The kindness of strangers
Last Thursday afternoon during the snowstorm, my car fishtailed and I ended up in the ditch near Green Lake. What followed will tell you everything you need to know about the wonderful people of Whistler. First, a nice French-Canadian guy let me use his cell phone to call BCAA (30 minutes for a tow truck, they said – ha ha!).
The All-Knowing One (a.k.a. my husband) had always told me if you slid off the road, you should never wait in the car because chances were good someone else could slide off in the same spot and hit you. So, there I stood, out in the snowstorm waiting for the town truck. I can’t even count how many people stopped to make sure I was okay, or to make sure I’d been able to call for help. Lots of people offered me a lift to the village — one nice lady even offered me her scarf!
Luckily, I was dressed for the weather, but after waiting an hour and a half, I was really starting to get cold and shivery. And discouraged. Another lady stopped to check on me, and I assured her I was fine, just really cold. She said, “Do you want me to turn around so you can warm up in m my truck?” And she did! When I got in, I saw that she had a bag of hot food, so she had obviously been bringing dinner home to her family, and yet took the time to help a freezing stranger.
After a few minutes of blessed, blessed heat, the tow truck finally arrived so she dropped me back at my car and went on her way. Is this the end of my heart-warming tale? No, wait, there’s more!
Just as I was about to speak to the tow truck driver, another car pulls up and a man gets out. It was someone who had stopped to check on me earlier. He had returned with hot coffee and a cookie for me! I was so touched, I just about burst into tears. Even the tow truck driver said it was the nicest thing he’d ever seen.
I really wish I had been less numb at the time and thought to ask the names of these tremendous people. I will never forget their kindness, particularly when I see an opportunity to “pay it forward”.
Thanks again to everyone, and Merry Christmas!
Marina Morelli
Whistler
What are we waiting for?
Having just finished reading Ms. Bartosh’s feature, Looking for the Spark , I’m not sure if I should be inspired or disappointed. What I can gather from the Partnership article is:
1. our very unequal global society has a great deal of problems, and
2. the undeniably privileged community of Whistler has noble aspirations to ‘do our part’ and help out, but
3. so far has done nothing.
Please correct me if I’m wrong; I’d be relieved if you did.
I can’t help but think that Mr. Melamed, and by extension the council and all the citizens of Whistler, are taking the easy way out by “waiting for the right opportunity” to do something. With all due respect, the 1 billion citizens of the world living on less than $1 a day aren’t picky. Just do something .
You say you are looking for a spark. When I look around the community of Whistler, I don’t see a spark, I see sparklers. We are a community that is not only rich in material resources but in our extraordinary (and largely untapped) human resources. I’m constantly amazed by the side-projects being pursed by ski bums; by the knowledge, enthusiasm and skill sets of snowboarders. Get these people together and create a partnership and a plan. Tell us what kind of “right opportunity” you are looking for and we’ll do incredible things. Instead of waiting until after 2010 to get started, let’s have something to showcase and be proud of by then.
Lindsay Mackenzie
Whistler/Vancouver
Thanks again to everyone, and Merry Christmas!
Marina Morelli
Whistler
Looking back, and ahead
Thank you for the interview with Jill Dunnigan in last week's
Pique. I think she raised some excellent points about what Whistler used to
represent and what it needs to change if it is ever going to be a truly
sustainable community.
I am now a Vancouver resident but lived in Whistler for five
years, from 1995 to 2000; approximately (like Jill) four and a half years
longer than I had originally intended. I also grew up skiing here and yes,
remember the garbage dump/village, the layer of slush INSIDE the roundhouse,
and the nexus of the Creekside. Development was inevitable, beneficial, and it
was what led to the jobs and the foundation of the community in the first
place. But it appears that it has eclipsed the needs that drove it and
forgotten many people along the way.
I don't know a lot about the inner workings of the council in
Whistler or its long term growth plans but frankly they, and all the diatribes
I have read from "community leaders" in the Pique, just seem to hit
the same nail over and over again with no results. I know why I and many others
in my age group left and it's because there was no hope anymore; no hope of
settling down into a nice home that was mine, no hope of getting out of the
endless cycle of renting and moving, and little hope of earning enough money to
support a family. Sharing a room with a stranger from Ireland was fine and kind
of university-buddy fun in the first season, sharing a rickety townhouse with
three roommates was OK for the next year, and sharing a house with three people
for the next three years was alright too, but what about after that?
It seemed that almost everyone who wanted to stay working in
Whistler made a choice between renting and/or waiting on the long employee
housing list, moving to Pemberton, or moving to Squamish. This was the age
group that is now 25-35ish — the people who now have or are about to have
small children and/or establish a career etc. and are looking to live somewhere
long term, i.e. the roots of a community. Whistler has lost so many of them
because of the dual focus on, a) those who are here for a season or two and who
are content with sub-par living conditions and, b) those who spend however much
the market will bear to stay for a week or own a vacation property.
It's a basic economic tenet that money will chase that which is
considered desirable and Whistler is definitely desirable and likely will be
for a long time (unless global warming turns it into a swamp).
I live in Kitsilano, a very desirable part of Vancouver, but
the difference here is that development and money have not meant that there is
no hope of not living here long term. There is a strong community with many
young people and many young families from different socio-economic brackets.
Sure there are many multi-million dollar homes but there are also nice
apartment buildings solely for renters, where someone can live on her or her
own or with just one roommate or their family. And there are many, many condos
to own.
Is it too late for Whistler to have homes like this? Is there a
way to have decent apartment buildings where people can rent? Smaller size
condos to own? Maybe if there were more supply in the non-employee housing
condo market the prices would stabilize. Hopefully something can be done before
the only people in the neighbourhood are the weekenders and the
eight-to-a-dwelling new Whistlerites.
I know this issue has been brought up so many times but it hit
home for me to hear about it from Jill Dunnigan, who has run one of the most
successful businesses in Whistler and still chose to live in Squamish, where an
acre of land isn't $6 billion.
I would love to move back someday but I don't want my kids to
be the only ones at the preschool. Please don't forget about those who make the
community.
Christina Granger
Vancouver
A long battle
Pique magazine, a heartfelt, "Thank you" for
publishing the article, "Fairness, equity missing in condo taxes". As
an owner in Legends we have been fighting and appealing the unfair tax
classification from Residential 1 to Commercial 6 for quite some time. I am
more than willing to pay my fair share of property taxes but the way it's
currently structured I'm another owner that's being unfairly taxed. I never put
my quarter share in the rental program yet I have to pay the much higher Commercial
6 property taxes. A solution to this issue must be reached and soon. Is it only
a matter of time until all properties in Whistler are classified as Commercial
6? There are many owners that are more than willing to, "cut their losses,
drop the price of their units and get out". With the way the property
taxes are now prospective buyers will be hard pressed to come by. Now that
cannot be good for the RMOW economy.
Mike Brown
Whistler
Some clarification from TW
I am writing in response to Vivian Moreau’s column “The numbers
game” from the Dec. 7 edition of Pique Newsmagazine. I felt that it was
important to provide some clarification regarding the Tourism Whistler (TW)
research program.
TW conducts extensive research to monitor Whistler’s tourism
business progress, measure results, identify trends and opportunities, and plan
for the short- and long-term:
Market factors
• competitive resort information
• in-resort business indicators (pricing, upcoming bookings,
room nights sold, hotel occupancy etc)
• visitor tracking (demographic, geographic, length of stay,
average spend etc)
• reasons visitors do and do not travel to Whistler
• year-over-year results
• forecasting reports (seasonal, annual and five-year)
Special projects
• branding
• value
• air access
• festivals and economic impact studies
All research assists us in our role as the marketing and sales
tourism organization for Whistler, on behalf of our 7,000 members.
No, TW does not widely share the results of all information
collected. A significant amount of research is, however, available to our
members. It is a strategic decision for TW not to make all research available
to the media or broad public distribution simply because it is then available
to our competitors.
We believe that TW releases sufficient information publicly to
enable most people to stay abreast of the general trends and business climate
in Whistler.
We welcome our members to contact us at
research@tourismwhistler.com
or
www.tourismwhistler.com/members
for more information.
We would also encourage everyone interested in the latest
topline research and news to check out the monthly TW News Update at
www.TourismWhistler.com
Did you know? Whistler
contributes about $1 billion, or 10 per cent of total tourism revenues, for the
Province of British Columbia. We look forward to finding more ways of sharing
interesting facts and stats like this with the community.
Michele Comeau Thompson
Director of Communications
Tourism Whistler
More numbers available
I am writing to contribute additional information about
Whistler’s monitoring program to Vivian Moreau’s column “The Numbers Game” in
the Dec. 7 edition of Pique Newsmagazine, which suggests that information about
Whistler could be more easily available.
Building on 10 years of community monitoring, the Whistler2020
monitoring and reporting program provides information to improve
decision-making, increase transparency and ensure accountability. Updated
annually, the report contains a variety of economic, community and
environmental data and tracks Whistler’s performance towards our Whistler2020
priorities, strategies and sustainability objectives. Soon the report will also
include updated contextual information of community facts, such as demographic
information. The 2005 report, released in October, is available online in a
user-friendly format to enable access by the community and beyond.
Check out www.whistler2020.ca to see where we’ve come from and
how we’re doing relative to Whistler’s vision. Feel free to contact us for more
information, or pass on your thoughts online!
Dan Wilson
Resort Municipality of Whistler
Whistler2020 Monitoring Coordinator
Seeing perfection
This letter is a blatant advertisement for something quite incredible. A trip inside our own bodies, our own beings, into the perfect world that is us, each of us.
Saturday I was in Vancouver and went to the Body Worlds anatomical exhibition at Science World….WOW!
The exhibit is a display of what goes on inside us, donated bodies, preserved with a process called Plastination and opened up so we see it all. For the squeamish, it is confronting for a few moments until intrigue and fascination take over. Amazement and wonder washed over for me as I saw how perfectly designed we are, how every inch of our design is perfect, every space filled, every function necessary, perfectly designed and intertwined, every detail managed. The skeletal, muscular, circulatory, nervous, digestive, reproductive systems and more all exposed for us to see.
Brilliantly displayed in active poses, sadly only in Vancouver until Jan. 14, 2007, I thoroughly recommend everyone go visit. If you’re an athlete see how the inner workings support your abilities, as a smoker go as it’ll have you quit, as an inquisitive human go to better understand yourself, and as a health profession I’m sure you’ll get even more out of it than those of us who are new to the discovery of our bodies and our miraculous inner workings.
Seeing inside had me realize how perfect we all are. Absolutely perfect. And how crazy we are as humans focusing on where we don’t fit in, how we look, on our flaws and how so much marketing is about leveraging our fears and insecurities. Newsflash — we are perfect, remember that and go see for yourself before Jan. 14 flies by.
Realize how perfect we all are and how identical, except for our skin and thoughts and soul that create our individuality, identity and even separation. We really are the same underneath. Let’s celebrate life.
My original training was in the hotel business and I’ve done my time in fine kitchens and butcher shops, so know my way around a pig and sheep and cow carcass. Seeing the human body dissected like this had me see how alike we are, a muscular animal, meat and bones, strong, agile and able. This body and life is miraculous.
Check it out. Be inspired by our incredible selves and by life itself. How are we possible, how can something (us) be so intricate and detailed and perfect and beautiful. Are we God-made or an incredible evolution — either way quite fantastic!
One of the best exhibitions and learning experiences I have ever had… I hope you enjoy(ed) it as much as I did.
Life is good, we’re blessed, we’ve got it good and have it so good right here in Whistler.
John Hewson
Whistler
Radio to live by
Glory be.
Five hours for the first day on the hill today. Harmony, Symphoony, Peak Chair, tears of joy, West Cirque — I feel like I’ve moved home. Ski out to the bottom, quads burn, legs quivering, I am home.
To clarify, we will be given call letters when we make it through our three-week test period. Despite no pre-production facilities we will do our best to have a variety of programming. I have not done a professional massage since Aug. 25. So we have some funding coming in.
“Been running Lean and Mean
I’m drinking Gasoline
And you can make my motor run”
As of Jan. 15, Paul “Homie” Charron will be taking care of sales in Whistler. Kelly Johnston will be looking after our Vancouver sales and representing “Infamous” magazine, and I will be handling national accounts.
Rob and Sherry Boyd will visit the station over the holiday and share stories, and our good man Mr. Stacey Kohut will put together a little music and visit with Michael and Britt Janyk.
Sherry is our Society’s secretary and will also be our Sports athlete representative. Catherine and Serena will be our ExtraSplendiferous GlueSticks (associate solutions officers).
We’re pulling the TEAM together and now we need your content. Thanks to our friends at Pique for their ongoing support.
Watch this space.
Scott Kittleson,
Chairman
The Mountain Culture Collective Radio Society
