From Squamish to Terrace: a local’s heartfelt farewell

I can’t believe it’s been almost 20 years since I moved to Squamish with my two young boys. We didn’t know anyone but we jumped in with both feet. Darwin started grade 4, Wyatt started kindergarten, and I started my photography business – all within a couple days of moving here.

We specifically chose Squamish because it has the mountains, the lakes, and the ocean. The population was under 15,000 so it was small enough that you always ran into people you knew but big enough to give you some privacy. It was close to Vancouver but not part of the city and it was close to people we knew in Vancouver and on the Island.

With my photography business, Trek Photography, I covered many events in the Sea to Sky Corridor for Snap Newspaper. It was a lot of fun and we quickly got to know people and the community. I later joined up with another photographer, Michael Kanka, and we formed Double Shutter Images. Our main focus was event photography, covering most of the local races such as the Test of Metal series, Squamish Triathlon, Squamish Youth Triathlon, BMX races, and Momar. Plus we offered costume photo booths at many of the other events. Michael has since retired and I continue to run Double Shutter Images on my own, branching out into Photo Treks where I take people on outings and offer photography tips.

I loved the events so much that I started organizing ones such as the Squamish Christmas Market, the Santa Parade, and Canada Day. I also joined the organizing committees for other events such as Relay for Life and Squamish Days Loggers Sports. I helped start the Squamish BMX Racing Club and we spent many hours building that first track and maintaining it. I became a Scout Leader. The best part of all this was that both my boys volunteered at the events and races, participated in Relay for Life, volunteered and competed in Loggers Sports and the Youth Triathlon, raced BMX at local, provincial, and national levels, and were active in the different levels of Scouts including becoming leaders.

In addition to all this, I worked full time for almost 15 years at Sea to Sky Community Services with adults who have developmental disabilities as I have a Bachelor of Science specializing in Psychology. I really enjoyed the people I worked with and know that I made a difference in many of their lives.

I have another passion and that is tiny houses. Housing insecurity is such a big issue. We had to move 5 times in 8 years and have one more move initiated by a landlord. And purchasing was always just out of reach, especially being self employed. I tried for several years to start a tiny house community here in Squamish. It was not happening fast enough for me though. Meanwhile I started working for Bluegrass Meadows Micro Village. I fell in love with it and the boys and I have decided to move there. It is just North of Terrace, BC and offers the mountains, lakes, and nearby ocean that we value. It also has a real winter with snow!! Terrace has a population of under 20,000 which makes it a nice size (as opposed to Squamish having grown to over 26,000). It offers many amenities including a brand new regional hospital, a Sportsplex, movie theatres, bowling alley, curling club, library, shopping, and restaurants. It has Coast Mountain College where Wyatt will be taking his Professional Cook 2 and high speed fiber internet to support Darwin’s online needs.

It will be sad to leave Sqamish and all the people we have gotten to know here, but it is time for a new adventure. You can follow me on social media to see what I’m up to, and if you’re ever up North, look me up.