Culture and recreation creates new mantra

Jasper’s Department of Culture and Recreation has a new “mission statement,” as Aquatic Centre manager Christopher Read put it. 

Inspiring Community Wellness is about “body, mind and soul,” said Yvonne McNabb, director of Culture and Recreation. Marianne Garrah, who is one of the board members that decided on the final wording of the statement said “it rolls off the tongue, it’s quite electric really.” 

Read, with Community Action Team leader Bob Covey, facilitated the development process that led to the final wording. To Read, having it is very important. “We’ve got this mission statement that we can begin to build a culture... where every staff person thinks along the lines of, ‘What have I done today to inspire community wellness?’” he said. 

According to McNabb, the board “wanted something crisp, snappy, that we could also use as a tagline when we needed to.” The final statement “met all that criteria,” she added.

Even though Mayor Richard Ireland was not involved in the process, he thinks the mission statement is “great. It’s beyond just fitness... personally I think it’s a good initiative, a good statement and more power to them,” he said.

Having a mission statement will also allow for some more accountability. “We were working hard before and that’s why this mission statement works well,” said Read. “It’s a capture of what we already do and how we can improve it every day. As a manager I can say to my staff, ‘What have you done today to inspire community wellness? What can I do as a manager to help you inspire community wellness?’” he said.