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Unsung heroes

Five ordinary people making extraordinary contributions by giving their time and talents

As we hit the peak of the gift-giving season, it seems appropriate to examine the following question: Is it better to give than to receive? The actions of the men and women profiled in this story constitute a resounding "yes".

While towns may be founded on geographical factors such as proximity to waterways and availability of natural resources, communities are built on a foundation of passion and commitment. Mount Currie, Pemberton and Whistler are all better places because Charlie Frank, Alphonse Wallace, Arlene McClean, Doti Neidermayer and Sandra McCarthy are willing to go that extra mile to improve their communities. Whether in the course of their volunteer or paid work, these people are improving the health and safety of where they live as well as generating cultural and recreational opportunities.

If these unsung heroes were assembled for a group photo, their differences would be striking. But in reading their stories their central unifying characteristics become apparent, they all possess enthusiasm for the work they choose to take on and a love for the towns they have decided to call home. Each of these people is also an esteemed member of his or her community, having been recommended by their peers who used words like "awesome", "amazing" and "terrific" to describe them. And lastly, the other quality they share is modesty – all of them verbally expressed surprise that anyone thought what they did was all that special.

Alphonse Wallace

"The Guy Who Runs Soccer"

Lil’wat Youth Soccer Association

Within five minutes of our phone interview, Alphonse Wallace calls me back to emphasize how it would be impossible to do the work he does without the support of the Mount Currie community. This brief exchange confirms that the man who has been responsible for co-ordinating youth soccer in Mount Currie for the past decade is as committed a team player off the field as he is on it.

A lifelong athlete, Wallace began coaching high school basketball shortly after graduating. At 24, he took on the ambitious project of developing a soccer program in Mount Currie.

"I saw a lot of kids with potential – I had been one of them myself – and there was hardly anything to do around here," explains Wallace, who describes himself as "the guy who runs soccer."

The hard work has paid off.

The Lil’wat Youth Soccer Association now operates teams for more than 200 kids aged five to 16. Wallace estimates there are at least another 100 kids who, being too old to play, have "graduated" from the association.

"I really like working with the kids. Some of the kids I know I started coaching when they were seven, now they’re 16," he says. "I’m sure some of them will take up coaching themselves because of all the opportunity they’ve had."

When it comes to his time commitment, Wallace can’t even begin to assess the number of hours he gives to the association.

"Our season begins indoors in March and we play right up until October," says Wallace.

Last year many of the Lil’wat players, who are also members of the Pemberton Secondary School team, travelled to Hawaii with the school. This coming March, Wallace, nine coaches and 31 players between the ages of 15 and 20 will travel to Scotland for a soccer clinic. The trip will also act as a cultural exchange, with players bringing Lil’wat culture to the Scottish players through performing traditional songs and hand drumming. Wallace, a long-time Mount Currie resident, is picking up drumming techniques alongside the young players. He’s particularly excited about the upcoming trip and what it will mean for the players.

"I went to England with B.C. Soccer in ’85 when I was 15. I’ve also been to Hawaii and Mexico with soccer," says Wallace. "I see this as giving our kids opportunities they’d never otherwise get to see and do things."

Currently working for Creekside Forestry, Wallace says one of the biggest sacrifices he’s had to make to continue his work with the soccer association is turning down jobs.

"I’ve known that if I took a firefighting job, say, I couldn’t run the youth soccer," he says. "And the soccer was more important."

He’s also given up having much of a personal life, but he believes what he’s received in return more than makes up for it.

"If I wasn’t doing this I wouldn’t get to know these kids or their parents. I’m coming out of this with a lot of friendships."

Still, he thinks that after the Scotland trip he’ll cutback a little so he can catch up on the things he put aside and have a little more time for himself.

Whether Wallace reduces his current level of participation with the association, one thing is certain, he will always be involved in his community. Having worked as a teaching assistant and taught physical education at the Xit'Olacw Community School, Wallace hopes to return to the traditional school as a fully qualified teacher. He has just completed his second year of classes through Simon Fraser University.

"I want to teach Grade 4 or 5. They’re at such a great age," he says. They’re in-between. They’re curious and rambunctious."

Charlie Frank

Fire Chief

Mount Currie Fire Department

Charlie Frank has been fighting fires for the Lil’wat Nation for 29 years. And for 25 of those years he’s been the fire chief at the Mount Currie Fire Department, a small volunteer detachment serving an area extending from Mount Currie to the head of Lillooet Lake, where a number of First Nations communities reside.

It wasn’t the opportunity to become a hero that attracted Frank to the dangerous work. It was something far more intrinsic: an inquisitive nature.

The fire department had just purchased a new fire truck and he was curious about the shiny new fire engine he had seen around town. He was at the fire hall checking out the impressive new vehicle when a call came in.

"The alarm went off and I just jumped on and went along for the ride," he states plainly.

The combination of the adrenaline and the opportunity to help people was enough for the then 25-year-old Frank to decide that firefighting, saving people’s property and lives, was to be a major part of his life. And saving lives has been a hallmark of his work; there has not been a single fire-related fatality in all the years he has served the area.

"We’ve been lucky," he says. "People have always gotten out in time."

While he admits that the excitement was attractive to him as a young man there was something more influencing his choice. At the core of his decision to take on this often dangerous work was a philosophy he inherited from his father’s family.

"I was raised by my grandparents and they always said you had to help when you can," says Frank. "Because you never know when you’re going to need help."

Frank and the 15 other firefighters who volunteer at the detachment help wherever they are needed, whether in the Lil’wat community, as support for the Pemberton Fire Department up the road or with forest fires.

In addition to firefighting, the 54-year-old fire chief operates the dispatch for the communities at the head of Lake Lillooet that rely on two-way radio. He also volunteers for search and rescue missions in the area, whether that’s finding a local mushroomer who has wondered too far into the woods or a tourist who has taken on more winter backcountry than he can handle. And just because he happens to live next door, he also does security checks for the Lil’wat Health Centre when their alarm goes off, typically between midnight and four in the morning. And in his spare time, there’s always the need to recruit new volunteers.

When he describes his job as being 24/7, it’s not a case of using the slang in the usual hyperbolic fashion. His job really is all day, every day due to the fact that he lives in a suite at the fire station.

The only thing that has ever slowed him down is a recent work-related accident. After a day of painting chimneys in the community, a truck’s brakes malfunctioned and rolled back, pinning him against the wall of the fire department’s garage, leaving him with assorted injuries, most profoundly a broken leg. While other people would have taken this incident as a sign to look somewhere else, Frank sees it for what it was, an unfortunate accident. If he meets his own expectations, he’ll be back on the job by the time this story goes to press.

Asked if he can see a time when he’ll retire, Frank laughs.

"They’re going to have to lock the doors to keep me out."

Arlene McClean

Miya Village Exchange Program

Living in Ontario in the early ’90s, Arlene McClean and her husband Roy felt they were ready for a change. Opportunity presented itself in the form of duty. When her parents were injured in a serious car accident, McLean packed up her family, grabbed her sister and headed west to help out with her family’s business, Mount Currie’s Hitching Post Motel. Trading in the life in Barrie, Ontario, a relative metropolis of 60,000 people to live in an area with an entire population that was perhaps five per cent of that number resulted in some immediate culture shock.

"I didn’t think I would make it. I said two or three years at the most," remembers McClean.

Twelve years later, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District employee is a great fan of the area.

"It’s my community and I love it," says an enthusiastic McClean. "If we ever left I’d only want to live in a small town."

In 1998 the McClean family opened their doors to their first pair of Miya Village exchange students. Encouraged by an acquaintance who raved about the experience, she thought it would be an excellent opportunity for her two elementary-school age children to learn something about another culture and Pemberton’s sister city in Japan. Four years ago, she took on organizing the exchange’s Fun Day, an event featuring traditional Canadian picnic games, such as sack races and three-legged races, as well as a barbecue put on by the Pemberton Fire Department. Seven years, 13 Japanese ninth grade exchange students, four Fun Days and numerous fundraising undertakings later, three of the four McCleans have travelled to Miya.

"I’ve been more involved in the fundraising because I’ve had two kids go," says McClean downplaying her efforts, which have included running three casino nights.

While Pemberton parents pay the $1,700 each to send their kids to Miya Village, fundraising offsets the fee, with each parent being reimbursed a share of the funds raised. While in Japan, participants’ expenses are entirely covered through a program, which also provides funds for the Japanese students to make the trip to Canada.

McClean’s son, Jason, went in 2001 and his sister, Emma, followed two years later. She joined her daughter’s tour, her trip a thank you from the exchange committee for her involvement.

McClean sees the whole exchange process as being incredibly positive. The bonds that are built between the kids are extremely intense. Farewells are tearful, on both parts.

"I would like to see the exchange continue, but what’s happened is the Village of Miya has amalgamated with Takiyama, which would be equivalent to Whistler annexing Pemberton. So because it’s being absorbed the Village of Miya will no longer have its own school district, so funding for this Grade 9 class will no longer be."

Funding is in place for one more Pemberton contingent to go to Miya. There is also the possibility of one final group from Miya coming to Pemberton in two years time. However, unless Japanese parents decide they want to undertake the exchange the program will be over.

But even if the exchange program ends, it is certain that McClean will find other ways to give to her community. For the past three years she has been involved in the local Christmas hamper project that serves upwards of 40 families in Pemberton.

What makes her want to give up her time, particularly the last weekend before Christmas, to ensure others have a happy festive season?

"I am so grateful for what we have. I’m grateful that we can afford to have a nice Christmas," says McClean. "Helping this community is definitely a passion."

Her commitment to community reflects her commitment to family. To expand her children’s opportunities she’s taking on organizing activities such as baseball and the annual Father-Daughter Dance, while her husband has coached soccer.

"If you have children and you want events for your children in a community this size you have to be involved or initiate it."

Doti Niedermayer

Executive Director

Whistler Arts Council

What’s a self-confessed city girl doing trying to bring an appreciation of throat singing to a mountain village? If that former resident of London and Paris and Vancouver is Doti Niedermayer, she’s following her bliss. She’s getting to do the two things she loves, live in mountain splendour and guide a community through the exploration of art forms as diverse as a one-man version of the Star Wars trilogy to contemporary Indian pop music.

Her experience and connections have made it possible to both foster local talent and showcase regional, national and international performers.

Obviously it’s the "arts" in "arts administration" that keeps the executive director of the Whistler Arts Council going through 50-hour weeks, endless fundraising processes and the personal financial challenges of working in the non-profit sector.

"This is my passion. I’ve thought of leaving the arts because it’s not a lot of money," says a candid Niedermayer. "Sometimes I get frustrated and I think I can think of something better to do – but I can’t."

She started her career in the arts as fundraiser with the Vancouver Fringe Festival. From there she went on to co-ordinate one of the biggest art shows the city had ever seen, Artropolis ’93, which was housed in the then recently-vacated Woodward’s department store building. The Greater Vancouver Alliance for the Arts, Women in View and Theatre B.C. were just a few of the other arts organizations that benefited from her talents over the years. A solid reputation and diverse skill-base was beginning to allow her to write her own ticket as a consultant. Then it happened: burnout.

"I just needed to get out of the city, I couldn’t deal with it anymore," she recollects. "I came to a point in my life when I had to leave. Every time I went camping I’d cry when I came back… almost the minute I saw the lights of Vancouver."

All though this development was surprising to the vivacious arts administrator, she quickly realized that despite her love of the city she had moved on to another stage of her life.

"I quit everything I had in Vancouver and moved (to Nelson). I knew one person in Nelson and had no job. I just jumped off the cliff."

In a week she had a job in the arts community and life resumed. After four years she surprised herself again by packing up and moving to Whistler to take a job as the Whistler Arts Council’s first executive director.

"I never thought I would live in Whistler. When I was in Vancouver I saw it as this yuppie, soulless place," confesses Niedermayer. "But what I didn’t see from the outside was the community. You really have to live here to realize that there is this strong community that has been here for a long time. And that there are these really cool people from other places who have chosen to live here because they love the mountains and love the lifestyle."

Niedermayer saw this love of community translating to a very well developed arts community that was managing to provide upscale events, such as the Children’s Arts Festival and Bizarre Bazaar, produced entirely through volunteer labour.

Since Niedermayer came on staff, the Whistler Arts Council has been able to undertake new projects such as Art Walk and an expanded Performance Series. Additionally, the arts council is working with local hotels to feature the work of local artisans. As the organization matures one area of emphasis will be in long-term planning and defining its role within the resort.

"People are beginning to realize that the arts are a big stakeholder in terms of cultural tourism. Now we have put in the infrastructure for the future."

Part of that infrastructure will be a new office for the Whistler Arts Council. As of Jan. 1 st they will be located in the former Whistler Housing Authority building adjacent to the library and museum.

Business aside, Niedermayer sees engagement in the arts as essential to a person’s well being.

"Arts can be both entertaining and transformational."

Sandra McCarthy

Food Bank Co-ordinator

Whistler Community Services

For the past five years Sandra McCarthy has been making sure that folks in Whistler don’t have to go to sleep hungry. As co-ordinator of the Whistler Community Services food bank she helps more than 1,500 people a year with this most basic of needs. Predictably, this is McCarthy’s busiest time of the year. It’s the combination of a high level of donations from a community she describes as "very generous" and the number of seasonal workers who are down to the last of their resources as they wait for their jobs to begin.

Having previously volunteered in a food bank in Sechelt before moving to Whistler 11 years ago, she knew she found the work rewarding. But ultimately she took on developing the Whistler Community Services food bank out of a sense of community responsibility.

"I guess what it was is that sometimes life hits you hard. And I got hit hard one time and I was overwhelmed by the response of people coming out of nowhere and offering their help and I always wanted to give something back," she explains, declining to elaborate on exactly how she was hit hard.

What she will say of that pivotal experience is it helped her develop compassion and become less judgmental. She was also interested in working with younger people and she saw the food bank as an opportunity to do so, with the typical client being between 17 and 24 years old.

"What a lot of people don’t understand is that there are a lot of kids that aren’t prepared in the ways that other kids are. Maybe their home situation was such that they just didn’t get the skills that they needed," says McCarthy.

Leaving home to work in an unfamiliar environment can be an extremely complicated experience for a well prepared kid, and disastrous for others.

A single mother of three, McCarthy has managed to juggle getting her own holiday preparations together while meeting the needs of the community through sheer determination.

"You just set the task before you and do it."

This year managing to balance it all is a little easier for McCarthy. Her kids are getting older (her oldest is now in university) and the number of volunteers wanting to get involved is on the increase.

"People are really stepping forward this year and even the people who are using the food bank are really getting in there and putting out."

Unlike the Vancouver food bank, which experiences a post-Christmas need that is often unmet, the Whistler food bank’s need diminishes in January and February as more people are working. McCarthy says that clientele changes after Christmas and consists of either people who have been injured and can’t work, or those who find themselves in unexpected circumstances.

But no matter what the numbers will be in the following months, the organization will be better suited to serve their needs thanks to an increase in space. Previously conducting business out of a singlewide trailer adjacent to the Catholic Church, the food bank is now housed in a portable classroom on the same grounds, a change that has more than doubled their square footage.

The food bank is open the first and third Monday of each month, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. However, McCarthy is quick to add that if it’s an emergency people are welcome to call her on her cell phone at 604-905-8023. Food donations can be made through drop boxes located at Nesters, Creekside Market and IGA. Donations of perishable items can be made through arrangements with McCarthy, while cash contributions can be made through the food bank co-ordinator or Whistler Community Services.

In her ideal world, McCarthy would personally like to see temporary housing, such as an army barracks, and a soup kitchen offered as community services.

"I have a real belief in the importance of giving back," she says. "I think as you mature you get a little less self-absorbed and are able to see the bigger picture. I’m interested in the big picture."



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