Sue Ellen Fast is a household name on Bowen Island. With the younger crowd she has shared her knowledge of how to make midges dance, the best way to spot a bat and what to do with heritage household items. The adults know her for the boundless enthusiasm she brings to her work on numerous committees.
This year, Fast received the Islands Trust Community Stewardship Awards that recognizes programs or actions that have made a significant contribution towards the objectives of the Islands Trust.
"I believe in the Islands Trust statement," Fast says. "I think we should be preserving and protecting the things we care about. And for me, that's nature although I also get involved in all kinds of other things."
One of Fast's main areas of interest is wildlife. "I'm still charmed with how much variety of wildlife we have. Even right down here in Snug Cove, at the lagoon. There is the salmon run, there are kingfishers and dippers and herons, of course, and all kinds of different tree-nesting ducks. There is a whole diversity of wildlife all around us."
Fast started volunteering 15 years ago after she gave up a job that required her to commute.
She said, "When I started volunteering on Bowen, there was no municipality. At that time, I joined the Bowen Rec Commission that was a GVRD committee and they were starting to take on more of a parks function. That was a good time to get involved. And then we had the parks master plan that was done in 1994. "
Fast recalls, "At that time, it was recognized that Bowen isn't going to stay the same. We had an eye toward the growth that was coming and the idea that every community needs to stay green so that people could maintain their quality of life without having to hike to the end of the road."
Fast helped with beach inventories, parks, trails and viewpoints and loves how islanders were engaged in almost every process. Before moving to Bowen, she was employed by the GVRD Parks and was responsible for environmental education programming for Crippen Park. In that capacity, she worked with community groups such as the Bowen Island Historians and the Heritage Preservation Association. She says, "I met people like Lois Meyers-Carter, Jean Jamieson and Marion Moore who are still my friends today. And I saw how they were pulling these events together, it was fun."
This was one of the reasons, Fast persuaded her partner, Will Husby, to take a look at Bowen. She said, "We came in November, on one of those rainy, stormy days. We drove out to Hood Point where you could look towards Howe Sound with these waves and the wild weather. Then coming back, this enormous tree had tipped and was leaning over the road." The couple took a chance by scooting under the tree. They decided that living on Bowen was an adventure and started looking for a place.
Fast's vast enthusiasm makes her a gifted educator. She says, "That's one of the things I love to do, to create lively kinds of outdoor learning experiences where children discover for themselves what's special about this place they're growing up in." Fast is working as a consultant for Interpretation Canada and other projects. She also edits a journal but she says, "I keep my hand in [education] by doing interpretive programs with kids on Bowen. At the heritage days at BICS, there was this whole table full of strange objects from the past. One of them was a telephone with a rotary dial." Fast has a big smile on her face as she describe how the kids tried to push the numbers on the dial and where confused when that didn't yield any results. "What fun," she says, not for the first time during the interview.
Fast considers the update of the Official Community Plan (OCP) a highlight of her volunteer work. She says, "I was selected for the steering committee and then I became the chair. I felt honoured because it is such an important document. With all my different volunteer work in different areas, I felt that I had gained a sense of the special nature of Bowen." As an example, Fast mentions the importance of all the different community groups. She says, "I think we've got more per square foot than in other places."
Community involvement is another recurring theme. Fast says, "We were steering the process, not writing the plan, but we were able to get a lot of people involved in many different ways. It was very interesting to see what were the dominant community themes, and see them get reflected in the text." Fast feels good about council passing the OCP. She says, "Now that it's in place, we have vision of Bowen's future and what direction islanders want to take. So we hold on to the good things that we love about the island."
Of her current volunteer work, Fast says, "I chair the Greenways Advisory Committee, I'm a member of Collins Farm Community Supported Agriculture group. I am involved with the Bowen Heron Watch that is a project of the Bowen Island Conservancy and nature Club. I'm also active with Partners for the Park. This is what Will and I both love about Bowen, that you can get involved in something you are passionate about and you can make a difference. You can jump right in, meet all kinds of wonderful people and work with others in the community. It's fun."
There will be an unofficial presentation of the award at the opening ceremony of Evergreen Park on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. The official presentation is planned for the council meeting on Oct. 11.
