“We only get one shot at this,” Jim Webster says, seated in a booth at the Sully. “We can be remembered for a lot of things, so we might as well be remembered for doing good things for people. And, we might as well have some fun.”

In the last fifteen years, since he and his wife moved to Kimberley, his life has exemplified this credo, with Webster becoming one of Kimberley’s most successful event planners. He’s co-founded the Round the Mountain Festival, Symphony on the Mountain, Kimberley’s North American Orienteering Championships, Kimberley Bed Races, and the Dusty Downhill. Last year, he co-organized the Kimberley Pipe Band 90th Anniversary Tattoo. His festivals and events have contributed financially and culturally to Kimberley and along the way, it appears he’s had quite a bit of fun.

Webster’s delightfully unassuming, yet passionately persuasive. He has a loyal cadre of supporters and colleagues who trust Jim’s enthusiasm for outlandish schemes. “Jim's a true people person,” Susan Freudenberg says. “He inspires people to want to volunteer, and trusts them to get the job done. He's a dreamer, who never fails to take a good idea and make it bigger and better.

Nigel Kitto, another event co-organizer, says, “He’s an instigator. An ideas man. He identifies gaps in the community and gets like-minded individuals together to host events to enhance the spirit of Kimberley.”

The Gypsy Years. Why Community Means So Much.

Webster’s family lived in a eight by thirty-five foot trailer, while his dad worked for a seismic exploration company. “Anytime the crew moved, we moved,” he says. “Manitoba. Saskatchewan. Alberta. We were a gypsy caravan. We relied on each other. Eventually, someone in the new town would let us park in their yard and use their outhouse.”

“By the time I’d finished grade one, I’d attended five different schools,” Webster says. “At the end of the school year the teacher told my parents, ‘We’ve only had him two weeks. I don’t know whether he should pass or fail.’ By the time I was in grade five, I’d lived in twenty different towns. I got used to people testing me. ‘Who’s the new kid?’ sort of thing. I wasn’t a fighter and too shy to be a lover. I had to learn the gift of the gab.”

Eventually, seeking a more stable life for his family, Jim’s dad moved them to Calgary and settled in. “In high school, I’d organize school dances and other events. However, in university, the social life got in the way of my studies and I withdrew after a year.” Jim moved south to Barbados and got a job as an aircraft mechanic. “I didn’t know a wrench from a screwdriver,” he says, “but luckily, they were big jets and I didn’t have to do that much other than fuel them and change tires.”

Two years later, he returned to Calgary with his fiance Babs, and thought, I’m getting married. I don’t have a job. I don’t have a place to live. So, he was hired by AGT (Telus), and became a telephone man for twenty years, where he ascended within the company from installer, to engineer, to manager of a software project. Remembering how, at a young age, his mom became sick with arthritis, he realized he needed a change, and at 52 semi-retired and moved to Kimberley with Babs.

THE EVENTS:

North American Orienteering Championships
Webster got involved in orienteering when he was 28. “I won my first event and it changed my life. I arrived in dress shoes thinking it was a cooking class, and the next thing I knew, I was running around, studying maps and compasses.”

Shortly after, Webster was asked if he wanted to organize the Canadian Orienteering Championship. “What’s the biggest one that’s ever been done?” I asked.

“Three years later, we had 500 people from 20 countries racing throughout Bow Valley Provincial Park. In 1990, we organized the Asia Pacific Orienteering Championship, Canada’s largest orienteering event.”  

“In 2007, we held the BC Orienteering Championships in Kimberley. Somebody who came to that event said BC had been selected to host the 2010 North American Orienteering Championships and asked us if we’d be interested in hosting it.  We ended up with 500 people from all over the word and over 100 volunteers.”

Round the Mountain
“After the orienteering championships, somebody said, ‘What’s next?’ During coffee at the Bean Tree, Daz DeBoer started discussing a trail being developed around North Star Mountain. We wondered if people could run it? Or ride it? Or walk it?  Daz, Susan Freudenberg, Tony and Nigel Kitto and myself decided to give it a try.”

In 2011, they figured forty entrants would be a success for its first year. “A few days before the event we had 150 people registered,” Webster recalls. “There was something about it. People were really intrigued. On race day, we had 225 people signed up.”

Last year’s event had 525 competitors with over 100 volunteers. To date, they’ve raised over $60,000 that’s gone back into the community.

With each event, Webster and his partners are constantly looking at succession planning: “This year, we’re trying to step back. The Kimberley Trail Society is taking a leadership role. I’ve seen too many good events crash, because certain people are no longer involved.”

Symphony on the Mountain
“One night, over a pizza dinner, Anita Iacobucci mentioned a symphony on Whistler mountain. At the end of the night, we thought, this could be cool in Kimberley. The next month, we met with Resort of the Canadian Rockies and the Symphony of the Kootenays and, despite the threatening cost, the idea started to take shape.”

Webster and his crew already had a solid reputation as event planners, so sponsors started supporting the event. A full stage was built on-site thanks to help from RCR and the College of the Rockies. Hundreds of hay bales were driven up the mountain, and the evening concert was a sell out. Daryl Oakley, who volunteered to spend the night on the mountain to guard the sound system and keep an eye on the hay, called Jim with some startling news, “I hate to tell you this, but i just saw a herd of 100 elk grazing on the hill.”  

The event turned out to be an outstanding success: they covered the symphony’s fees, and made donations to Centre 64 and The Symphony of the Kootenays,

Tattoo:
Over a morning coffee, Webster saw an article in the paper, Kimberley Pipe Band 90th anniversary. Apparently, they were looking for someone to organize an event. “I’ve always liked bagpipes,” Webster recalls, “and thought an event like that could be pretty moving.”

Webster had never been to a tattoo before, so he flew to Vernon so see their show, and along with co-organizer, Brenna Baker, developed a vision for Kimberley’s event. Before long, they attracted a crew of 70 volunteers, and over 250 performers. The one-night event sold over a thousand tickets and made a profit that was dispersed among the Elks, Centre 64, and the Kimberley Pipe Band.  

In the last few years, Webster and his crew have added two more events to their roster: the Dusty Downhill, a 10k race from the top of the ski hill to the Platzl, and the Kimberley Bed Races, where they raised $1000 for Kimberley Hospice.

Why Give Back?
Webster’s contemplative when asked what drives him to volunteer thousands of hours when he could work on his short game, or binge watch reruns of The Office. What is it that makes people want to give back? To make their community richer and more vibrant?

“I get a lot of enjoyment out of it,” he says. “I like the challenge and seeing people get excited by a quirky idea. Also, I want to live in a community where something happens, and Kimberley sure has been good to us. I love to approach something with the attitude of ‘I don’t know exactly where this is going, but it’s going to be fun. It’s going to make the community a better place.”

“Jim brings out the best of people,” Toni Kitto says. “and he always makes it about fun. Once an event is over, and we’re sitting around enjoying a beer, Jim will look at us, and with his infectious laugh, say, “I have an idea….” and before our beer’s over, we’re planning the next event.”