Natasha Kapitaniuk, former president of the Athabasca Rotary club, describes what it was like to grow up in Athabasca and highlights the impact that a close-knit community has had on her life.
Her responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
What brought you to the community and what keeps you here?
My mother brought me into the community and I'm ever grateful for that. But what keeps me here, and I will say what has brought me back — because I have moved away a couple of times, and I like to say I keep coming home — is the fact that it is home. A community really starts with your friends, your family, and what you want to experience in your life. What keeps me here is wanting to be around my friends and family, and live life with them.
What’s your most memorable experience here in Athabasca?
My most memorable experience would be when I was 14. After writing an excellent letter to the editor, I was offered a column in the Athabasca Advocate to write the "teen scene."
In one of my first articles I got the opportunity to interview Premier Ralph Klein at an event in Athabasca County — to this day, I tell the story about how my mother stopped at the gas station and got me a steno notebook. That meant I was a real reporter.
As an adult, there is a memory that I will never clear from my mind, and that would have been the first 24 hours of our town receiving the Slave Lake evacuees without any guidance, understanding and no one knowing who was doing anything.
It was really stressful because I knew that there were people that wanted to convey help or be able to ask what was needed, but we were locked; technology just kinda got locked to the point in that first 12 hours, (so) if you knew you could do something you just showed up.
So, as an impactful memory, I guess what comes to that is seeing a community pull together without really needing to be told what to do.
What’s one thing here that everyone should try?
In the last five years, I tried something that I had never tried before, and I think it changed my life, and that was taking a ride on the Athabasca River. I´ve lived here my whole life and had never experienced what the river looks like from being on it. If you ever get invited or have the opportunity to canoe or take a jet boat ride on the Athabasca River, that is the one thing I would highly recommend.
If you cannot do that, I also had seen the jet boat rally for the first time that year. I would recommend going and watching that at the river side.
It was amazing just what they do and how they can do rodeo on the river, but also seeing how environmentally conscious they are and how they take care of the river by doing that.
And if you can’t get on the river, everybody should at least once have a picnic at the welcome sign. You can see the town from a completely different perspective.
What’s one thing you could change about Athabasca if you could? What’s one thing you hope never changes?
I don't know if I would say I would change Athabasca. If I could have the power I would revert back to a time when things were really, really good.
We see our community blossoming again, and I see people moving to Athabasca; things are coming together, and we do have a really good community vibe, but I know that we have had better. I would change it to be back to that when we had a fully populated (Athabasca University) campus with a community all on its own, all the business spots were full and thriving. There was much more for youth programming.
The truth is though, I don't like change in small ways. I hope that they don't change the name of our grocery store again. I hope they don't change where they put things. I hope that we always have Neighbours Pub. I mean, I like tradition, and I feel like that's what creates community.
Do you consider yourself an Athabascan first, an Albertan first, or a Canadian first?
I am an Athabascan all the way. One hundred per cent, every great learning experience likely in my life had something to do with Athabasca. Being part of organizing the first Fringe Festival Athabasca ever had, or just to be part of youth groups, to be part of the business community, to grow in service groups, to understand what it takes to have a community thrive.
I always think of Athabasca first. I talk about Athabasca when I'm anywhere else. I don't talk about Alberta when I'm anywhere else.
