Cassidy Olivier
Special to The Chief
Don Evans said it came as a surprise to be named Squamish's 2005 Business Person of the Year award at the 72nd President's Banquet and AGM last week.
But with a track record like his, it must have been hard not to think it was in the bag.
As executive director of the West Coast Railway Heritage Assoc-iation, Evans has been a key figure in the development of the West Coast Railway Heritage Park in Squamish and its subsequent success since first opening to the public in 1994. The Park currently boasts an 45,000 visitors a year.
"I had no idea I had even been nominated until it was announced, so surprised is the right word - surprised and a feeling of great honour," Evans says.
Evans grabbed top business honours on Saturday night (Jan. 28) over fellow businessmen Adam Hart of Clear Impact Consulting and Geoff Park of Camp Summit, but was quick to play down the win and congratulate the other nominees.
"For anyone to be nominated for business person of the year I think is recognition of contribution to the business community as well as a worthiness for being considered for the award," he says.
Evans says the Heritage Park has experienced steady growth since opening, contributing more than $10 million in economic impact to the community through direct and indirect spin-offs.
"That's done in a whole variety of ways but the most direct ones are obviously employing people, purchasing materials and supplies and contracting for construction," he said.
"And then the other side of it is the operations side, the people that come and pay the admissions to visit the Heritage Park attraction. Those funds go to employ the people that do the gift shop and the guest services and run the miniature train and all of those kinds of things.
"So I guess the net of it is we raise a lot of our funds from outside of the community, but we spend them all within Squamish."And raised money he has. This past spring, Evans announced the Park had received a provincial grant of $2 million and a matching $2 million private donor contribution which will be used in the construction of a new Roundhouse and Conference Centre to be completed in 2007.
Evans says the new facilities will tie in perfectly with the 2010 Winter Olympics, providing not only an economic boost to local businesses but additional draws for tourists.
"We see ourselves as integral to the business community," he said. "When people come and visit the West Coast Heritage Park more often than not they'll also stop and eat at a restaurant or pick up something at a store so when you bring 45,000 people in a year to the community it turns into business for many many others in the business community as well. And that's going to continue."
With the continued development in the park, Evans estimates annual visitor numbers will hit 75,000 by 2008.Denise Imbeau, manager of the Squamish Chamber of Commerce, says Evans has made a huge contribution to the community."From the Chamber's perspective when we have visitors here, they get an excellent quality visit at a first class railway museum," she said. "And Don has been a huge part of that. He was absolutely deserving of the award."
Sherry Elchuk, manager of the West Coast Heritage Park, agrees. Elchuk has worked with Evans for five and a half years and describes him as "a wonderful visionary.
"I respect him, I admire him and I've learned a lot from him," says Elchuk. "He's worked really hard behind the scenes to help create a world class attraction."
Meanwhile, Evans says there isn't a single thing he would rather be doing than working with the West Coast Heritage Association and the Squamish community.
"This is a great project and I've seen it come a long way and hope to see it go much further," he said.
"Squamish has been supportive to us from day one, and continues to be very supportive - both the business community and the council. It's a delightful place to be."
