Loving this place, one person at a time
I always enjoy the conversations I have with first-time visitors to Canmore, especially after they have had a particularly positive experience with the service of a fellow 'Canmorite' (as opposed to the 'Canmoron' in this case) in a shop, a restaurant, or on a tour.
While our visitors come for a few days or a few weeks, I am never surprised when they come back again, or when I hear that they have invested in real estate and spend every vacation and weekend minute they can spare in our beautiful town.
I think people come back because of a whole lot of little experiences, as much as for the eclectic, small town atmosphere and the stunning scenery in every direction.
As a full-time resident, it's really the same for me. I wasn't born here, nor has some magnetic force such as elementary school-age children or aging parents kept me from leaving. My husband Greg and I miss our family on the west coast of British Columbia, but every time we contemplate living back in our home province, we try to imagine what we would miss about this place. A few minutes like this and it begins to get painful, so we morph our discussion into, amusingly enough, imagining a vacation place out west where we could visit while still living in Canmore.
The reason I always come back to for loving this place is the people, including some I work with now, some I worked with in my previous gig as a newspaper publisher, and lots more in volunteer connections and casual encounters throughout the town.
Let me tell you about a few of them that I just chatted with recently.
Bob Snape and Lance Hannesson are a couple of fellows I have volunteered with since almost day one of my time in Canmore. Last Saturday night they volunteered countless hours - probably most of their long weekend - to put on a community dance at the historic Union Hall. Live music and theatre were just a few of the highlights of the annual Trappers Ball that is a centerpiece of the Canmore Winter Festival. I love talking to Bob and Lance because, to them, volunteering for a community event that brings together old-timers and newcomers, the young and the old, the musical and two-left-footed, is pure joy. It's infectious, and it's why I love to volunteer myself.
Then there's Leah Murphy and her mom, Claire Bank. These two soft-spoken ladies, along with Leah's husband, Dean, own Canada's best quilt shop in downtown Canmore. They had big dreams when they opened their first small shop, and turned a hobby into a full-blown quilting passion they could share with people from literally all over the world.
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I so admire people who get up every day, work hard, and chip away in small pieces (small, quilting pieces) at lofty goals. They are an example of what many a small business anywhere should strive for.
The other person I talked to this week was Chandra Crawford, who is a member of our National Women's Cross-Country Ski Team. I didn't actually talk to her, but emailed back and forth a bit while she is competing in the Cross-Country World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. I asked Chandra a few questions on her impression of the toque as a Canadian symbol, and got a wonderful, well thought out and very humourous response. I remember Chandra when she interned at the Canmore Leader as a high school student, and thinking then that her young life held great promise, far beyond even representing Canmore and Canada in the next Winter Olympic Games. I don't think this young women realizes how proud we are of her achievements, her attaining a spot among some x-c skiing greats (Sara Renner and Beckie Scott among them), and perhaps especially for her unassuming nature as she works hard at being the very best at her sport. Even though we didn't talk about skiing, it's not hard to read between the lines what a fine person she is.
There's just a few Canmorites you might meet on your next visit to Canmore. By the time we meet again, there's no doubt I will have met a few more myself.
- Shari Bishop Bowes, Editor, SolaraLife
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