Blog 4

As I said in my previous blog - the town council of Invermere is very "experienced" in life (all 60+ years old) They have a tough time changing. They like to stick to what they believe in, and have a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality. The only way that I could get my idea into the council and maybe plant a seed in there heads, if I could just find someone that loves sports. The values of my community is sports, cooperation and 'closeness' (locals stick together) The business owners all get along and help out each other when in need. I know there are lots of people there that would love to see a rec centre built. There was big change in the council that could go in my favour.

 I recently found out that the President of the junior hockey team there, now sits on the town council. I was ecstatic to hear that! I will be returning back home for reading break and hopefully I can sit down with him and give him my thoughts and ideas.

Even though Invermere is very small and everyone knows everyone, there is still a time of year where Invermere grows to triple its population. 

Invermere is a vacation town, over 50% of the houses there are owned by people that are not locals. They come from mainly Alberta or the US. Most of them are fairly wealthy and live out there for the months of July and August. There are multiple famous people that have houses out there, such as Brett Wilson from Dragons Den, Mike Vernon, Mike Green and John Davidson. Getting any one of those guys to jump on board behind this project would help with persuading the council and maybe they would help out financially. The businesses there are always helping out the community so I would ask them if they would be interested in donating money in the efforts of eventually building a rec centre.

If i want to get this idea out there, I think quantity is better than quality. In the summertime, I am going to get a petition or survey going, with hopes of getting names of people that would like to see a rec centre. Eventually, I would get a "Citizens Board" together and propose a business plan on how/why/where we could build this rec centre.

Cross your fingers.

My Community

The community that I am apart of is the community of Invermere BC.  I was born and raised in this community and I still call this place home every summer. Invermere is located in a the columbia valley; which is right between the Rocky and Purcell Mountains. We have hiking trails and a beautiful lake to fish and boat on.

Sports are a very important part of this community. The community is full of people playing soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf. You name a sport we play it. I love being apart of this community but I feel like we are not living to our full potential. We do not take full advantage of the resources that we are given. Sure we have slo-pitch leagues in the summer and rec hockey in the winter. I would say about 90% of the community either watch hockey or play hockey.

I have 2 CD ideas that I wish our council would look into:

1)

 There are so many athletes that come out of Invermere. NHL goalie Wade Dubielewicz is from Invermere and as well as Olympic skier Manny Paradis. Sure these guys started playing their sports here but they never return here to train in the the off-season because our gym is still in the 1970's era. It is impossible to rent ice in our valley unless you want to play late late at night. I wish there was another ice surface. To enhance the overall quality of life in this town I would propose that the community build a sports complex that has all theses things. Things like a fully functional gym, squash courts, gymnasiums, ice surfaces. To me and a lot of other people in the community, it is a necessity.

2)

The only problem with getting a sports complex (other than the $$ of course) is the people that are on the town council. Each council member is over the age of 60. I don't mean to complain, but the only thing that Invermere has for "community fun" is curling tournaments and fishing derbies. It is impossible for them to adopt the idea Kimberley has with "July-Fest" (www.kimberleyjulyfest.com) I wish that every year we would have a "Invermere Days." Just to show and celebrate all of the great things that we have in our community. Have ball tournaments, wake board competitions, concerts, and yes maybe even a damn fishing derby! For one weekend, let the whole town CELEBRATE together.

Alas, myself and many other people before have tried to get one of these going, but it is just so hard to get the support of the council. They would rather be playing croquet and bingo. ( I am just being facetious about that last point)