After years of organizing and overseeing the Canada Day festivities in Jasper, Barb Barker will finally get her chance to take part in and enjoy the celebration as a community member and from the front of the parade – as the 2011 Canada Day honourary parade marshall.

Barker was involved with the Canada Day Committee (CDC) for years, having signed up as a volunteer 12 years ago under Linda Anderson, then chairperson.

“In the beginning I didn’t really have a huge amount of responsibility, but when Linda left town, someone had to take the chairperson (position) over and I didn’t want the committee to fold so I said I would take over.”

When Barker first took over, she assumed all of the responsibilities that Anderson had taken on over her years as chairperson. 

“It was a big job to begin with, to be honest,” she said. “As time went on we allocated more responsibility to different members on the committee.”

Barker’s first year was quite difficult as the amount of work was enormous and she had to have some “pretty serious surgery” in the early spring of that year.

“Bless my committee members, they pulled it off and managed to pull it all together,” she smiled.

To get support for the Canada Day events, the CDC sends out letters to businesses to help raise funds. Then the committee gets to work on looking for bands, getting the cake, planning community events and basically spearheading the entire Jasper celebration.

“The committee members that they have now have been there for a very long time,” said Barker. “They could probably put all this on in their sleep.”

One day though, Barker said the CDC will need new members, and the committee always faces that challenge and the issue of recruiting volunteers each year to help with the day-long party.

“It’s an awful lot of fun,” she said of the job of planning Canada Day. “And it’s a huge responsibility.”

Barker said that eight committee members organize and pull off one of Jasper’s larger events.

“We are fortunate because July 1 brings a lot of tourists to town and of course they are all interested to see how Canadians celebrate on Canada Day,” she explained. “So we have a built-in audience.”

Canada Day events are put on by a variety of partners, with the municipality hosting the popular pancake breakfast and the museum taking on a portion of the day’s events. Barker said that the addition of the museum to the partnerships really alleviated a lot of worry for the CDC.

“And we are really lucky that Greg [Van Tighem] and his merry men have done security and the fireworks for as long as I can remember,” she added.

Funding for the event comes from local businesses, and grants from the municipality and Canadian Heritage. Barker said that much of the money raised goes to paying the entertainers. The bulk of Canada Day funds go toward the fireworks.

Over her time on the CDC, Barker said she has a hard time picking her favourite theme – each year it changes. 

“Every year we had an interesting theme and it was always exciting to see how different people in the community used that theme and how they incorporated that idea into their floats using the products they had available,” she said.

Barker did recall what she thought was one of the best floats ever, during a year with an environment theme.

“The municipality had push lawn mowers and Chris Read led the procession and actually had them (municipal staff) doing a dance with these push lawn mowers,” she said, adding that there have been so many great floats throughout the years. “It was really good. It had a lot of thought and ingenuity. That particular float stands out in my mind.”

Last year after Canada Day, Barker said that she decided to resign from the CDC.

“I just thought it was time they had some new blood,” she said with a chuckle. “My ideas have all been worn through.”

Barker is now awaiting her instructions as the 2011 honourary marshall. She is not entirely sure what the CDC might have in store for her, but she does get to lead the parade. For the rest of the day, Barker said she is looking forward to following her rule of taking one year off from volunteering and enjoying the day’s events.

For more information on Canada Day events in Jasper, visit www.jaspercanadaday.com  

To volunteer, visit the website, or contact Beryl Cahill at 780-852-5067 or email info@jaspercanadaday.com