2010 Inductees
A good marriage, good partnership and an interest in what is important to each other have added up to 45 years of marriage for Jim & Jean Byer of Williams Lake. It is also part of why they have been chosen, together – to be the 2010 Stampede Lifetime Pass recipients.
In the late 1970’s; Jim and Jean - associated with friends in the W.L.Vintage Car Club, did their first volunteer work at Stampede – in the beer garden with car club members. Shortly after that, the family moved away from Williams Lake (1980) before returning once again, for good – in 1987.
Jim and Jean have three adult children; Lorina (husband, Roger Sundt) has four children and lives in Norway; son Todd (wife, Jaylyn) has 3 children, and lives in Williams Lake and daughter Leanne (Brent Manuel) has 3 boys and lives at 150 Mile House. Two of Leanne’s sons, Colton (BCRA & BCHSRA – bull rider/steer wrestler) and Blaine (Little Britches) compete in rodeo, as does her husband, Brent (BCRA/steer wrestler).
In 1996, daughter Lorina ran for Stampede Queen and Jean was invited to help organize the Queen’s tea. Lorina, crowned the Stampede Princess - brought a new family of volunteers to Stampede! As she became more involved, so did Jean, then Jim; Jean, with the Queen’s committee & Jim at the work bees.
Lorina worked as a summer student in the Stampede office for a couple of seasons, another reason that both Mom (Jean) and Dad (Jim) were drawn into yet more and more Stampede volunteer activities!
By 2001, Jim was a director (working with Mark Denny) on the sponsorship committee; soon after, the buildings and maintenance section was tacked on to his portfolio. In 2003, the building portion of Jim’s portfolio came to the forefront as Stampede tackled the issue of the decrepit grandstand washrooms.
Jim says, “The washrooms were gross; users were complaining loudly about them. Not only did we hear complaints from the visitors to Stampede, but also from the volunteers who had to clean them over the four-day event.
We also dealt with the pigeon-poop issue in the grandstands that year. The pigeons, roosting in the grandstand rafters dropped copious amounts of caustic poop on the grandstand seating. That made for a major yearly clean-up project (scraping it off of the seats) and much more frequent painting because it ate the paint right off the bleachers, so we installed permanent netting that blocked the pigeon’s access to the rafters.”
Jean was still volunteering; 10-plus years of Queen’s teas, chaperoning, coronation, helping with 50-50 (ripping thousands of tickets!) ushering, ticket taking, working in the grandstand office – painting, scrubbing and cleaning – anything that was needed.
In 2004, Jim’s health was failing – he needed a lung transplant. He carried on; but by Stampede time he was carrying portable oxygen and waiting for a life-changing phone call.
Jean recalls, “I was in the Dodge truck (with Kurt Gustafson) in the middle of the rodeo arena on July 3rd and they were singing ’Oh Canada’ when I realized someone was tapping on the truck window. The message; Jim needs you – now.”
Jim had got the all-important call and the couple left immediately, via plane to Vancouver - by midnight Jim was prepped for the operation which took place in the early hours of July 4th. Jim was the grateful recipient of a donor lung and what a gift; the 4th of July is always a day of celebration for the Byer family now.
In a weird circumstance, another possible recipient of a pancreas from that same donor had a virtually identical last name (Byers). Unfortunately that person (in the Okanagan) was ill at the time of the call (the intended recipient must be in good health (no cold/flu)) and therefore could not receive the gift organ which then went to the next person on the list. Amazingly, they too -were from Williams Lake.
Jim says, “It was remarkable to think that one special donor was going to save two lives, of two people from a single small community on the same day.”
Recovery took up the remainder of 2004; the family was in Vancouver for months before returning home to Williams Lake. It in the fall of 2005 Jim felt well enough to resume volunteering and was reinstated as a director; he accepted the position of Vice-President after the director-elections that year - he was very happy to be back.
In 2008; the association was approached by Rick Durfeld of Durfeld Log & Timber who wanted to do a community project. Many projects were considered, but the old infield grandstand was literally rotting away – so necessity ultimately decided the project. With the Durfeld’s and Woodtick Construction making major contributions; Harrison Design came up with a beautiful design and Jim gave oodles of his own time to oversee the project on behalf of the Stampede Association – the beautiful new log grandstand was completed in time for Stampede. It was an impressive renovation and addition to the grounds, widely admired by locals and visitors, alike.
In 2009, the same group came together to construct the new box seating/announcer’s stand – another proud accomplishment for Jim as a volunteer. As part of the larger organization, there was a real sense of achievement in the seating improvements and it is an impressive Cariboo-like structure, it fits in our rural community.
Jim says, of his director-days, “I always really enjoyed the month of June and my daily visits with the Stampede office staff, it was great fun. I always liked to stop by and have a visit with Bev (Williamson) and the other ladies in the Stampede office; we enjoyed the friendly banter.”
Jim stepped down – as a director – at the end of last season, his body tires more easily than it used to, but he and Jean will continue as volunteers. Thank you, on behalf of the Williams Lake Stampede Association!
