Kimberly Murray's banner entitled "Adventure, Spirit, and the Supernatural" will soon be on our highways.
The design, one of two presented to council last week for final consideration in a regional competition, will be flying from Squamish streets from February 2007.
Murray, a Whistler-based graphic designer, beat 15 other submissions with a design that depicts a soaring eagle flying high above Howe Sound and a trekker marveling at the local beauty of his surroundings. The Chamber of Commerce will pay $500 to Murray for her art.
"I'm very excited," said the 27-year-old, who works for the Cutting Edge sign shop in the resort, "I will have to work with the printer and do some adjustments and that will be neat, too."
Murray said her she used the natural beauty around Squamish as her inspiration.
The banner project started in 2001 explained Denise Imbeau of the Chamber.
"We put up the banners all around the community, one of the goals was to raise some interest about the Olympics, and another goal was to raise some money. We got corporate sponsors around the community to sponsor these banners."
Unfortunately, the banners were conflicting with the Olympic Corporation the first and the second year.
"The second year, they put up these banners that had five rings on them, of course they had to pull them down because it was too similar to the Olympic rings. Now the ones you see up are three rings and depicted First Nations and sports," said Imbeau.
This time, she said, "we sent the top four to the banner company and the Olympic Corporation to ask if these were adequate and sufficient."
The district will put the banners up, while the Chamber will try to sell them to corporate sponsors to raise money for community initiatives in preparation for the Games.
"There are things that we need here in the community that nobody else is providing," said Imbeau. "We are hoping that the community will rally behind the banners. On the one hand it is going to beautify our area, [and on the other] it is going to make people who are flying by on the highway stop and take a look, and go "OK, this is a community, this is not just a washroom on the way to Whistler."
"We want them to pull over, we want them to realize that Garibaldi Estates, Brackendale and Squamish is all one big cohesive unit and we want to be able to raise money to do some other worthwhile community projects."
Imbeau added that the Chamber would like to see stronger, more attractive signage advertising the town, particularly in places like the entrance to Valleycliffe.
