a position she’d still hold had she not been elected back in October 2013.
“I really needed to be back in the not- for-profit world,” she says. “For me, it’s the helping people and the being innovative in helping people. I’m a big believer that charity isn’t necessarily the way we need to go all the time. I think there are other ways.”
That dedication to helping others earned Symmonds the Civic Award for Inclusion in 2010.
She says when she sees programs like the Housing First project in Medicine Hat, she gets incredibly excited at the possibilities. She believes not-for- profit organizations are constantly on the edge of discovering new ways to help people.
“I love that and am very proud when I can be a part of that."
Maybe the same theory applied to her own life when she decided to run for city council in the 2013 Municipal Election. What would be a more innovative way for her to help people than to become part of community’s governing body?
“I probably could have run three years ago because I simply love politics,” Symmonds admits. “I love the whole idea of politics and the idea of being able to help people at a higher level. It’s empowering to be a part of that.
“And I want to maybe help change the perception of what a politician is and show people there doesn’t have to be this negative connotation to it. There really are people out there that just want to give back and just want to help.”
Based on a very busy two decades, it’s safe to say she fits that profile well.■
By SCOTT SCHMIDT
After living in all of those places over a 30-year span, it’s amazing Jim Turner could remember where it all began. But he did — Medicine Hat.
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And even though he was raised on a farm near Hilda after being born here, Turner took his senior year of high school at Medicine Hat High School. Something in there somewhere must have planted quite a seed because after being one of the most transient people you’ll ever meet, Turner and his family have been back in Medicine Hat since 1998 and appear to be officially rooted here for life.
The 65-year-old rookie council member has been the executive director at the Medicine Hat Food Bank for nearly two years but has a lengthy local history in the grocery business, having opened the IGA franchise here upon moving back before the turn of the century.
“My wife and I have been married for 45 years and I believe in that time we have moved 23 times,” Turner recalls as best he can. “When we moved to Medicine Hat this last time, she said ‘if we move again you’ll be moving by yourself.’
“So we’ve now been in the same house for 15 years.”
Turner had been with IGA for several years while in Lethbridge, Calgary and Canmore, actually working with the corporate office when the opportunity to open the store in Medicine Hat arose. After a lifetime of moving around, Turner jumped at the chance “to come back home” and immediately felt as though he’d come to right place.
Twelve years later Turner sold the business to a young up-and-coming couple and attempted to start his retirement — after all, if 30 years of work isn’t enough, packing up a house 23 times can take its toll. The problem was boredom far outweighed any
ortage la Prairie, Swift Current, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Thompson, Man., Estevan, back to Swift Current, Shaunavon, back to Saskatoon, Lethbridge, Calgary and Canmore.
jimturner
need for recuperation and so after an entire month of retirement, a 63-year- old Turner took a job at Medicine Hat Wholesale.
Turner worked there for about a year and in June 2012, the opportunity at the food bank came up.
“I thought to myself, ‘you know what? This is something I’d really like to do,” he says. “So I applied for it, and I got it.”
Running the food bank can be a natural transition for a long-time grocer, from a food standpoint anyway, but going from profit to not-for-profit is an adjustment for anyone. Thankfully it was an adjustment Turner was excited to make and one that provides the man with some of the most rewarding experiences of his life.
“The food part has been a snap, and it’s been good for the food bank because I have a ton of connections in the food industry,” he says. “I’ve kind of learned to roll with the punches (with everything else); you do the best you can for people.
“If they come here, there’s a reason they need food. They just don’t wake up one morning and need food; there’s things that happen in their lives that have led them into the situation they’re in.”
Turner and the food bank go beyond feeding the hungry, as the organization works in partnership with several other service groups to ensure people get what they need, when they need it.
“There are some fantastic rewarding days, there really are,” Turner says. “It can also
be frustrating at times but when you have the opportunity to see someone get the help they need and then get themselves to a place where they can sustain on their own, it’s totally worth it.”
The food bank has certainly provided Turner with the busy schedule he missed during his brief retirement but even before he took the job he was starting to gain an interest in municipal politics. For the past eight years or so, he says, he had been thinking about running for council but decided against it while still owning a grocery store.
But with the grocery business behind him and the 2013 election approaching, Turner felt it was time to give City Hall a shot.
“I thought this would be something I’d like to do to contribute to the community,” he says. “I’ve always been a pretty good community-minded guy. It’s important to give back.”
Even in the short stints he’d spend in certain places, Turner says he always made a point of doing what he could for the community he was in. But in Medicine Hat, he felt so supported by the people around him that it makes sense he would want to take ‘giving back’ to the next level.
“Medicine Hat is a fantastic place to live,” he says. “We have everything you need here and people who really care.”
Now part of council for the first time, Turner is still finding his bearings somewhat. But he sees the passion in the group he’s surrounded by and is confident this council will accomplish a lot.
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“We know we have to deliver,” he says. “But I think a lot of it is just attitude. If you talk to people in the community right now, that attitude is changing.
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“There’s a very positive vibe in the community and I think that’s part of it, but every single person who lives here has to be a salesman of Medicine Hat. It’s a fantastic place to live.”
And who would know that better than Turner? ■
our communities ❚ our region ❚ our people 23
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