Giving Back, Giving Thanks & the Power of Community Work

Summer is a busy time for pretty much everyone I know. With that flurry of activity now behind us, it is great to take a moment and reflect on key events that really made this summer stand out.

I have always been a great believer in giving back. We all know that this comes in many shapes and forms: a smile to a stranger, a hug to a friend going through a hard time or just plain old pitchin’ in.

This summer Stewardship Pemberton Society (SPS) was incredibly fortunate to receive some serious giving when a group of Cadets from the United Kingdom happened to be looking for a volunteer project during their summer stay.

The 30 or so teenage Cadets, along with their guides from Arbutus Routes helped SPS realize what we thought were some lofty dreams of installing a pathway that flowed like a stream, bordered by a native plant garden that will act as an interpretive display for our young naturalists and visitors. The Cadets also installed an outdoor sharing circle, uber-fun pathway and dug in a post needed for our educational hatchery. A couple of our own vollies came on out to lend a hand. Mr. Hugh Naylor delighted in educating these teens on the salmon life cycle, Bree Thorlakson helped with machete work and Shannon Didier helped direct traffic on the big day. Charles Evans put in some serious chainsaw sweat into it, and Carolyn McBain from Mountainberry Landscaping lent her expertise in an afternoon brainstorming session on how to pull it all together. Without all your help, this project would have been seriously scaled back: a fraction of the vision we had in mind.

And NONE of this would have been possible without the generous financial support of the Community Foundation of Whistler and the Whistler Blackcomb EnviroFund.

The vision will be completed further in a couple of weeks time as we harness the energy of our own community members during our annual B.C. River’s Day event and install the native plants for the garden. In the spring we will place the plant signs honouring local first nations language and cultural use of the plants, along with ecological information and I am also dreaming of a living wigloo. Yes – wigloo. Stay tuned.

Without the support of our community and some seriously hard-working Cadets from the UK this dream would have remained just that. You all make my heart soar and make me want to keep on doing great things – keep on giving back. Giving is contagious like that. Look at how many people GAVE to make this project happen! Incredible.

I love it when dreams become reality (which happens to be The Story of the One Mile Lake Nature Centre as told by Dawn Johnson). Our enhanced outdoor space has already been put to good use with our young Pemberton naturalists and others visiting the Nature Centre.

So, for all of you I am thankful. And grateful. Keep up the good work and keep on lending a hand to community groups like ours- it is an amazing way to spend your energy!

By Dawn Johnson - Stewardship Pemberton Society

First published September 16, 2013