Shocked, honoured and a little embarrassed about being in the spotlight. That’s how Stella Harvey, founder of the Whistler Writers Festival, felt when she found out she is a finalist for Citizen of the Year at the Whistler Excellence Awards.
“If you know who I am, I tend to be somebody who is in the background,” said Harvey. “So, it’s an honour to me to be recognized but it’s also, I have to say, a bit embarrassing.”
Harvey, who is nominated alongside Dr. Karin Kausky and Yoann Barelli for the award, started the Whistler Writing Society 20 years ago, after moving to Whistler and trying but failing to find an already established group of people that shared her literary interests.
“The first meeting had about 20 people in my living room,” said Harvey. “And then after that I started the Writers Festival, which this year will celebrate its 20th anniversary, but it’s no longer in my living room.”
According to Harvey, she never started the society with awards or accolades in mind, it was just about doing something she thought was important for a community. However, even being nominated has reinforced her pride in the work she’s done in Whistler’s arts community over the last two decades.
Michael Barton, skateboard manager for the Indigenous Life Sport Academy (ILSA), who is nominated for the Rising Star of the Year award, alongside Padraic O’Rourke from the Fairmont Chateau Whistler and Gizem Kaya from Whistler Community Services Society, shares all the same feelings of shock, honour and pride that Harvey feels about being nominated—maybe minus the embarrassment, though.
“Pretty damn amazing, I would say,” said Barton. “Totally came out of the blue, I didn’t expect that at all. It’s nice to be recognized in the community you worked with for so long and just to kind of have that little extra recognition.”
Barton was a coach for the First Nations snowboard team for nine years before the program switched over to ILSA to incorporate more sports and more year-round activities for the kids involved.
New to the Whistler Excellence Awards in 2021 is the Resilient Business of the Year award that “recognizes organizations that have adapted their business model and shown resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The three nominees are Whistler Blackcomb, the Whistler Racket Club and the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.
According to Sarah McCullough, director of community and government relations for Whistler Blackcomb, being nominated for both this and the Sustainability in Action award is a “tremendous honour,” but part of the credit goes to the community that also had a huge part in allowing the mountain to stay open for most of the season.
“When you are talking about the Resilient Business of the Year award that was a true commitment from not just Whistler Blackcomb, but also from the community to get open and to stay open and follow all of our health and safety protocols,” said McCollough. “So, we are super appreciative of the contributions of the community to us being resilient and I think that’s really meaningful.”
As for Jamie Grant, co-director of the Whistler Racket Club, the challenges of COVID-19 were amplified as he only took over the club two months before the pandemic started.
“When I took over, the vision was to bring the community back to the racket club,” he said.
“So when [COVID-19] hit, the big challenge was we were trying to build something that promotes social gathering. It kind of flew in the face of our vision to make this place important and vital to the whole community. So that was the challenge, through [COVID-19] how do we stick to our vision of making this a unique spot to gather and meet people?”
According to Grant, through creative thinking, and creative use of their space and perseverance, they were able to not only get through the pandemic but also thrive with the club growing from 40 members to 520 in the last year and a half.
The award show will take place virtually on Thursday, Sept. 16 and will be hosted by the Whistler Chamber in partnership with Whistler Community Foundation, Arts Whistler and the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment.
The nominees for the rest of the awards are:
Business Person of the Year - Presented by BDO
- Jerry & Sana Marsh - Creekside Market
- Kaoru and Hidemi Ono - Senka Florist
- Priyanka Lewis - Brickworks Hospitality Group
Innovative Business of the Year – Presented by Beedie Living
- Whistler Connection
- Whistler Institute
- Bluebird Strategy/WNORTH
Sustainability in Action Business - Presented by Cascade Environmental Resource Group
- Whistler Blackcomb
- Whistler Community Services Society
- Innovation Building Group
Whistler Champion of Arts & Culture - Presented by The Whistler Real Estate Company
- Dave Petko – Black Ohm Tattoo
- Brandon Barrett – Pique Newsmagazine
- Shauna Hardy – Whistler Film Festival
Service Excellence - Small Business - Presented by Reactive Design
- Whistler Medical Clinic
- Moguls Coffee House
- Armchair Books
Service Excellence - Large Business - Presented by Whistler Blackcomb
- Nesters Market & Pharmacy
- Portobello
- Creekside Market
Details of how to tune in to the virtual award show will be announced in the coming weeks.
For more info, visit whistlerchamber.com.
