With the wrap-up last weekend of the final show in the 2012 − 2013 Lakes District Arts Council (LDAC) performing arts season, it’s a good time to pause and consider the many volunteer hours that have gone into bringing seven successful seasons of the performing arts to Burns Lake.
John and Sandra Barth have been the driving force behind the LDAC since its inception in 2005. They have managed the all-volunteer organization from its earliest days, when it was just a proposal on former Mayor Bernice Magee’s council agenda.
Looking back at those early days, Magee singles out the Barths for the success of the LDAC.
“Given that John and Sandra were in charge, it is not a surprise to me,” said Magee. “Anything that they commit themselves to will work.”
The Barths were recognized recently by the Burns Lake Chamber of Commerce with the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award. Having spent the largest part of their adult lives working and volunteering in the Lakes District, the award comes as no surprise to anyone who knows the Barths.
More than 40 years ago, John and Sandra Barth came to Burns Lake to work at the former Immaculata elementary school. They came, fittingly, as volunteer workers.
“We came to Burns Lake because we volunteered to come here,” said Sandra.
John reflected on the role that volunteering has played in their lives from their earliest days in Burns lake.
“That’s a thread that has run through our lives,” said John. “When we first came to Burns Lake, it was because we were looking for the opportunity to do some service.”
Sandra, who was born in Nicaragua, met John during their university days in California. Never having been further north than San Francisco before moving to Burns Lake in 1970 with Sandra, John had some apprehension about leaving sunny California behind.
“I was scared to death when we first moved,” John said. “It was a real learning experience. We came for one year, but stayed for three.”
In their third year, their son Carlos was born at the Burns Lake Hospital. By then, the Barths were committed to their new lives in B.C., and eventually decided to make Burns Lake their permanent home.
“When we first got involved as volunteers in Burns Lake,” said Sandra, “it was most often because of things that our kids were involved in.”
The motivation for their lifetime of volunteering in Burns Lake comes from the simple observation that you get what you give.
“If you want something done, you have to be involved in making it happen,” said Sandra.
During their volunteer years with the figure skating club, in minor hockey, the band parent’s association, and the festival of the performing arts (to only list a few), the Barths were unknowingly grooming themselves for the most ambitious volunteer project of their lives.
Like many in Burns Lake, the Barths had been regularly attending arts and cultural performances in Prince George, Smithers, or Vancouver.
“Somebody said, why can’t these things happen in Burns Lake?” said Sandra.
The Barths answered that question with the LDAC. With a lot more volunteer support from the community, as well as consistent and strong support from local businesses, the Village of Burns Lake, and grant organizations, the LDAC became a reality.
The Barths role with the LDAC has grown with every season, as has the scale of their work.
“I started keeping a log about a year ago,” said John. “In the last year we spent over a thousand hours on arts council activities and projects. It’s a big commitment.”
“With volunteering, you’re giving back,” said John. “But you also get a lot in return. You get a lot of satisfaction and camaraderie with people in the community.”
Receiving a lifetime achievement award has caused the Barths to pause and consider the future of the organization they and others have worked so hard to develop.
“Nobody lives for ever,” John said. “And nobody volunteers forever.”
Part of their concerns now are to shape the LDAC in a way that will allow others to step in a take over the organization when the day comes that they are no longer at the centre of volunteer efforts.
“We need to plan for how it will be sustainable so that it doesn’t stop when we stop,” said John.
Not that they are showing any signs of stopping soon.