Community Leader Awards 2019

Celebrating a community of leaders

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here’s no doubt about it — Kamloops is a community of leaders.

From the sports fields to the boardrooms to the front lines of countless community events, it’s the spirit of Kamloops’ leaders that makes our causes succeed and our community shine.

There are several ways to recognize excellence in Kamloops all year round.

For businesses, there’s the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards in October or the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of Central Interior’s Keystone Awards in February. For individuals, the City of Kamloops has several honours, such as the Exemplary Service Awards it hands out every spring, along with rarer honours, including the Freedom of the City and the Pioneer Spirit Awards.

The sports scene is well supported with awards from many associations, including the Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony held in May, while the arts scene celebrates its own

at the Mayor’s Gala for the Arts each January.

Despite all these wonderful awards, we did see a gap that needed filling – a program to recognize people who demonstrate leadership behind the scenes.

That’s what prompted us to create the Kamloops This Week Community Leader Awards and to look among our many entrants for winners that haven’t yet been recognized for their work.

That was also the thinking behind the categories we created, such as the Courage Award and the Mentor Award.

We wanted to ensure people who demonstrate leadership behind the scenes, whose effect is felt as much as it is seen, would be given the chance to shine.

That said, with all those other honours out there, we weren’t quite sure what kind of response to expect when we put out our call for nominations. To be candid, it did start out slow. But sure enough, by the time nominations closed, we had dozens of wonderful applications and a tough task for our judging committee, composed of our promotions co-ordina-

tor, Tara Holmes, our editor, Christopher Foulds, our advertising manager, Ray Jolicoeur, myself and Karen Watt of Excel Personnel Inc., our title sponsor (and also a member of KTW’s new Community Advisory Board).

Some people were nominated by multiple individuals. One of our winners you’ll read about in these pages was nominated by eight different people for his award, which is a testament to the inspiration of his story.

And that’s the other criteria we kept in mind when selecting our inaugural winners — inspiring people with inspiring stories. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be able to tell these stories in these pages and we’re confident you’ll find them as inspiring as we did. When you’re finished, we think you’ll feel even better about the community you call home.

In our business, great ideas like this don’t come to life without the support of community-minded advertisers. We’re so pleased that seven local businesses stepped forward right away to say “yes” to this initiative to make it happen. Our

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sincere thanks go out to our title sponsor, Excel Personnel Solutions, and to the sponsors of each of our six award categories: Soccer Quest, sponsor of the Coach Award; Prestige Local Alarm Monitoring, sponsor of the Community Builder Award; Runners Sole, sponsor of the Volunteer Award; Rivershore Ram Chrysler Dodge Jeep, sponsor of the Youth Volunteer Award; Chris Chan, Realtor, sponsor of the Mentor Award, and Emsland Insurance, sponsor of the Courage Award. Please consider supporting their businesses as they support our awards and our community at large.

Thanks to all of those who nominated people for our awards this year as well.

There were so many worthy candidates that it felt almost unfair to recognize only six. We look forward to many of those nominees being put forward again for recognition next year and in the years to come — and for us to be able to tell their stories in these pages.

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Julie Dormer is the recipient of the Volunteer Award in the inaugural KTW Community Leader Awards.

DAVE EAGLES/KTW

For Dormer, volunteering is a chance to have fun, meet people was not the only place “toKamloops benefit from Julie’s presence.

TODD SULLIVAN STAFF REPORTER todd@kamloopsthisweek.com

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omeone needs to put a lot of volunteer hours into the community to get noticed for the KTW Community Leader Awards Volunteer category.

That is something this year’s recipient, Julie Dormer, has definitely done.

According to nominator Chris Ponti, Dormer has an extensive list of volunteer work that includes being an executive member of Advocates for School District 73, president of Women in Mining’s south central chapter, communications manager of the Valleyview Community Association and executive member and media contact for Marion Schilling elementary’s parent advisory council.

“She’s amazing,” Ponti said. “And I volunteer a lot, too, so when you have someone like that who helps out so much, you appreciate them.”

For Dormer, volunteering just comes naturally.

“Growing up with it, my dad was a huge volunteer and he used to drag us to everything,” she said.

During four years in Alberta, she volunteered for Crime Stoppers, as well as some town events.

”

— CHRIS PONTI, nominator

Volunteering rarely feels like work for Dormer, who considers events like Rotary dinners she helps prepare as her fun times.

“My mom will watch my daughter and then I get to go play,” Dormer said.

“So to me, it’s more fun than anything — and then you meet a lot of really good people.”

Dormer credited her time-management abilities in being able to successfully juggle so many projects.

The fact that she works from home also allows her to adjust her schedule accordingly.

Because so much of her volunteer work involves activities she enjoys, Dormer has a hard time thinking she is deserving of the recognition that comes with this award.

“I’m still kind of shocked because there’s always someone out there that does more,” she said.

“The fact that he [Chris Ponti] said that he wanted to nominate me meant so much to me, that a peer of mine would want to recognize me, and especially coming from someone like him, who volunteers so much,” Dormer said.

“And so for him to say that, it meant an awful lot. I was really moved by it.”

Dormer encourages others to reach out and get involved in their community as a volunteer.

Aside from doing a good deed, Dormer said, volunteering is a great way to meet people.

“You never know what opportunity you’ll get and you never know who you’ll get to meet,” she said.

“So why not give up some time and do something cool?”

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Small the mentor will keep paying it forward Henry is someone who “falls into several categories

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enry Small has been a force of inspiration for both musicians and music events in Kamloops.

He helped create Music In The Park more than 25 years ago and has worked with and encouraged many local musicians over the years.

That’s why Tara Holmes nominated Small in the Mentor category of the KTW Community Leader Awards.

“The reason I feel Henry is a natural fit for the Mentor Award is he has taken so many young, up-and-coming musicians under his wing and given them a platform to grow and get a name for themselves,” Holmes said.

For Small, it’s a matter of paying it forward.

“Mentoring is just passing it along, to me,” he said.

“And I never thought of it as mentoring.

I think that I’ve been really lucky to have just a little bit of a different life experience than most people.

“So, musically, and philosophy-wise and stuff, it just comes out of you to guide and say, ‘Hey, I’ve been here before.’

“And, you know, if they pay attention, they pay attention — and a lot of people along the way have. So that’s kind of cool.”

Small’s approach to mentoring has largely been to find a balance between encouragement and being grounded.

“You’ve got to aim high because, chances are, you’re going to end up somewhere in the middle, right?” he said. “So you don’t fault people. You just try to support as much as you can.”

Small believes those determined to reach a goal will find a way to succeed, regardless of the obstacles in their way.

“You can go back to the old blues guys,

for the KTW Community Leader Awards. He volunteers his time and he has been a community builder by starting Music in the Park, which has grown substantially since he brought it to Riverside Park.

”

— TARA HOLMES, nominator

where they built guitars out of shovels or cigar boxes or whatever,” Small said. “I think that still stands.”

He said being named the recipient of the Mentor Award has been a humbling experience.

“It’s sort of, for me, you don’t feel comfortable with it,” he said. “You don’t feel like you really did anything more than what you would have done anyway.”

Small said he gets just as much out of his work as a mentor as do the musicians with whom he works.

“You see people full of hope, full of energy,” he said.

“They’re not jaded and bitter, like I might be, to some degree. And so it’s kind of like, in a way, vampirish. Because you feed off of that. We feed off of that, whereas maybe I’d be taking a nap — I don’t know.”

Henry Small is the recipient of the Mentor Award in the inaugural KTW Community Leader Awards.

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HENRY SMALL Congratulations!

Winner of the MENTOR of the Year Award.

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Herman believes in giving back to the community Bryce is, and has been, dedicated and “committed to supporting every initiative

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STAFF REPORTER

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ryce Herman is a tireless volunteer who has kept himself involved in a flurry of local projects over the years.

It is that dedication to community that has led to Herman being the recipient of this year’s Community Leader Award in the Community Builder category.

“I decided to nominate him because he does so much in the city and has for many, many, many years,” said Lisa Fuller.

“He’s always looking to advance our community and businesses. I think that’s really important to recognize.”

With involvement in projects such Rotary Ribfest, Pit Stop, food drives, the Kamloops Ambassador program and various non-profit organizations, Kamloopsians are almost sure to encounter Herman somewhere in the community.

And those in the Kamloops region have long known him as the voice of the Y Dream Home Lottery.

“I stay very busy,” Herman said.

“I mean, I was born and raised here, so for me, Kamloops has always been Bryce Herman is the recipient of the Community Builder Award in the inaugural KTW Community Leader Awards.

and project that helps make Kamloops a better community. He provides leadership in so many key community initiatives.

”

— LISA FULLER, nominator

home. And I’ve always been a real strong believer in giving back to the community.

“And it allowed me to, you know, make my livelihood out of it.”

With all the community involvement behind him, Herman said continuing to volunteer is sometimes as easy as waiting for the phone to ring.

“After a while, it gets to be one of those things — when there’s an event going on and the phone rings, and it’s like,’Geez, you know, Bryce, would you consider taking this on?’” he said.

Herman conceded there are times when he looks behind him to see if there are more youthful volunteers coming up the ranks.

But he is quick to add that he loves the volunteer work and being involved in the community, including his work in mentorship.

Herman has been a part of Networking 411 at Thompson Rivers University, which he described as being like speeddating, only with face-to-face meetings between students and mentors.

He noted instructors at the university will sometimes steer students in his direction for mentorship opportunities.

“So currently, I’ve got a number of students and I’ve also got some business people that I’m mentoring,” he said.

Though he’s often approached directly and asked to be a mentor, Herman also pointed to situations in which the mentorship has simply evolved out of an existing relationship with someone.

“I think those ones are probably even better than when there’s somebody that just arbitrarily says, ‘We’ve got six mentors. You’re in tourism. Here’s the following ones. What do you think?’” he said.

While Herman said he is honoured to receive the Community Builder Award, he said his work is never about the recognition.

“It’s one of those things where I don’t think you do any of them for the recognition,” Herman said.

“That’s never been the case.

“And, so, to be recognized is a huge honour. It really is. I don’t take it lightly.”

It is an honour to recognize Bryce Herman with the Community Builder Award.

It is the dedication of people like Bryce that help make Kamloops such a strong and giving community.

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Chris Brochu is the recipient of the Courage Award in the inaugural KTW Community Leader Awards.

Brochu’s life was saved — now he is focused on helping others TODD SULLIVAN STAFF REPORTER todd@kamloopsthisweek.com

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ost people don’t follow up a diagnosis of stage 4 metastatic melanoma with a 240-kilometre fundraising bicycle journey — but most people aren’t Chris Brochu.

Gerry Erickson, who nominated Brochu for the Community Leader Award for Courage, noted Brochu had a five per cent chance of survival after being diagnosed.

“He was riddled with tumours and dangerous amounts of fluid were being drained from his chest,” Erickson said.

“He never gave up.”

Brochu was initially diagnosed in 2009 after having a mole removed from his back. Though no other cancers were found at the time, and the skin around the mole was removed as a precaution, the cancer returned in 2015.

After finding himself short of breath during a hike, Brochu visited his doctor and was sent immediately to emergency, where the fluids that had been compressing his lung were removed.

The tests that followed revealed the stage 4 melanoma diagnosis.

has grabbed life and shaken “itChris by the tail. His mission, his passion, is to assist others to achieve their full potential.

”

— GERRY ERICKSON, nominator

“I’m 33 years old,” Brochu said. “Those are tough words to hear when you’re 33, when you’re in the prime of your life.”

His initial treatment included oral chemotherapy, which led to a temporary improvement in his condition. It was at this time that he started developing the first Strides for Melanoma awareness walk in Kamloops.

Unfortunately, after the event in September 2015, his health took a turn for the worse.

“The cancer started coming back and came back full on, even more than it was when I first got diagnosed,” he said.

With no further traditional treatment options available, Brochu learned of immunotherapy as an option.

While the cost of the new type of treatment was prohibitive, there was a clinical trial in Alberta and Brochu was invited to participate.

“I went on to this immunotherapy, which is a brand new treatment. There’s 1,000 people in North America on this treatment,” Brochu said.

“And it saved my life.”

Brochu decided to participate in the Ride to Conquer Cancer a few months later.

“I thought, ‘You know what, I got very lucky with this. I got very, very fortunate,’” he said. “I’d like to see this not be a lucky thing, I want for this to be the standardized treatment for people that are going through this. I don’t want this to be a luck thing or to be on a clinical trial or study. So I decided to sign up for the British Columbia Ride to Conquer Cancer.”

He’s also opened his own business, MPowerful, where he is a wellness and fitness coach, helping people live healthier lives through fitness.

As for his KTW Community Leader Award?

“I’ve never, ever had an award before for anything, never really gotten an award or an appreciation in this way,” he said. “So I think it’s really cool. I’m humbled, that’s for sure.

Definitely.”

COURAGE AWARD Congratulations to Chris Brochu

for being honoured for courage in the Community Leader Awards.

This award was sponsored by Emsland Insurance who admire those who show perseverance.

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Bhavana Deevanapalli is the recipient of the Youth Volunteer Award in the inaugural KTW Community Leader Awards.

TODD SULLIVAN/KTW

Deevanapalli knows volunteering ties a community together TODD SULLIVAN STAFF REPORTER todd@kamloopsthisweek.com

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ttending school to become a physician’s assistant is plenty of work, but that hasn’t stopped Bhavana Deevanapalli from filling her schedule with volunteer opportunities.

According to Edith Farrell, who nominated Deevanapalli in the Youth Volunteer category of the Community Leader Awards, the young woman has given her time to organizations like Royal Inland Hospital, Big Little Science Centre, Kamloops Immigrant Services, the Gleaning Abundance Program and Pit Stop Outreach Program.

“She’s been volunteering quite a bit in different organizations just to see what’s needed out there,” Farrell said.

For Deevanapalli, who came to Kamloops from India four years ago, volunteering was an idea that was entirely new to her.

And she took to it quickly.

“I had lots of free time and I heard of this new thing called volunteering,” she said.

Deevanapalli started volunteering at the Big Little Science

been volunteering quite a bit “inShe’s different organizations, just to see what’s needed out there.”

— EDITH FARRELL, nominator

Centre and found she enjoyed the experience so much that she started to expand the number of organizations with whom she was working.

It proved to be a great way to learn about her community while making contacts outside of university.

“I’m really passionate about helping people and it was really nice meeting new people, getting to know their stories,” she said.

Deevanapalli plans to remain in Kamloops after finishing her education, which means she is investing her time in the community she is planning to call home.

Deevanapalli also credits volunteering as a means of expanding her own pool of knowledge, pointing to experiences with the Gleaning Abundance Program and Kamloops Immigrant Services as being educational.

“It’s taught me how to be sensitive and have patience,” she said. “And, as I say, meeting people is one of my things, and talking to people. Connections are very important.”

She encourages everyone to get out and spend some time volunteering because it’s what draws people together to form a community.

“I realized that everybody here, we are together as a community, we all have to help each other, and I realized that very much here,” she said.

“I would definitely encourage other people to volunteer.

“It’s also getting a chance to get to know the career you want to go into or the community that you’ll be working for.”

Wherever the future will take this student, she will definitely continue to volunteer, whether in Kamloops or elsewhere. It’s become a huge part of her identity.

“I look forward to contributing more to the community through my volunteering,” she said.

YOUTH VOLUNTEER AWARD Kamloops This Week is honoured to recognize Bhavana Deevanapalli with the CLA Youth Volunteer award.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~ Dr. Seuss

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Grimm coaching players to become great people Chad’s background and “calm demeanour make the

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he work of a coach involves more than just helping someone be the best athlete they can be. In most cases, it involves helping someone be the best person they can be.

According to Thompson Rivers University sports information officer Larry Read, that’s work in which Chad Grimm excels — and why Grimm is a KTW Community Leader Award winner in the Coach category.

“Chad possesses all the key ingredients to be a coach,” Read said. “Not only is he a top quality volleyball coach, but he is also a qualified teacher and councillor.

“He truly cares about everyone he comes in contact with — whether it be a young player, a university athlete or anyone associated with volleyball or sports.”

Grimm was playing volleyball professionally in Europe when an injury left him unable to continue his career. Returning to Kamloops in 2006, he began to pursue a career in teaching, while also becoming an assistant coach at TRU. In 2014, he took over as coach of the WolfPack women’s volleyball team.

Grimm said he enjoys having the opportunity to help shape the people his students will one day become.

“You can help guide them a little bit in their path to being, hopefully, contributing members of society,” he said.

“And you see, from when they come in to when they leave, those typical five years, how much growth they’re able to make and the good that they’re able to do and what they give back to the community,” he said.

Though Grimm appreciates the recognition that comes with the award, his focus has been in encouraging others to give back to their communities.

student/athlete experience for female volleyball players at Thompson Rivers University a valued one.

”

— LARRY READ, nominator

“I think that’s important, to get them out and involved because those connections are valuable,” he said.

“Even professionally, we have girls that have made connections — and that’s led to employment. And that’s not the reason you do those things. But it is a side benefit of being involved in making good positive connections and good relations within the community.”

For Grimm, the best part of coaching is being able to see how students’ involvement with volleyball at TRU can have a positive impact in their life. As an example, he points to international students who have come to Kamloops from unstable situations in their home countries.

“To be able to see that ability for sport to change the whole path of people’s lives, that’s the biggest benefit for me,” Grimm said.

“I mean, my life changed a lot because of sports. I got to play overseas, I got to see a lot of the world, I met my wife and I just like to see that opportunity provided for all the girls that come into the program.

“It gives them an opportunity to make their life better.”

Chad Grimm (at right with daughter Naya) is the recipient of the Coach Award in the inaugural KTW Community Leader Awards.

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