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Pique'n'yer interest

The community makers

The longer I live in Whistler, the more I think that the dictionary has it all wrong when it comes to defining the word “community”. From what I’ve seen it’s not a noun so much as a verb — it doesn’t exist without people taking action. The community is not where we live, it’s what we do, and the more we put into it, the more we get out of it.

If people ever stopped trying to bring us together, the community would disappear. It can’t exist without those efforts. We would still have our neighbours, but we wouldn’t know them. I doubt many of us would even still be here, because for all the natural beauty and recreation that’s available to us it’s really the community that makes it all so worthwhile.

The number of volunteer hours that Whistler residents put into community events is staggering, and should be recognized. This month alone volunteers will organize and help put on three Loonie Races, four other mountain bike events (Samurai of Singletrack, West Side Wheel Up, Soo Valley Rumble, and Cheakamus Challenge), as well as the Terry Fox Run, Loop the Lakes trail run in Squamish and the Rubble Creek Classic.

The Rotary Club is hosting a volunteer-run family fun day on Sept. 23. The Habitat Improvement Team, sponsored by Whistler-Blackcomb, planted some mountain Ash trees on the north side of Whistler Mountain last week to create a new bear habitat. Matchstick Productions put on a free showing of their new ski movie last weekend, called Seven Sunny Days.

According to Matchstick Productions’ tour director Steve Reska, it was all for the community.

“We wanted to do this free show because Whistler is our second home. The support we get from this community is incredible and we wanted to screen the movie to as many people as possible.”

It isn’t easy maintaining a community in Whistler. Real estate prices and availability have prompted a lot of would-be community members to relocate up and down the highway to Pemberton and Squamish. The higher cost-of-living also means that a lot of people need to work two jobs to make ends meet, making it harder to participate in, or volunteer for, community events. A large part of our workforce is also transient, and will only call Whistler home for a winter or two.

And let’s face it, we’ve all been extremely busy for the last year and a half. The resort is doing well from a tourism perspective, we have an acute employee shortage, and the number of ongoing construction projects have community members racking up a lot of overtime.

But still, against all odds, Whistler remains a strong, vibrant community. It takes a bit of arm-twisting sometimes to get people involved with clubs and organizations, and to get enough volunteer coaches for the dozens of youth sports available, but members of the community always step up to fill all the important roles. At the same time our local businesses can always be counted on to sponsor events, donate prizes to fundraisers, and to encourage their staff members involved.

A few years ago we were the top community in Canada to participate in the Commuter Challenge with over 1,000 participants — a participation rate that was 10 times higher than the next town.

The Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association (WORCA) is closing in on 1,200 members this season, easily making it the largest mountain bike club in the world. We account for one out of every five members of Cycling B.C., which sanctions every type of cycling event in every community of the province.

It took me a few years to become an involved member of the community, but I’m glad I made the effort. I’ve met a lot of good people and have had a lot of fun with groups like the Whistler Naturalists, AWARE, and WORCA.

But one thing I’m noticing is that it’s always the same people who are stepping forward to volunteer. It’s a rare race where Tom Thomson and Gary Baker aren’t helping out, and that’s usually because they are taking part.

There are dozens of other stalwart volunteers out there, too many to list in one column, but they are all deserving of our thanks. They have helped to buy a CT scanner for the Whistler Health Care Centre, fill our school libraries with books, help low income families, protect and enhance our environment, and provide our youth with positive experiences in sports and recreation. There is really no underestimating what our community members have achieved.

And as much as I’m sure this group of regular volunteers enjoys helping out, they could also use a break.

If you’re new to town this winter, the one piece of advice I can give you is to get involved. If there’s an open call for volunteers, and you have the time, then answer it — I promise you won’t regret it. In fact, you’ll probably end up moving here permanently when you start to think of Whistler as home.

There is really nowhere like Whistler. There is really nowhere else on earth where local businesses step forward every week to buy food for WORCA’s weekly race, or where residents take to the streets one day each spring to pick up the garbage that piled up over the winter, where five bucks and a lawn chair will get into the bi-weekly LUNAflick, where local organizations pool resources together every fall to welcome newcomers to town, where people sign up to walk abandoned dogs… the examples go on forever.

If you’ve been here a few years and haven’t stepped forward to volunteer for anything, then you’re just living here. Membership in the community has its costs, but it’s a small price to pay.