Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

I save lives and prevent drowning vicariously through my participants. Where being prepared and prevention fails I hope I've equipped the community with knowledge, skill, and judgment to protect themselves and others in an emergency and provide the best care they can with the tools they have. During high school, we lost friends to drowning and it seems to happen a lot in BC and Canada. ( No one should go through what I've gone through. As an active member of the Lifesaving Society BC and Yukon Branch and a Training Partner for the Canadian Red Cross I hope to empower people to make smart safe decisions and where this fails respond safely to help others in need. I advocate for people to learn to swim, learn to rescue others, learn about lifeguarding, take a first aid course and learn more about being prepared for emergencies.

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

I have a passion for supporting community health and wellness. At this time with the demands of the business, I've donated swimming lessons to various age groups, supported special events, and organized functions with donations such as first aid kits, and education pamphlets., Sponsoring Sports Jerseys, and team fees. I have a 4-year running bursary of $500.00 for high school graduates in the North West Region of BC who have trained with me to use towards their post-secondary educations. In return the people I move with, support, and inspire show me their appreciation for their personal growth and participation. They tell me stories of their successes, challenges and excitement to be where they are because of me.

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

We'll. I've been forming and self-funding the growth of my business, as I make some money I put it back into the next piece of my growth. Advertisement, equipment upgrade, etc. While I'm getting recognition in the North now with an established name. My next two big goals are to purchase my own venue and or further my training abilities. I feel the next best thing is to further my training abilities as a venue requires an average of 400k deposit. Its a goal to continue my Training education to provide the North West higher level First Aid Programs ( which is in demand.) However I have to be financially wise in this endvour. I can't leave the business to further my training without a savings in the bank to pay the bills. I've currently trying to save enough to take 2 months off work investing 240 or more hours of in class/participating time. This is including travel, vechiles, accommodations, perdiems, equipment, material, fees, business operations costs etc. If I won the business impact award I would put it toward this goal, PS. I just saw this on facebook and wasn't on my radar to jump into it. I don't know what forms I could support. I'll see if I can find some letters of recommendations and tesimonials from the local region. Thanks for your time.

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

I value and celebrate all people. Our diversity makes us unique, especially in a team setting. For over 20 years I've been teaching, mentoring, and training a variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and abilities. I've been trying to knock down barriers and support those who need it. Everyone is different and as a trainer, I try to quickly identify who we are to suit each of the student's needs. Listening to their stories, and acknowledging and appreciating who they are and where they've come from is often the simplest and easiest thing to do to recognize and value who they are. If someone has a learning disability I'll recognize that and keep that between us to relieve anxiety and support their learning in other manners. If someone has past trauma to the subject matter, I'll allow them to step out and come back and or open up and talk and I'll listen. If students can't afford material goggles, whistle I'll just give them one. I'll bring snacks for the swimming programs that can be up to 44 hours to support those who might not be able to afford a healthy diet. I run an inclusive and respectful class that protects the emotional, mental, and physical instructional settings. I'm trying to promote more training opportunities to the remote regions to alleviate our community members' have to travel south.