These feelings are only but extended when you’re able to feed yourself and others with the fruits of your harvest and how amazing does it feel when you have enough to share with neighbors and friends.

The Garden is a place where your breath is full with the aromas of Flowers and Herbs that fill the air. You weed, water & tend to the care of your plants and that is always rewarded back to you when you pick your ripened veggies from the vine and taste the difference it makes to have grown it yourself. The friends you make and people you meet, surrounding yourself with like minded & healthy individuals who appreciate where your food is coming from in the same way you do.

You’ve just moved in to share studio space with Amy at Sunna Studios. What does that involve? Why make that move? How does that help you be more productive?

Amy has been so generous with sharing her creative space with me… and my sawdust.

It is wonderful to be in a beautiful bright environment with Amy’s creative energy. She is inspiring in her love for her craft and attention to detail. It has been great to bounce new designs and business ideas off her.

Potter Amy Hazeldine at Sunna Studio

As an added bonus, Kirk Becker is the newest addition to the Sunna studio! He has set up his DJ booth in there as well and we are treated to a private show more often than not now!

Kirk Becker lays down the soundtrack for just another work day at Pemberton’s Sunna Studios

Up until then, where did you work out of?

I spend time in Maui in the summers.  My friend Eric is a Luthier. He makes guitars and ukuleles. I got to share space in his shop and use the off cuts from his instruments.

In Pemberton, I was making a huge mess on our kitchen island, when the belt sander was becoming a more necessary piece of equipment. It became apparent that it was way too much to set up and clean up every time I went to work. When Sunna studio became available I jumped at the chance.

What does Mana mean?

In Hawaiian culture, mana is spirit or power that may be ascribed to a person, space, or inanimate object. The essence of someone or something can have “good mana” or energy.

How did you get started in this game?

When I first saw my friend Eric Devine’s box of beautiful off cuts. There was no question that I had to do something with it. Eric ordered me a Jeweller’s saw almost 3 years ago and I have continued to carve up pieces since.

What else do you do, to support yourself? Or are you 100% committed to pursuing your craft?

I am also a Graphic Designer. The 2 have worked very well together as I am super passionate about design and imagery. My graphic skills have been very useful for creating my jewelry designs and all of my promotional material and eco-packaging. Both jobs have flexible schedules, allowing me to balance a life between the mountains and the ocean.

Where did you train/develop your skills?

I have always dabbled in making jewelry. I took some courses at VCC in silversmithing, and Caroline Miller taught me classes in her home studio as well. I loved working with silver,  I have always loved working with wood. I love how you can shape it and how it smells.  Eric helps to teach me about all the different kinds of wood and their properties. I am always evolving my skills and knowledge, but I have to admit I tend to sand my fingertips off quite a bit.

Were you always a jewelry kind of girl? Beading and braiding and handing around friendship bracelets?

Yes, absolutely. As a child, as soon as I knew not to eat fimo modelling clay, I was making all kinds of ornate little beads and things. My girlfriend and I did hair wraps at the fringe festival in Edmonton… We were always making something.

What is it about wood that appeals to you?

I love that there is so much to know about wood. I love that every off cut I get has a story of how it’s been hand selected for the grain and density for instrument making in mind.  I love that it smells so so good. I love that it’s light to wear. I love that you can wear wood jewelry with just about anything. I love that it’s naturally found and it has history.

How would you describe your style/aesthetic, in 3 words:

Simple, Natural,  Functional

Mana Jewelry line features earrings, necklaces and rings. What do you like working on best?

I truly love working on all of them. I have so many different designs so it keeps it fresh for me. It is fun to tell people the story about the rings, as every one showcases one small slice of a story, whether it was from Jack Johnson’s guitar or a special part of the wood where the sap discolours a portion of it creating a nice contrast. Every piece is one of a kind.

Who do you turn to for mentoring, advice and inspiration?

Eric Devine, for sure, I always have questions about wood and natural ways to treat it, cut it, and finish it.

My husband, Tom has also been so supportive and good at pushing me to do more. He’s even helped me refine a lot of my designs. Yup I’m a lucky woman!

I also am very grateful for my girlfriends, whom I am continually having test in the surf, mountains, and the most dangerous of all… around kids.

You use exotic wood that is cast-off from a friend’s guitar-making workshop. Is this just an excuse to go to Maui every year? Do you think there’s a special energy in the wood, because of the craft of the guitar?

Koa wood is very special, and I am blessed to be able to work with it. The Koa tree is unique to only Hawaii and is one of the most sought after woods for building instruments. It’s known for it’s strength and beauty. It is a huge part of Hawaiian culture from building traditional canoes to the ukulele.

Going to Maui is definitely a bonus!!

Do you have a philosophical commitment to using “waste”?

I am definitely trying to make the line of Jewelry as “eco” as humanly possible by using  the material from off cuts and renewable resources like Bamboo.  The packaging is made from reusable unbleached cotton bags and I always strive to recycle as much as I can.

Have you met Eddie Vedder? If you could, what piece of jewelry would you gift him?

Have not met Eddie, but Eric has made instruments for most of the Pearl Jam crew, and I’m hoping to get some of those off cuts to do some custom pieces. I could make them all cuff links!

How long have you lived in Pemberton?

I moved to the Pemberton area in 98. (Whistler counts as a suburb of Pemberton… right?)

What brought you here?

Lifestyle, People, Horses, Mountains, and the ability to have a little more space.

What do you like about it, as a place to live, practice art and base your business?

We have an amazing community here. The girls at One Earth were the first store that carried my work. They have been so supportive and encouraging. Especially through my disorganized inventory beginnings  .

What’s challenging, particularly from a professional/craft point of view?

So far so good. I really look forward to my studio time. It’s a perfect getaway from the other profession I have… working on my monitor tan.

Where can people follow you, find you, or jive in your inspiration?

I will have my online store posted soon.

At the moment you can buy Mana Jewelry at:

One Earth Collection – Pemberton
Adore Jewelry – Victoria
Ruby Tuesday – Whistler
Agnes Jean – Squamish

I will be doing some craft shows in the spring as well: an amazing craft show in Edmonton called Make It! on April 12-14, Got Craft, April 27, and The Great Canadian Craft Show, May 11-12.

Approachable environment, good quality ingredients that are handled with care, fair menu pricing, and engaged staff. 

the diversity in everything from the people to the environment and the surroundings that influence it are, in my mind, one of a kind.

Working with thousands of stinging insects forces you to be calm and thoughtful.

The perfect mix of mountains, rural living, incredible scenery, community and the good dirt can’t be beat.

In January, the Chamber of Commerce announced its 12th Citizen of the Year recipient, Karen Tomlinson.

The PSS teacher has been described by colleagues as a “fly under the radar” type person – she was recognised in 2010 in the first Winds of Change Wellness Recognition Awards  for Promoting Healthy Lifestyle Choices in Pemberton – after being nominated by a student for the time she makes herself available to students at lunch and afterschool for help.

And while exceptional teachers deserve to be celebrated…

(as Tomlinson’s friend and former PSS colleague, Angela Stott-Gadd, says:

teachers should not be getting a bad rap even though I know they do.  I was on the chair lift for my private group lesson to remind myself how to snowboard and Steve, my 20 year old instructor, and I were chatting.  All of a sudden – BAM.  This guy is telling me that one of the biggest role models in his life is his grade 10 Science teacher.  He gave me all sorts of reasons why.  Many teachers go beyond any expectation of any other job.  Sleeping in snow caves, staying in semi trashy motels for basketball tournaments, going to funerals for parents of children they teach, spending hours writing speeches for graduation ceremonies and making fools of themselves at assemblies to name but a few.  Oh, and then they are charged with teaching kids a curriculum.  In the end, though, I believe it goes back to what I think is at the heart of what Karen is about – high expectations.  And solid relationships.

…  it is for her work with the Pemberton paddling community that Karen Tomlinson was awarded the Citizen of the Year award. Our paddlers are arguably Pemberton’s proudest export and grandest claim to fame. But every great accomplishment has a team of dedicated supporters helping smooth the way, and Ms Tomlinson is one of those facilitators.

What motivates your dedication to the Pemberton Canoe Assocation?

My motivation comes from the successes that I have seen with this program.  I have seen what this program has done for the kids in this valley, the pride they have, the motivation they have, the opportunities to travel and represent their town, and their country, and I want the next group of kids to be able to have those experiences.

What’s your role with the Pemberton Canoe Association?

I am the secretary for the PCA.  I organize all the registration for membership to the PCA, CanoeKayak BC, Dragon Boat Canada, and CORA (Candian Outrigger Assoc).  I register teams for events, communicate information between everyone, and all sorts of other little jobs.

How long have you been involved with it? 

I think I started working with the dragon boat team in 2000.  Back then the Laoyam Eagles was a school team, and they were looking for a new sponsor teacher, so Anna Sinclair and I agreed to do it together.  We also had Tamsin Miller, a parent who was very instrumental in getting the paddling program started, taking on the manager position.  So there were three of us sharing the work back then. The job has definitely gotten a lot busier for me now.  I’m pretty tired at the end of dragon boat season, but it works out nicely with the end of the school year, so I pretty much don’t move off the couch for my first week off in the summer!

Who else, locally, inspires you? (I’ve often found that my inspiration stems from the chance to collaborate with great people – are there folk who keep you going, that you’d want to call out?)

Hugh Fisher – He has put in countless hours on the water with these kids (while I stand on the beach watching!).  He has this great interaction with the kids, the way he teaches them paddling techniques, the way he talks to them and motivates them.

Marnie Simon – I’ve gotten to know Marnie through the paddling community, but even before that I would see her name in the paper for all of the many committees she has been on, and fundraising she has spearheaded.  I hope to continue to be going strong like her.

Isn’t a full time job as a science teacher enough “community service” to get you off the hook of any additional volunteering/effort? Couldn’t you just sit back on your laurels and drink gin and tonics in your free time? (Which is what I would need to do, if I spent all day with teenagers.)

I like working with the kids in the paddling program because it allows me to interact with the kids in a different, more informal, manner. I absolutely enjoy watching them race and am so proud of their achievements.

On that note, did you get the kids into the Guinness Book of Records? Would you take on a challenge like that again? (This time, will you blow something up?!?!)

We just found out a few weeks ago that Guinness went through all the data sent in from all the locations across Canada, and we are officially in the book (under the title science.bc.ca team).  I would definitely do it again.  Even though the activities were quite simple, the kids liked knowing that there were all these groups doing the activity at the same time, and that they could be making history.  And as much as the kids would LOVE to blow something up, it’s too dangerous to do with a whole school of kids!

How many kids in the Valley have been impacted by the Canoe Association’s efforts over the year?

That’s a good question.  I’ve always thought about going back through all the team photos for each year and count it up.  The program has been running from 1996, so hundreds of kids have paddled.  In the past couple of years, with the start of the Grade 6/7 dragon boat program, we have had about 100 kids paddling in a season.  And then the summer day camp program (which has run for two summers) has also seen a lot of younger kids paddling now too.

What do you see as being some of the benefits to them, for getting involved?

It’s getting them involved in another sport, which is always good for the fitness levels.  Paddling is great because it is something you can do as a team sport both competitively and recreationally, but also as an individual sport.  Someone who knows how to paddle can go out by themselves. It’s also an activity that they can continue with into adulthood; we seen a lot of our former high school paddlers join the Bald Eagles, our adult dragon boat team. The other benefit I have seen is that it has given some kids the opportunity to travel, which has been a life-changing experience for these kids.

I’ve been following you on twitter – especially during the paddling events, it’s so awesome to get that “live” coverage (particularly as the Dragonboat organisers aren’t posting live results.)  Tell me a bit about your forays into social media? What do you enjoy about it? What makes you nervous? (And what does your twitter handle mean? Who is Mole?)

I started with a Facebook account for the Laoyam Eagles because I was getting frustrated with the kids not knowing what was going on because they never checked their email.

And then I finally bit the bullet and opened a personal Facebook account because my university friends kept bugging me to get one.  Twitter came later (I would say Angela Stott got me onto that).  I like Twitter because it makes people in this community, and also the paddling community, aware of what we are doing with our paddling program in Pemberton.  People also have said (like you) that they like to know the results when they can’t be at the event – Hugh couldn’t make it down to BC Summer Games last year, and he told me he was checking in all the time to see how the kids were doing!

Using social media to pass on information to the kids and parents has both made the job easier and harder.  We don’t need to have as many meetings, and it also guarantees that important information makes it home to parents.  I use a blog in my classroom to post notes and assignments, which allows students who are away to stay on top of their work.  The downside is that I spend more time on the computer now. People have access to me all the time, and I get sucked in to checking messages late at night, early in the morning, and on weekends.

Personally, I like social media for keeping in touch with friends that I don’t get to see very often, or not at all.  I am very cautious with my privacy settings and as a teacher, I am very cognizant about what I say and post.  I am very nervous about young people and what they say and do with their social media.  We had a presentation at the school in January on internet safety from a RCMP officer and it was a great eye-opening presentation for our kids.  Every kid needs to hear this information.  I know they learned a lot about cyber-bullying, cyber-stalkers, and also how what they post now can affect them later in life with job, school, and life opportunities.

My personal Twitter handle (@houseofmole) came about because I couldn’t get one using any variation of my name.  A mole is a unit of measurement in Chemistry, but I really don’t remember where the “house of” part came from – I must have seen that somewhere!

What brought you to Pemberton?

I moved here in 1998 to take my teaching job at Pemberton Secondary.  I had been teaching for 3 years in Ft. St. James and was looking to move further south and closer to home (Revelstoke).  The principal who interviewed me showcased Pemberton and the school.  He toured me all over the valley, and showed me my lab at the school, which is beautiful!  He sold me on coming to live here.

What do you like about it? 

I grew up in a small town and I love that you know everyone and everyone knows you. The sense of community is great.  I like the quietness, the ease of getting around to everything in town.

What are some of the challenges?

Sometimes, it’s challenging because you know everyone and everyone know you!  There aren’t a lot of big challenges,  just the typical higher costs, not being able to find everything you want, having to travel further to do some things, etc.

As a secondary school teacher, you get to see wave after wave of kids grow up and graduate from here. What do you think are the best things this community offers local kids? 

Many of these kids have strong friendships because they have been with the same group of kids from Kindergarten and I see these friendships continue on into adulthood. They have a strong connection to their friends and their community.  I just went to my first Pemberton area wedding (actually in Birken) and it was for some former students of mine.  There were at least 30 guests at the wedding who I had taught at PSS; they have all stayed close throughout the years.

Dr Fisher told me that one of the reasons he was motivated to start youth paddling here was to give local kids an opportunity to travel beyond Pemberton, and open their eyes to the wider world and experiences out there. What’s your take on travelling? Where do you like to go? What’s the most recent trip you took?

I think it is so important for people to travel –whether for school, work, or for leisure.   It opens their eyes to all the other cultures, locations and people that exist in the world.  For the kids that went to the World Outrigger Sprint Championships this past summer in Calgary, even though it wasn’t a far trip for them, they met people from Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti, and Rapa Nui.  It was a huge cultural experience for them, and now they are keen to travel more! We have seen that happen with every group of kids that we have travelled with.  It is so wonderful to see them have these experiences.

I love to travel.  My parents packed us up every Spring Break and we travelled all over the western United States (they went on all their big trips without us!).  I did the three month backpacking trip through Europe during my university days, so there are many places I would like to go back to from that trip and do more thoroughly.  My most recent big trip was two summers ago when I went to Italy.  My first trip to Hawaii is coming up this spring break.  My bucket list is New York and the Eastern States, Australia, and New Zealand.

What exactly is the Pemberton Search and Rescue? A Secret Society of Superheroes? Club? Civilian branch of the RCMP?

Pemberton SAR is a non profit society.  Pemberton SAR operates under the authority of  EMBC.

How many members do you have?

25. They’re trained in first aid, CPR, high-angle, swiftwater, hover exit and avalanche rescue, and include three trained search managers, two CARDA dog handlers, several level 2 avalanche technicians, and two doctors who teach Wilderness First Aid.

You are pretty much the unofficial Official Photographer of Pemberton. Do you volunteer on PEMSAR essentially to log all those flying hours, to capture the most wicked aerial shots ever? (‘Fess up.)

Not really, but it sure does work in my favour sometimes…

How long has Pemberton had a Search and Rescue? When did it start? Who started it?

Founded in 1994. Original members were Dave Demidoff, Russell McNolty, Dave Steers, Kevin Sibbald, Doug Tuck and Raine Brooksbank.  Dave Demidoff was in charge in that he was moved from Fire Dept to start a SAR  group in Pemberton as government felt there was need.

How long have you been the man heading it up?

At the first meeting Dave Demidoff told those attending nobody could leave until an executive had been elected.  By default really I was elected president and no one else has ever wanted the job – so I have been president of the society since it began.  From an operational standpoint – day to day ops – it is the search managers who run the show.  Pemberton has three – Russell McNolty and myself have been SAR managers pretty much since beginning and more recently Martin Buchheim has become a SAR manager with our group.

Is it 100% volunteer?

Nobody gets paid anything – this is not paid on call – this is volunteer.

What motivates people to sign on for that commitment? What do they get out of it?

Satisfaction – they can use their skill sets to help people.

What are they asked to put into it?

In terms of time?  Depends on the member but I would guess at least 250 hrs per year.

What territory do you guys cover? How far will you go to answer a call?

Our territory is massive.  SAR territories follow RCMP boundaries.  Ours begins at the Green River RR crossing to the west and at the north end of Harrison Lake to the east.  We go north at least as far as the Chilcoltins – Spruce Lake, Graveyard Creek and beyond…

We cover Lillooet area as they do not have a SAR group and we also cover Whistler for swift water responses.

What kind of trouble do people typically get into, in this neighbourhood of ours?

There are a myriad of ways people get into trouble. They seem to split into two categories – those who get into situations beyond their ability to cope (either because of poor planning, poor navigation ability etc) and better prepared and experienced people who have an accident out in the boonies.

How do the incident profiles shift from winter to summer? (Which is the busiest time for you? Which is the more stressful?)

Winter tends to be mostly ski and snowmobile and summer mostly hikers – as a generalization.  The interesting thing about this area is that we can be tasked to a swiftwater call in January (as we were last week near Lillooet) and we can respond to an avalanche in June…

Where does your funding come from?

The Village of Pemberton and the SLRD both support Pemberton SAR – the Village with land for our base at the airport and the SLRD for our basic operating expenses.  Any gear that we own has been purchased by fundraising – another big part of the team’s work and the real reason we became a non-profit society – we can issue tax receipts.  The Whistler Blackcomb Foundation has been very good to us over the years and we owe them a debt of gratitude…

How is jurisdiction divided or shared amongst Search and Rescue and other emergency responders like the Fire Department, paramedics, or RCMP?

SAR is almost always called out by either RCMP or EHS.

If your PEMSAR crew need to call for back-up, who do you call?

Backup in the SAR world is called mutual aid and it’s often used.  Again – last week a call near Lillooet involved some Whistler SAR members whom we called for mutual aid.  Our first call almost always goes to Whistler but we also have a good relationship with the Squamish guys.  In big events we would call our ‘minders’ at EMBC and they would page all the teams in the SW region – we have had searches where numerous SAR group members from the Lower Mainland are involved.

Do you do many joint ops with the Whistler/Squamish SAR peeps?

Yes – most often with Whistler and less often with Squamish but we work well with both groups.

There was a big flurry of media about the vulnerability of Search and Rescue volunteers when the Gilles Blackburn suit was launched. Now that that has settled, what are the ramifications? Was there a positive outcome from that?

The only positive outcome for SAR groups was that it made us look at our exposure as far as liability was concerned and ensure we were as protected as we could be…

What would Pemberton look like without a Search and Rescue group?

If there was no SAR group in Pemberton Whistler SAR would need to cover off  the area.  They are a very professional group but this would increase their workload considerably…

Why do you guys volunteer  on something as mellow as the Slow Food Cycle? (Is it the waft of natural beef burgers?) What other community involvement or presence do you have?

How can we say no to Anna Helmer?  Don Millerd has been very good to us during the SFC – he donates the money they make selling those delicious burgers to SAR.  We also assist in the Polar Bear Swim, Nimby50, Jeanette’s Mosquito Lake Run, the WB Foundation events…

What does 2013 hold for PEMSAR? 

We hope to run an alpine/mountain rescue course this fall for our members where we hire an instructor and spend a couple of days at a remote cabin practicing alpine rescue techniques…

Do you guys lend your expertise when there are other natural disasters/emergencies, like wildfires, landslides and floods?

We have assisted in big natural disasters but we need to tread carefully.  If we commit all our members to non-SAR activities and then a SAR event comes in, we can’t respond promptly.  In the past we have assisted when the floods hit, we assisted the RCMP issuing evacuation notices up around Goldbridge during the year of the fires and we assisted in the landslide – collecting people up around the event, monitoring the dam, etc…

One of the saddest local searches that I know of is the disappearance of Jonathan Jette and Rachel Bagnall. How hard is it for your crew to have something like this unresolved? Is there anything for everyday adventurers to learn from that story?

The biggest thing we can take away from this is the importance of leaving someone a detailed and accurate plan of your intentions in the backcountry.  What is your route going to be?  What do you have with you?  And critically – when are you expected out.  These details are often vague or incorrect when offered at the beginning of a search.  A written pre -plan left with a trusted friend who is also going to be the one to call for assistance if you don’t come out when you say you will is absolutely critical.

There is nothing that matches the exhileration of finally finding a subject the team has been searching for day after day.   If we extend this, it also means there is nothing that matches the difficulty of walking away from a rescue or search that hasn’t ended happily.  The Jette search is a good example but there are others.  A little girl was swept over Nairn Falls many years ago.  We never found her.  We never found the two men that were washed away when the Rutherford bridge washed out.

Some of our members were on the search in Squamish that yielded nothing which happened just before the Jette/Bagnall search.  Two searches like that in a row are difficult.

We revisit those regularly – the ‘unsolved’ tasks remain open forever…