Special Features - Our Community. Our People.

Our Community.Our People.

SPECIALFEATURE

Wednesday, July 30, 201414 Our Community. Our People.

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These are the moments that Teri Taman remem-bers. A Valley Huskers player crumples to the

ground at Exhibition Stadium, clutching his knee in pain. He worries he’s blown a ligament or three and his football career is over. One of the team’s part-time trainers runs out to help, and the player yells, ‘Don’t touch it! Don’t touch it!’

Taman, the Huskers sports therapist, who’s been on the sidelines helping another player, makes her way onto the field.

The player sees her and relaxes.

“It’s like a mom thing,” she says. “And those are the moments that mean the

most to me, because it shows how much they trust me and how much

we’ve become like family.”

Family is a big thing for Taman. Taman grew up in a tiny little place of 150ish people in Ontario, a tight-knit community called Meadowvale Village. Her Nan lived next door, her aunt and cousins up the street. Meadowvale Village was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone.

She lost that feeling when she moved to the Big Smoke for school, and missed it dearly. So much so that in 1995 she ‘ran away from home,’ fleeing Toronto at 24 years old to move across the continent and settling in Yarrow. She set down roots and fell in love with her adopted home.

In 2009 when she was recruited to the Huskers by then-coach Howie Zaron.

“It was a business decision at first, because I’d just opened my office full-time at the (now defunct) Pumphouse Gym.” said Taman, who thought a connection to the local junior football team would help her fledgling KiNRG Sports Therapy venture. “I thought it would bring credibility, get me known in the community and generate some income.”

Her first day with the Huskers, just one hour in, Taman had a different take.

“They were so friendly and welcoming and genu-inely appreciative that I was coming out to help them,” she said. “When you’re new at something (sports therapist), sometimes you feel like you’re just pretending. Being surrounded by 50 people who respected and needed what I did, they made me feel like I wasn’t pretending anymore. We got along great, all of us, right from the beginning.”

With no family within 3,000 kilometres, Taman found the Huskers filling a hole in her heart and a void in her life.

“I didn’t have a family life yet (she does now with

fiance Stew and stepson Dain), or any kind of social life really, and I needed something to fulfill that side of myself,” she said. “This was a very social thing, the guys coming into the training room, joking and laughing and talking. Them talking about video games or what they did the night before. Me giving them crap for not doing their stretching. I was really alone out here until the Huskers came along and provided me with a really, really big family.”

Taman was unfamiliar with football before the Huskers. She went to some Grey Cup and Super Bowl parties, and cheered when everyone else did.

“I was socializing, drinking beer and eating the appies,” she laughed.

“My first game, I watched little Bennie Skerritt (ex-Husker running back) take a massive hit, roll, jump right up and run

back to the bench. Seeing how much heart and effort they put into it, I prob-

ably still don’t get most of it, but I really enjoy watching it.”

Taman’s reduced her role in recent years. Danielle (Dani) Irvine handles much of the day-to-day trainer duties. But Taman’s stayed involved in other ways. This year she tackled registration and she’s been known to handle the team’s website.

Anything that needs doing, she’s done, which makes her a tremendous asset.

And now, she’s bringing her new family into her old family. Dain’s a water-boy and Stew sometimes serves as bench manager.

Taman may be stepping back a bit, but she’ll never step back entirely.

“One of my first days with the team, Geoff Sache and Jeff Alamolhoda came to me and said, ‘These boys will never thank you for what you’ve done, but we want to tell you thank you,’” she smiled. “But I’ve got to tell you, it’s those boys who, believe it or not, actually do. That’s what brings me back. That’s what brings all of us back.”

Eric Welsh - The Progress

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Wednesday, July 30, 2014 Our Community. Our People. 15

Rohan Hoskins may only be six years old, but he’s already quite the character.

He’s a bit of a budding entrepreneur who likes to wear snappy bow ties.

Or he might be a lawyer when he grows up. Or a comedian. Or an inventor.

Actually, he’s not sure at all yet what career path he eventually might take.

But one thing is clear. He’s pretty lucky to have a beautifully designed station, built by his mom Emily Sayward, from which to pour neighbours a chilled glass of iced tea on a sunny day.

He’s been running the little roadside tea stand in Chilliwack for two summers in a row now.

One of his elderly neighbours, who has a little trouble walking, likes to drive up to Rohan’s Iced Tea stand sometimes for a little visit. The senior seems to enjoy time spent with his young friend.

A year ago, Rohan begged his mom, to let him have a little roadside stand on wheels.

Folks love to show their appreciation, leaving him tips after cooling off with a cup of iced tea.

“Now I’m saving up to buy some stuffies and Pokemons”

It’s been so successful the family even was able to use some of the funds for a recent road trip through Alberta.

“I’m a single mom, so it actually helped on our trip,” said Sayward.

The sign on his stand boasts it’s “the best iced tea in the world.”

So what makes it the very best?

“Lots of sugar. It’s iced tea, but it doesn’t taste like tea,” he whispers.

So how many little glasses does he typically sell?

“Lots,” he explains. “Because when it’s warm, every-one likes to cool down.”

Rohan has an eclectic palate already and enjoys foods like pho and sushi, as well as Indian cuisine.

He seems to be a little precocious, but is also very thoughtful and adventurous. He’s been talking full sentences since his second birthday, and reads at the Grade 2 level, says his mom. They’re working their way through reading The Hobbit now.

His unique sense of style sometimes makes him stand out in the crowd.

Some days he likes to wear a dapper little necktie, other times it’s something in his favourite shade of bright pink, she says.

His mom was always allowed the freedom to decide what to wear, and so she extends to Rohan the cour-tesy of that very same sartorial freedom.

There’s no doubt about it, he’s an original.

Jennifer Feinberg - The Progress

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16 Our Community. Our People. Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Rick Fast builds pubs. Not the type of pubs meant for the general public — they’re more of the at-

home sort of pubs. But not the standard ‘bar in the corner of your basement, beside the big-screen TV, ready to host a Grey Cup party’ type of setup.

His pubs are way more elaborate than that.

Take an old Irish or English pub, compact it into a space about one-tenth the size of a commercial one, and put it in your basement.

That’s the type of pub Fast builds.

These pubs are completely walled in. The old, musky smell of antique wood fills the room as you open the door and walk in. Lamps sit on the ends of the bar and hang from the ceiling above giving the whole pub a warm, golden glow.

The room is packed with knickknacks. There are beer steins and mirrors, plaques and metal trays, wooden ducks and sailing ships, pitchers and guns. They fill every shelf and section of wall you can imagine.

It’s hard to move without brushing up against some-thing, or someone.

Fast, owner of Canadian Heritage Timber, has been working with wood since he was 16 years old, but it’s only been over the last year and a half that he’s been building pubs.

About two years ago, Mark Myers saw Fast’s company truck at a gas station and inquired about the wood beams in the box of his pickup truck. He wanted simi-

lar beams for his in-home pub.

For four months Myers would call Fast time and time again. “You have to come see my pub,” he’d say.

But Fast didn’t want to see it. Honestly, he didn’t really care. It was only after Fast’s friend saw the pub and raved about it, that he went to go see it.

“When I saw Mark’s pub, I flipped. I said ‘that is abso-lutely through the roof!’” he recalls.

Ever since, the two have been working together to make custom-built pubs and saloons for people. Fast brings in the customers through his business, and Myers focuses on the interior design.

“It’s a collaborative effort,” says Fast. “We are way stronger working together. It

takes artistic flare to take what Mark and I have and put it together.”

“Why do we do it?” he asks. “Because it’s a piece of artwork and it’s unique. Then the craft beer market exploded and it was the perfect time.”

They use anything from one-of-a-kind finds at Value Village, to beams and other wood pieces from old churches, to driftwood.

“One little piece of wood can have an amazing story,” says Myers.

All of it has to be old, refurbished wood they say, oth-erwise that feeling of stepping into a century-old pub simply isn’t there.

And each pub they build is different.

“It’s completely customized to you and what is impor-tant to you,” says Fast.

“It’s like painting the Mona Lisa — it’s all got a bal-ance,” says Myers. “If you put one thing in and it doesn’t incorporate itself with the rest, you don’t use it. Then you try something else and, bang, you got it!”

These pubs are hidden gems throughout Chilliwack. Anyone walking by the outside of the house has no idea what treasure is inside.

Myers’ pub is located in his basement and has two entrances, one from inside the house, and another in the garage. His neighbour, a few doors down, also has a pub which is built in his garage. There are nights when there’s a mini neighbourhood pub crawl and both pubs are open for the neighbours to come and go as they please.

“These are real community pubs. There are no TVs,” says Myers. “Everyone appreciates it. What can be better than, after seeing it all, sitting down and having a beer with (your neighbours)?”

How do their friends and neighbours describe these community pubs in one word? Incredible. Enjoyable. Unique. Creative. Authentic. Nostalgic. Indescribable. Life-altering.

“You are transported and there’s nothing else you can say,” says Fast.

Fast and Myers knew they had to build a display pub inside Canadian Heritage Timber.

“If we don’t make one as a display, we don’t have a hope of selling them,” recalls Fast when they first started working together.

Custom pubs start at around $50,000, but it’s easy for them to double or triple in price.

“You will get something that’s original,” says Myers.

“These are custom-made, and you can see that they are,” adds Fast. “These are for people who enjoy their craft beer and want to be in their environment. It’s a walk-in piece of furniture.”

Those wanting to see the display pub can visit the store at 8950 Young Rd. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays.

Jenna Hauck - The Progress

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Healthy Roots

RON FINNIGANHelping Preserve Chilliwack’s Past

I f you’re looking for Ron Finnigan, a good place to start is on the grounds of the

Atchelitz Threshermen’s Association, adjacent to Heritage Park.

He’s there pretty much three days a week. “Seven if there’s a show,” he says with a wry smile.

On this day, he’s with a work crew, painting one of the buildings on the grounds a vibrant blue. He and other members of the ATA are prepar-ing for the Fraser Valley Classic Car show, which, for the first time will be at the grounds and not at the now-closed Minter Show Garden.

It’s an important opportunity to let more people know what goes on at the grounds, Finnigan says, and the role the ATA plays in preserving Chilliwack’s agricultural heritage.

Finnigan has been a part of the association since 1996.

He’s always had a penchant for things mechani-cal, he says as the silver clasps from his John Deere suspenders sparkle in the afternoon sun. In his pockets are the tools he needs for the job at hand, and tinted safety glasses are perched on the brim of his hat.

He talks in a slow, measured gait about the “projects” members

work on, the history of the park, and its place in the community.

Like his mother and father before him, much of his life was spent in education. But unlike his mom and dad, his work was not in the classroom but in maintenance and engineer-ing.

He worked 23 years with the Chilliwack School District, after working 10 years in Coquitlam.

Today, at 78, his passion is fixing things – bringing the old and rusting artifacts of our history back to life.

His pride and joy is a 1931 Hayes Anderson – a truck that looks like it just stepped from the pages of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.

The vehicle is housed in a cavernous build-ing that was disassembled, moved and reas-semble on the site. Finnigan steps into the

cool darkness with evident pride at what the association has accomplished over the years.

The collection, carefully arranged to illustrate life at a time that most have forgotten, rep-resents years of acquisitions, donations and mindful restorations.

But its in the back that Finnigan really feels at home. In here sits his ’31 Hayes, a 1942 Oliver tractor, a Studebaker water wagon, and a small fleet of trucks, tractors, threshers and other machinery in various states of condition. There’s even a 1908 Russell, one of the earli-est vehicles ever made in Canada.

Every vehicle has a story, Finnigan says – stories that tell

not only where it came from, but who worked on it, the challenges they faced and the obstacles they

ultimately overcame.

Discovering those stories is what he loves. Like when a visitor told him the way to check if the ATA’s 1908 horse-drawn hearse is authentic was by the trap door in the back. (Apparently, it was bad luck to get into the thing, so the trap door allowed for easier cleaning.)

Finnigan likes to share those stories. A favou-rite part of his role at the ATA is leading tours and answering questions for school groups.

But there’s another part he likes that’s a bit more difficult to define. A few years ago he worked with a young lad who was volunteer-ing his time. The boy, who had immigrated here with his family, was 15 and having dif-ficulty in school. Finnigan did something few had done up to that point – treated him like an adult. He also shared with the father ways to get the classroom support he needed for his dyslexia.

Sometime later he met the boy’s shop teach-er, who spoke highly about the young man’s ability and maturity.

“I kinda like that,” he says with a smile, the gravel crunching under his feet as he walks.

Greg Knill - The Progress

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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Alexis Grace wanted to be an actress. She wanted to sing and dance on Broadway and star in the

movies.

Instead, she became a cheerleader, champion, and advocate for Seabird Island.

It's a role she wouldn't trade for anything.

Grace is the manager of Employment, Training and Social Development at Seabird Island. For four years, she's been connecting at-risk youth and adults with employment and supports.

She refuses to use cookie-cutter solutions.

If her clients need a haircut, styling products, or new clothes, she gets them. If they need a ride, she drives. And if they go AWOL, she tracks them down.

"It's about providing them what they need from start to finish," she says.

"The youth know if they don't show up for work, or if there's something going on and I haven't heard from them, I will be at their door.

"I genuinely care about my clients. It's more than clients, it's more than

community, they're family."

Interestingly, Grace didn't grow up on the reserve. Her grandparents moved away in the 1960s. But when her mother, Karen Bobb-Reid, who had recently returned to Seabird, died of a brain aneurysm 11 years ago, a sudden passion for her community and her people was sparked.

Grace, who was 19 years old, had never before seen a funeral so large and impressive as her mother's.

Bobb-Reid had been a prominent figure in criminal justice, working at Kwìkwèxwelhp Healing Village, a minimum-security institution just outside of Chehalis.

The Seabird Island gymnasium was packed, and over-flow had spread outside. It was a mix of family, band members and tough, hardened inmates "drumming and singing songs and crying inconsolably."

"Just seeing what she was able to do in the commu-nity, and the community she worked in, I think, without even knowing it, inspired me," Grace says.

"I now look at everything I do to honour my moth-er."

Grace was hired at Seabird Island six years ago for a low-paying, clerical position, a job the band was hesi-tant giving her because she was over-qualified.

Grace has a bachelor of fine arts and a masters of education.

"I wanted to continue the work that maybe my mother didn't finish," she says. "I wanted to connect with people, be involved in their lives, hear their stories. "I was confident it would lead to something more."

When Grace took over employment, training and social development, she instantly put her stamp on it.

She didn't want it to be a place people were ashamed to go, but rather warm and welcoming. She rear-ranged the office, making it more inviting for people to relax and socialize. Every morning a plate of snacks and coffee is put out, and a nutritious lunch is served on the day social assistance is distributed.

Grace also revamped the food bank. She got rid of "belly fillers" like Kraft Dinner and canned pork and beans, and replaced them with traditional foods – canned fruits and vegetables, fish caught locally, and wild game hunted by members.

It's all about hunting, gathering and preserving their own, local foods.

"It's about reducing poverty," she says.

"Hunger is a fundamental issue in First Nations com-munities. In trying to reduce the cycle of dependency and poverty, I think food is probably a really good place to start."

Next year, Grace will be adding a community garden to the program.

The 31-year-old, now pregnant with her second child, and working through her second term on council, has lofty goals for Seabird Island, but goals she is sure can be achieved.

"I want to see Seabird more independent," she says. "And I want to see everyone, regardless of last name, social standing, number of children, wherever they may be in their lives, feel how they deserve to feel in the community."

Katie Bartel - The Progress

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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

He's a tattooed, hair metal guitarist, pseudo abstract artist, wrestling fanatic, proud hog

driver. And university professor.

Not exactly the patched elbow, tweed jacket picture most would associate with academia, but Darren Blakeborough is likely one of the coolest profs the University of the Fraser Valley has had.

"I assume I don't fit that [stereotypical] mould," he admits. "But as my goal is to get students to ques-tion all those things that they take for granted or believe are common sense, let's start with me. My first goal is to get them to think, and then to start thinking differently.

"Maybe I can kick start that before I have even said a word."

Blakeborough is a professor in the social, cultural and media studies department at UFV.

On a cool spring afternoon, with the muffled sounds of heavy metal seeping up from his office in the "dungeon", and a recorded 1982 wrestling bout between Ric Flair and Corey Von Erich paused on the TV, Blakeborough tells of his unconventional steps to profhood.

How he grew up in Prince George, and spent every weekend of his early years at his grandparents, most often watching wrestling matches with his grandfa-ther. How, at 12 years old, when he was introduced to AC/DC by an older cousin, he instantly fell in love. How he started buying albums with his paper route money and grew his hair long and gravitated towards heavier and harder music.

Actions his mom chalked up as a phase, but some-thing he knew would not fade.

"[Music] has so much power and feeling," said Blakeborough, who, for 20 years, has been strum-ming guitar with Glam Chowder, currently an '80s cover band.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be heavy, but, for me, music has to make me feel."

Blakeborough owned a video store for 12 years, tried his hand at acting, worked summers for an asphalt company.

It wasn't until he was 30 years old, with a wife and two kids, and "not a penny left" that he decided to go back to school.

Originally he had planned on a marketing and advertising career, but when he discovered the bril-liance of research papers, he knew he was to be a lifelong learner.

"That's when the lightbulb went off," he said. "I could write academic papers on heavy metal, The Simpsons, wrestling, I was hooked. I wanted to learn

more. I was only scratching the surface."

Blakeborough has an associate of arts degree in broadcast arts from Columbia Academy of Radio, Television, and the Recording Arts, and an A.A. in media and communication studies from UFV. He also has a bachelor of arts in sociology and anthro-pology from UFV; a masters of arts in communi-cation and cultural studies from the University of Calgary; and is a PhD candidate for communication and cultural studies from the University of Calgary.

For three years he's been a professor and researcher at UFV, specializing in media studies and social ger-ontology, specifically media representation of age – a subject he was drawn to in an effort to make his grandfather, who passed away in his first year of college, proud.

Becoming a university professor was a way to extend his love of learning to the masses.

"I felt there was this incredible new world that was opening up and being presented to me by my pro-fessors," he said. "I wanted to share that gift.

"The gift of understanding."


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DARREN BLAKEBOROUGH

Professor At UFV

DOur Community. Our People. 21

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Wild Salmon Warrior Of Chilliwack

EDDIE GARDNERWild Salmon Guy

Of Chilliwack

Eddie Gardner is the 'wild salmon' guy of Chilliwack. He's been orga-

nizing rallies outside chain stores sell-ing open-net farmed salmon, part of a national movement he started called the Open-Net Salmon Boycott.

If you've shopped at a big-box store over the lunch hour in Chilliwack you may have seen him in the past couple of years.

Gardner would be the one wearing a woven cedar hat and salmon T-shirt, passionately urging shoppers to pur-chase wild salmon over farmed open-net options.

He often makes little speech before the gathered crowd in the store park-ing lot. Or you might spot him drum-ming and singing, alongside other salmon warriors, to honour the cause from outside a big box store.

"My number one passion is protecting the wild salmon"

He's become convinced, in part by the work of B.C. biologist Alexandra Morton, that open-net industrial fish farms need to be removed from the migratory routes of salmon in the Pacific ocean. A lot of it has to do with the impacts of feedlot waste, parasites like lice and salmon diseases, he says, pointing to research showing that farmed salmon from feedlots tends to have more toxins than wild fish.

"This is a people's movement. I started it from

Chilliwack but it is growing, and I hope one day there

will be chapters across North America," he says.

Gardener's car, as well as his hand drum and a new line of T-shirts, all have the iconic salmon painted on them.

It's not an accident. And it's not an artistic statement.

Saving wild salmon has become his singular focus. He's fought for a range of causes in the past like recogniz-ing the impacts of Indian residential schools, and trying to revive the dying Halq'emeylem language. But this is different.

"The salmon are the very lifeblood of B.C.”

That's what he concentrates on when he's not helping to put on a medicine wheel workshop or a monthly sweat lodge.

Protecting the salmon for him is a deeply spiritual quest. A sacred one even.

He got involved with other likemind-ed individuals, like those at Salmon Are Sacred, to raise awareness of the concern for wild salmon, especially after the Fraser River sockeye run suf-fered a steep decline in 2009 — a crash that spawned the federal Cohen Commission. Even though the next year 2010 saw record numbers return-ing, he still felt the need to take action.

He has come to the conclusion that so many foreign-owned, open-net fish farms in the Pacific ocean is like "play-ing Russian roulette" with the wild salmon resource, which is precious and irreplaceable, he says.

"No other part of the world has this amazing resource," he says.

Born in Hope, B.C. Gardner's family moved to Sept Isles, Quebec, where he was raised, after they moved there to support his dad's career. After obtaining a BA from the University of PEI in 1972, he went to work for various agencies across Canada, deliv-ering programs and services from a distinctly aboriginal world view, toiling for provincial, federal, as well as the private sector and First Nations gov-ernments. He returned to Sto:lo ter-ritory in the 1994, worked on reviving his traditional language, and has been here ever since.

He believes in the “people's move-ment” as advocated by the late George Manuel of UBCIC and Chief Wayne Christian, and he still promotes this concept in all his work.

The federal government, in failing to implement the recommendations in the wake of the Cohen Commission, such as removing fish farms from the paths of migrating salmon, have failed to protect salmon.

"The thing is if the government doesn't do anything about this, we the people, have to rise up and do their jobs for them."

(continues on page 23)

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EThese days Gardner lives off-reserve in his Chilliwack condo with his wife Fran, and is an elder and member of the Skwah First Nation.

At 68 he's semi retired, but still working as an Elder-in-Residence at both the University of the Fraser Valley and Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, sharing his knowledge of Stó:lo culture and traditions.

The value of wild fish is being overlooked.

People don't always realize salmon is a "keystone" species that feeds so many other species and crea-tures down the line, like the whales, sea lions, wolves, bears, eagles and more.

"Losing it would be a terrible blow to First Nations people, who have a spiritual and cultural relationship to the salmon," he says.

The traditional name he was given is T'it'elem Spath,

which means Singing Bear, and he's been singing this song for years now.

"It's an amazing gift to the world so you'd think the federal government would do everything in its power to protect it.

"On the contrary they have abdicated their responsi-bility entirely, at great peril to the fish."

Jennifer Feinberg - The Progress

(continued from page 22)

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Alisa Schmidt may be the most anonymous national champion in history, and she's fine with

that. “It's OK,” the Chilliwack native says with a sigh.

“There's not much fame or money in this sport. It has to be for the love.”

Schmidt competes in vaulting, a hugely entertain-ing equestrian event that combines gymnastics/acrobatics with horseback riding. The 28 year old has competed overseas, and was the first Canadian woman to ever win individual gold at an international competition.

This year will mark the fourth time Schmidt has repre-sented her country at the World Equestrian Games.

She is currently Canada's reigning reserve-class cham-pion.

Normally, such things would at least bring fame, if not fortune. But vaulting carries a profile similar to bowl-ing, darts and gnome-tossing.

Undaunted, Schmidt does her thing in relative ano-nymity, acting as a vaulting ambassador wherever she goes.

“Everyone should try it at least once, whether you're young or old, boy or girl,” she says, delivering her well-practiced pitch with a smile. “You'll fall in love with the sport.”

Schmidt, who started vaulting when she was just four years old, has her own covered arena at Bit Crazy Boarding Stable on Yale Road West. Coached by brother Colin Schmidt (a former world-class vaulter), that's where she spends most of her time, devoting 15-plus weekly hours to honing her craft. Small in stature, but toned, muscular and bendy like a twist tie, the things she can do on horseback are astounding.

Schmidt performs the types of moves you'd see in a Cirque du Soleil show, seven-and-a-half feet off the ground on the back of a moving animal.

“I can do hand-stands, cart-wheels, rolls, ground jumps and a lot of dance and gymnastics move-ments,” says Schmidt, who's teamed with her 'com-petition buddy' Promise the last five years. “It's an incredible feeling working with an animal to do such amazing things.”

And yet, when she explains what she does to other people, the most common reaction is a raised eye-brow and some variation of the words, 'are you nuts?'

“I get that all the time, and it doesn't bother me,” she laughs. “Absolutely, I get scared doing it, especially when I try something new for the first time. I fall off the horse on a regular basis, at every practice. But I know how to come down properly, how to roll if I lose my balance and protect myself from injury. That's a big mental part of this, trusting in your safety training if/when something happens.”

Schmidt does her best ambassadorial work through instruction. When she's not training or competing, she spends an equal amount of hours teaching the next generation.

They start out slow, like babies learning to walk.

Schmidt gets her greatest joy seeing their faces as they take small steps and learn something new.

“Whether training horses or humans, I think my strength is patience. I feel I'm straight to the point with expectations,

and I'm flexible in my approach,”

“If it's not working one way, I try other ways until they understand it.”

Eventually they do, and they become ambassadors themselves. If Schmidt can teach enough of them, have an army of vaulters spreading the word, per-haps the next generation will experience some of the fame and fortune that's eluded her.

“I have kids who come here shy and reserved with no self-confidence, and you put them on a horse and teach them they do have the ability to do some-thing cool, and it changes them,” she says. “It really does changes lives.”


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How do you do your job? That's the shock-infused question Darlene Wahlstrom faces

almost daily.

What is her job?

Wahlstrom is one of the first faces a person sees following tragedy – sudden death, suicide, homicide, robbery, break-and-enter, domestic abuse, serious motor vehicle accident, house fire.

She is the face of Chilliwack's Victim Services.

"I meet the nicest people at the worst times of their lives," said Wahlstrom, a soft-spoken woman with a steely sense of humour and a

go-go-go work ethic.

A former real estate agent and school trustee, it wasn't until she started at Chilliwack Victim Services in 2005 that she truly felt at home. What started as a volunteer position led to a full-time managerial position in Chilliwack and a part-time position in Agassiz.

She's on call 24/7. She skirts out of meetings at the first vibration of her phone. She sleeps with her phones. For Wahlstrom, that's her normal.

"I love what I do, I love helping people,"

Still, it's a job that could make even the steeliest of people recoil.

She's seen dead bodies. She's been with the RCMP to notify next of kin of their loved one's death. She's been yelled at, has calmed hysteri-cal tears, has been front and centre at the most heart-wrenching moments of a person's life.

Again, how does she do it?

"If I knew these people, I probably wouldn't be able to do the job, I'd be a mess," she said. "But I don't know them. I'm there to listen, I tell them what they're going through is normal.

"You can't connect it to your own life, because if you do, you're screwed."

And because she works so much, going from one call to another, and sitting on several com-mittees, in addition to her family life (mother of three and grandmother of seven), she doesn't have time to dwell.

One of the hardest things of the job is realizing she'll never meet the deceased she hears so many great things about.

"I realized one day, after hearing so many won-derful things about this dead person that, holy crap, I'm never going to meet this person, and I wish I could, but I never will," said Wahlstrom.

"I wish I had a magic wand, I wish I could fix their pain, I wish I could bring back their child, but I can't."

All she can do is listen.


How Do You Do Your Job?

DARLENE WAHLSTROM

Chilliwack Victim Services

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Smitty Miller is not your typical librarian.

With her spiked, platinum blonde hair and beloved knee high red boots, she is not one to shush patrons. In fact, some days, it's her voice that's gregariously reverberating off the downtown library's walls.

Just the way she likes it.

Since taking over the community library position last year, Miller has been akin to a bull in a china shop.

She's opened the library up, had a laptop bar installed, brought in new café-style furniture, and has pointedly made the place more welcoming for all – children, at-risk teens, adults, seniors, and the downtown's homeless.

"If you haven't been to the library in awhile, you need to come down – this is not your granddaddy's library," she said.

"The one stereotype I'd like to break about libraries is that they're stale and boring."

With Miller at the helm, it won't take long to achieve.

Miller, American born, used to be a professional musician, specializing in 1930s and '40s jazz. She played coffee houses, cruise ships, and three of her

own world tours. But after 20 years traveling the world, some years, only spending four days at home, she said goodbye to the biz and headed for the Great White North where she got a degree in library infor-mation studies.

Miller has worked her way up through the Fraser Valley Regional Library ranks and has become known as a mover and a shaker in the industry.

She brought the valley its first mobile library with Library Live and on Tour (LiLi), a library set up in a souped up Nissan Cube that she took to marginalized communities – an initiative that, to date, has reached more than 50,000 people. She also developed FVRL's first listening station at the Chilliwack Library.

"Libraries are so much more than books," she said. "Books are a very, very small part of what we do, they're the most obvious part, but by far, they are not the biggest thing.

"The one stereotype I'd like to break is that libraries are stayed and boring."

Still, Miller doesn't turn her nose up at traditional

librarians, the ones with their index finger practically glued to their lips shushing anyone who makes so much as a peep in their library. There's a place for those librarians, she said.

But there's also a place for personalities like hers – especially in the modern world.

"I'm showy, I'm quirky, and I'm loud," she said. "I don't downplay that; those qualities are nothing but an advantage."

Miller has worked in several positions throughout FVRL. She's worked in children's sections, adult sec-tions, administration, etc., but it was the community librarian position in Chilliwack Library that she chose.

When the position came up, there was another for Sardis Library. Given Miller's background, and soft spot for both the homeless and at-risk youth, she knew Chilliwack was her library.

Some of Miller's music friends are still gobsmacked with her decision to leave concerts for libraries, but for Miller, it was the most natural decision.

"From the moment I first walked into the library, as an employee, I felt at home," she said.


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Sometimes it's life's worst moments that lead to life's best.

Such is the case with Chilliwack's Jon Allen, once upon a time an elite competitive paddler.

If not for a mountain-biking accident, he may have continued down a path he wasn't really happy with. Instead, he found himself on a new, more fulfilling path. And as he looks back to the fork in the road that he faced three years ago, there's no regrets or resent-ment over a trip to Sumas Mountain that changed things forever.

“I went with my brother (Craig) and another person, and I think it was probably the second time I'd ever done downhill mountain biking,” Allen recalled. “We were going fine and then I just locked up the brakes a little bit and went over the handlebar. Luckily I had a full face-mask because I landed on my head and shoulder.”

Allen's shoulder was separated in the AC (acromio-clavicular) joint, where collar bone meets rotator cuff.

“It was serious enough that I wouldn't be able to paddle anymore, but there was also a part of me that didn't want to do it anymore anyways,” Allen reflected.

“Being a high-performance athlete basi-cally consumes your life, and few people

have the dedication to be that person. I didn't have that passion, and the injury

was kind of an excuse to do something I'd been thinking about anyways.”

Allen started kayaking when he was 11 years old. By the time of the accident he'd logged three years with the Canadian junior national slalom kayak team and two more with the senior development squad. He missed his own prom touring Europe, competing in national and international competitions, accumulat-

ing knowledge and a network of contacts across the country.

A big part of him loved it, but another part of him didn't.

Before the injury, he'd started to dabble in coaching. Post injury, he dove into it full-time with the Chilliwack Centre of Excellence.

“I took a few coaching courses to learn the basics, but when I started off I found myself coaching people well beyond my level, guys like David Ford,” Allen chuckled.

What does a 24-25 year old teach a world champion and Olympian?

“It's not really a telling situation so much as helping them to figure it out on their own,” Allen explained. “You're asking a lot of questions rather then telling them to do this and that. With younger athletes it's easier and more appropriate to tell them how to do

(continues on page 29)

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(continued from page 28)

something, but with an athlete of David’s calibre, it’s important to be a little more humble about your own knowledge. I'm sure I learned a lot more from David than he ever learned from me.”

Allen started teaching younger paddlers when Sam Fletcher arrived on scene. The promising young paddler was Allen's first true protege, a kid who would go on to compete in a world junior championship.

Allen had a massive hand in Fletcher's development as a paddler, while Fletcher may have played just as big a role in Allen's development as a coach. When the two were working together, the focus was on slalom racing, always with an eye towards the next race.

It may have been too much for both of them, and Allen's since adopted a more relaxed approach. “I don't want young paddlers to reach the burnout point I reached,” Allen said.

“I want them to have a passion for the sport, and if they end up doing well that's a bonus. I don't have a problem taking them

to the river and just playing. It's more relaxed. We set goals and achieve those goals but it's not just slalom.”

The joy for any coach is that 'light going on' moment, when a student 'gets it.'

“The success comes from seeing them having fun and learning something new, and you get that feeling of success more often from coaching because you work with so many people,” Allen said. “But that moment where the light goes on is the best part. When they get it and light up like that, you can see the 'ah ha!' moment on their face. It's just good.”

Contact Allen through the CCE website at ccekayak.com Eric Welsh - The Progress

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Near the end of a long country road sits a cozy store with a cottage-like feel. Its white screen

door resembles that of a classic farmhouse.

Step inside and you’re surrounded by a full palette of colour. Handmade quilts hang from the walls, rolls of fabric neatly line the shelves, and tools and notions like buttons, hooks and thread sit in every nook and cranny.

This is Hamels Fabrics.

And this quaint little store in the country is more pop-ular than one might think. Quilters from around the world know about it, says owner Pauline Southgate.

People from across Canada and the U.S. flock to Hamels. The store is on tourism lists in Holland and Japan. Reader’s Digest puts them as the number one place to shop online for quilting materials.

“It’s kind of weird. We didn’t even know about (the mention in Reader’s Digest) and a customer told us about it. Then we looked it up online and there it was,” says Southgate.

It’s not surprising. Their online sales are booming

About 40 per cent of their sales are from online business. Most online sales are shipped to the U.S., Mexico, Australia and European Countries. Some of the less popular countries are Fiji, Hong Kong and Mauritania.

But why is Hamels so popular?

“I think it’s because, apparently, we have the biggest selection for an independent quilt shop in Canada,” says Southgate. “This is one of the most compre-hensive shops.”

They carry 5,000 to 7,000 different types of fabrics.

When Southgate is ordering fabrics, she “just knows” what she’s already purchased. “It’s pretty much in my head. I’ve operated with my gut with all these years.”

“We are really diversified,” she adds. “We carry different brands and different

types, where other stores will focus on one brand.”

Hamels is the only store in the world to carry every single Moda pre-cut. Moda is a brand of fabrics, and pre-cuts are small squares of fabric that quilters buy in multi-pattern packs. They’re kind of like beer sampler pack — you get a little taste of everything.

One pack, for example, will contain 30, 10-inch squares of fabric, and although they complement each other, no two fabrics will be the same. People like them because they’re easier to work with, they add variety, and it’s cheaper because they don’t have to buy a large cuts of fabric from the rolls.

Southgate also believes social media is a big reason why quilting is so popular.

“Fifty years ago quilting was an old ladies thing, and nowadays we get a lot of young girls and guys who come in. The driving trend is Pinterest and Twitter,”

she says.

She has owned the store since 1991. She took it over from her parents, Lou and Yvonne Hamel, who started the family business in 1957 in Chilliwack.

After operating out of numerous locations in the city, nine years ago Southgate purchased the property she’s on now at Lickman Road, and built the store in 2009 right beside her house.

She figured the move into the country would cut her sales in half — a perfect way to slow down and shift Hamels into a home-based, semi-retirement business.

The move didn’t slow her down. Instead, she now has twice the business she had in the city.

People seem to like the small country stores, she says.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t have people here from Vancouver,” says Southgate. “We ask our customers where they’re from, and I actually find it really interesting. The farthest they come from is Japan.”

A big bonus for them is their neighbour, Smits and Co.w Farm Cheese.

“That’s been a big draw for us. The guy will go to get cheese, and the wife comes in to shop for fabric. They are a very good neighbour,” says Southgate.

Having an interest in her customers is key to great service.

“I tell my staff that you have to be good to these people because were in the entertainment industry.”

Yes, the entertainment industry. People who enter her store are in their happy place, she explains. They want to be there. They are doing something they’re passionate about, and the staff at Hamels are there to share in their love for quilting.

Since Southgate grew up with Hamels, she has a decades of quilting experience under her belt. What is it about quilting that she loves?

“I don’t quilt,” she says bluntly.

That’s right. The owner of one of the most popular quilt stores in the world doesn’t quilt.

She has quilted in the past, but she was so addicted to it that she didn’t want it to take away from running a successful business.

“The kick I get out of this is just as good as if I quilted,” she says.

Jenna Hauck - The Progress

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Over 12 years with Chilliwack Search and Rescue, Deb Drozda has had many moments.

Some good, like returning a lost child to grateful par-ents. Some bad, like recovering the body of a sledder caught in an avalanche.

Significant moments stay etched in her memory as a constant reminder of why she does this.

“You look back sometimes to a moment where you stood on a mountain-top with an incredible view in front of you,” she says. “And you're like, 'this is my office right now.'”

The life of a SAR officer is a full-throttle non-stop adventure, especially in the summer months. Drozda and a crew of 35-plus never know what the next day will bring. Someone stranded in Hope's Othello Tunnels? That happened. Getting an injured mountain biker off the side of Vedder Mountain? That happened too. Plucking a tuber out of the Vedder River? That happens a lot.

“It's pretty much non-stop with no set day that any-thing's going to happen,” Drozda confirmed. “We had a couple days recently where we had three call-outs.”

An RCMP officer by trade, specializing in the training and handling of police dogs (11 year member of the BC Search Dog Association), Drozda describes herself and most of her SAR teammates as type A person-alities — the sorts who thrive in adrenaline-charged situations.

“That whole aspect of getting called out in the middle of the night is something that we enjoy,” she says. “You're outdoors, bringing hope to families, helping people while working in a team atmosphere. What's there not to enjoy?”

The job is not without its hazards. The outdoors is not always sunshine and singing birds.

“This is more of an RCMP thing, but flying over the Coquihalla in winter-time, with blowing snow and wind pushing you around, I'm not a fan of that,” she says. “In 2003 we had a plane crash and we were deployed to certain areas where it may have gone down. When you're bush-whacking your way through stinging nettles, it's not fun. But when you look back at what we do, there are war stories that you can proudly tell.”

Asked what is the most dangerous scenario that she's ever encountered, Drozda struggles, then recalls the story of the grouse.

Yes.

The dreaded grouse.

“One of our members came across a grouse, and the thing kept following them,” she says with a grin. “They kept shooing it off and shooing it off, and all of a sud-den it just turned and attacked one of them. We got a picture of it!”

Those chuckles among teammates are the best part of SAR.

Drozda and her crew meet each Wednesday. The first

Wednesday of the month is set aside for equipment maintenance, the next two for scenario based training and the last for a month-end meeting. Members of the close knit team often hike or camp together.

It is that social aspect she enjoys most, and it is those tight bonds that contribute to their lightning quick reactions.

“As soon as our pagers go off you've got a guy going to the scene to obtain information and other guys coming to the SAR hall for equipment,” she says.

“We rely on each other. We enjoy each other's company in the good times

and lean on each other in the bad. It's a good group where everyone brings

something to the table.”

The reward for all their hard work comes from a suc-cessful call, when tragedy is averted.

“We always want to say someone made it home safe, and it's that embrace between family mem-bers that you see,” Drozda says of the very best moments. “Especially with children. Whether they're found sleeping under their bed or somewhere they weren't supposed to be, the thing is they're safe and sound. That's the primary goal.”


KeepingIt Safe

DEB DROZDA

Chilliwack SearchAnd Rescue

D

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Special Features - Our Community. Our People.

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