Featured Photo: John Howells (left) receiving the 1978 Citizen of the Year award from 1976 winner Paul Burrows (right) as Drew Meredith and Grace McCarthy look on in the background. Whistler Question Collection, 1978
By Anna Donaldson
As nominations for this year’s Citizen of the Year award come to a close, let’s take a look back on the history of this award. The Citizen of the Year award is an annual honour presented to a single member of the community or a couple by the Whistler Chamber of Commerce, and also happens to be the longest-standing award in the community, even predating the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW).
The RMOW became Whistler’s official government, and Canada’s first resort municipality, when it was established on Sept. 7, 1975. Before incorporation, community organization and representation were largely carried out through local groups such as the Alta Lake Ratepayers Association and the Whistler Chamber. The Ratepayers Association provided residents with a collective voice on local issues, while the Chamber helped coordinate businesses, promote the area, and support community initiatives. Together, these organizations played an important role in bringing residents and businesses together and shaping the development of Whistler prior to municipal government.
The Citizen of the Year award was created in 1968 with the intent to recognize those who contribute to the community that otherwise would not be recognized for their work. People who volunteer to make Whistler a better place with their longstanding contributions are eligible for this award. Anyone is eligible to be nominated, and the person who nominates them must be backed up by three other people. Although the specific criteria has changed slightly since the creation of this award, the basic standards still apply. Nominees for the Citizen of the Year award can be any age and live anywhere in B.C., as long as their contributions to the community have impacted Whistler in a positive, lasting way.
Nominees in the past have been recognized for all sorts of generous donations to the community. The first winner of Citizen of the Year, Bob Walker, drove busloads of children to the high school in Squamish in all sorts of weather, dependable when other drivers ran into trouble. The 1972 winner Dick Fairhurst was chief of the volunteer fire department, even going so far as to create a makeshift fire truck out of an old milk truck. Florence Petersen, the founder and president of the Whistler Museum, won in 1986 for her wealth of contributions to all sorts of organizations around Whistler including the creation of the Whistler Museum. Past winners have founded the Whistler Public Library, helped reestablish the lives of flood victims, served on the Parent Advisory Committees of various schools, and so much more.
Each year more impressive citizens of Whistler are nominated, and the decision of who will be recognized becomes harder to make. This decision is never made lightly, which is evident in the 1977 award. That year, 10 equally impressive citizens were up for the award, but the committee, who was made up of the three most recent winners, decided that each nominee was as good as the last. To avoid hurting feelings, no specific person was chosen that year. This is one of the unique things that makes Whistler such a great place to live, that there are so many people who want to volunteer and contribute to the community that this award can be given to someone new and deserving each year, with plenty more nominations.
This award is still presented annually at the Whistler Chamber of Commerce Excellence Awards Gala along with many others. This year’s Excellence Awards, the 60th instalment, is set for Thursday, Oct. 22. To this day, these awards recognize the positive impact these volunteers have had and continue to have on the Whistler community.
Anna Donaldson is the Summer Program Coordinator at the Whistler Museum through the Young Canada Works Program.