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Nicole Fitzgerald — living life to the fullest

"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you." - American writer William James She's rarely at a loss for words.
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Photo courtesy of Shaw Media

"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you."

- American writer William James

She's rarely at a loss for words. And her high spirits are eminently contagious. You don't often see her without a smile — or without a new project that she just can't wait to tell you about...

No question. She's a 21st-century Pollyanna: all positive energy and innocent good will. I know. I know. Some women might consider that a put-down. Not Nicole Fitzgerald. Whether writing, reporting, acting, directing or producing — doesn't matter what project she's tackling at the moment — the 37-year old fully embraces her distinctly un-postmodern inner naïf. You see irony (the tool of choice for many of her generation) just isn't part of her repertoire. Know what I mean? After all, this is a woman who played the iconic Anne of Green Gables role and performed on the Charlottetown stage... and still considers it one of the high points in her life.

Song and stage? Acting? Anne of Green Gables and PEI? It's a long way from Whistler, n'est-ce-pas? She just laughs. "Singing and dancing — acting, being on stage — that was my life when I was a kid," explains Nicole. "If someone had told me when I was fourteen that I would become a reporter at Whistler..." She laughs again. "I would have just said: 'No. No. No. You don't understand. I'm going to perform on Broadway.'" She sighs. "But that didn't happen. And instead I got to discover this beautiful place." More mirth. "I'm exactly where I want to be right now. I just love everything about Whistler..."

And like so many other Whistlerites, her long and winding path to this Coast Mountain valley makes for great storytelling.

"I was born in Victoria," she starts. "I grew up on sailboats and beaches..." She laughs. Her parents, she says, loved racing and building boats. Though both had "real" land-based jobs, their passion was clearly sailing and the ocean. "Sometimes we had four boats on the property that my parents were working on part-time," she adds. "Their work was beautiful. The boats they built and finished were amazing." Not surprisingly, their life was far from conventional. "By the time I was 18," recounts Nicole, "we'd lived in 12 houses; my parents had built four of them... They're very creative, you know..."

Though she loved the ocean, Nicole loved singing even more. "I think I was about four-years-old when my great aunt first took me to church. And I really liked it. I came home and told my mom I wanted to become a nun. She was a bit surprised. Why a nun, she wanted to know. To me it was obvious — I wanted to be a nun because I wanted to sing. And that's what you did in church. You sang."

She started her formal dance training soon after — "ballet lessons when I was five," she says. "And by the time I was seven, I was harassing my mom to let me audition for plays." Another round of laughter. "She wasn't 100 per cent convinced, you know, but in the end she agreed."

Nicole had her first theatrical epiphany at the age of eight. "That's when I played Gretel in The Sound of Music," she says. Grins. "And that changed everything. I was hooked. Theatre became my life." She stops. Sighs. Laughs again. "From then on, it was four productions a year for me!"

After graduating from High School, she took the plunge and left the comforts of her Vancouver Island home for the hustle and bustle of big-city life. "Yep — went to Sheridan College in Toronto to attend the theater program there. But I didn't complete it..." Instead she signed on with The Talent House, "a huge agency in Toronto," she says, "that specialized in musical theatre." And that's when things got really interesting. She was a Can-Can girl in Dawson City, appeared in countless summer stock... and finally got to play in the legendary Charlottetown Festival. "That was a dream-come-true for me," she says. "My dad had read Anne of Green Gables to me and my sister when we were really young." She stops, takes a breath. "You know, Anne's story has always resonated with me..."

Alas, the Broadway dream is not an easy one. And by the time she hit 25, Nicole knew it was all over for her. "It's a hard business," she admits. "And Toronto is a cold, hard place." She stops talking for a couple of beats. "I guess I'm too sensitive," she says. "But I missed the West Coast terribly. I needed to get grounded again."

So she headed home, enrolled in the education program in UVIC and planned to follow her mom into teaching. "But I soon switched over to English... and fell in love with writing and poetry." She also got involved with the writing co-op at UVic and through that started doing stints with local community papers. "You know," she laughs, "small periodicals like the Sidney Review..."

And she was good at it. Even won a community-newspaper award for an article she wrote just before graduating. "Well, I've never been shy," she says, a half-grin playing on the edge of her lips. "I had just finished up with school and figured I had nothing to lose. So in my acceptance speech at the Awards Dinner I just put it out there. 'If you like this story,' I announced to the assembled editors and publishers, 'you should hire me. I can write a lot more of these...'"

And one guy took her up on the offer. "John Snelgrove from The Whistler Question came up and introduced himself," she recounts. "He said I should apply to his paper. So I did." A long pause. She laughs. "And I got the job. I think my dad was even more excited than I was!" Meaning? "Well," she says. "My dad wasn't really involved in my dancing and acting and singing. But skiing — that was something that we could do together. That was a bond that we shared. So when he found out that I was actually moving to a ski town, he was ecstatic."

That was roughly ten years ago, she says. And she admits she didn't commit to the place right away. "I thought this was merely a starting point for my writing career and I would soon graduate to bigger things. I mean, I was making $26,000 a year. I didn't see how it could sustain me for long..."

But she didn't count on being seduced by the magic of the mountains. "It was incredible. The lifestyle, the outdoors, the inspiring men and women who lived here — I just fell in love with the place."

She stayed at the Question for two years. She wrote news and entertainment and realized just how unique the role of reporter/storyteller really is. "It's a strange role, you know. You can go up to anyone and ask them the most personal questions. You have this path to get into their lives. And for someone as curious as me, it's a very appealing kind of job."

But Nicole was still Nicole, and she needed to stay busy. So along with her work at the Question she also wrote freelance pieces for the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers in Vancouver, taught musical theatre at the now-defunct Soul Funktion and, when summer came, took on a waitressing job at the Four Seasons just for good measure.

"I don't do anything I'm not passionate about," she says. "But I also get really excited about things. I find joy easily..."

Indeed. Nicole eventually left the Question to become the entertainment editor at the Pique. But the Olympics were fast approaching — "this was around 2007," she says — and new opportunities were popping up all over. "I heard through the grapevine that Shaw Cable was putting in an office at Whistler. So I immediately put in my resume and went to audition for the job."

She was just the person they were looking for. With her acting and singing background and the experience she'd gained in entertainment reporting, Nicole was perfectly suited to become Shaw Cable's on-camera Whistler connection. And they were soon very happy to have hired her. Her Olympic work was top-notch.

Which is why, probably, she's still there today. "I get to host the show The Express every second-week," she says. "And it's kind of funny. People in Vancouver and Squamish recognize me all the time." She giggles. "But in Whistler? Not so much. I guess it just shows that Whistlerites don't watch TV much..."

Now married to lawyer Steven Boorne and more in love with Whistler than she has ever been, Nicole still has a slate-full of projects on the go. "I want to write books," she says, "I want to write novels." She stops. Smiles. "In fact, one of my dreams is to write a Vancouver Island take on the Anne of Green Gables theme..."

Hmm. Ambitious goal. But if anybody can reach it.