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Locals to tell Whistler’s story

Familiar local characters will be helping tell Whistler's story to the international media during the 2010 Olympics. "This place has an amazing story," said Kevin Damaskie, who works for the Whistler Centre for Sustainability.

Familiar local characters will be helping tell Whistler's story to the international media during the 2010 Olympics.

"This place has an amazing story," said Kevin Damaskie, who works for the Whistler Centre for Sustainability. "The story that most people around the world get is fairly slick and magazine oriented. (But) there is the musty scent of community that lives here. You just have to scratch a little bit."

The idea to create the Faces of Whistler program was born out of Tourism Whistler's GoMedia conference in September. For that program, Tourism Whistler organized what it called "Whistler Characters" to help tell the story of Whistler.

That idea has been carried over this month as the world's media descends on Whistler for the Games.

"There's no better people to tell the story of this place than the people who write the story," said Damaskie.

Those so-called writers are a cross section of the community from pioneers like Florence and Andy Petersen to artists like Chili Thom and teenagers like Max Horner.

"These people represent so well our community, its passion, its community, its past," said Damaskie.

He is still going through the list to see who will be available during the Games in the three specific elements to the program.

In addition to being "on call" for media who go through Tourism Whistler's media relations line, the Whistler Characters may also be asked to come to receptions at the Whistler Media House to mingle with the unaccredited international press.

They may also be asked to take part in some events at the Whistler Museum that members of the media have been invited to attend.