A Rossland woman who’s helped guide efforts to make the city a greener place is calling it a day.
Ann Damude has stepped down as community engagement co-ordinator with Rossland’s sustainability commission, as well as a half-dozen other activities that have kept her busy for the last 20 years.
“I love the work I’ve done with the sustainability commission, it’s been really rewarding, and we have a great team,” Damude told the Rossland News. “But it’s time to move away from consulting and more towards a steady, scheduled job.
“It’s been seven years, so it’s time to move on.”
Damude started with the sustainability commission as its manager in 2012, becoming the community engagement co-ordinator a couple of years later. She’s helped promote everything from home energy audits to light-bulb recycling to backyard chicken coops.
“We’ve done some really good work, from making people aware of their home energy diet, and we saw some community engagement on how to make your home more sustainable,” she says. “We saw people sign up getting energy evaluations and getting upgrades.
“Rossland has done an amazing job of reducing its energy footprint as a result of some of those initiatives.”
Damude says it’s been rewarding to see the city’s residents adopting many of the commission’s initiatives as part of their daily routines.
“What amazes me is that some of those things we ran as a program we no longer have to, because people have got it together,” she says.
“It’s a sign of good progress that we don’t need to organize these programs anymore, because people have internalized it. They know what is better and how to do better and they are doing it.”
But Damude declines to take credit for the commission’s success.
“It’s not all me, I just co-ordinate the pieces,” she says. “People come with these great ideas and my job is ‘how do I support this?’ And the volunteers run with gleaning programs, and apple cider programs, garbage and doggie do pick up events …”
She says the city’s also been a major player in advancing sustainability practices.
“When the commission was founded in 2008, we knew as a community what direction we had to go, but we didn’t know how to get there,” she says. “And the commission at the time did work on setting some patterns, getting knowledge on how to build a more sustainable community.
“And what I find really rewarding now is how our city staff — who are fantastic — and council are so sustainability-oriented now that in some ways there’s less for [the commission] to do.”
“Some things we used to spend a lot of time on we don’t have to anymore because it’s been incorporated into bylaws, into the culture of city hall and how the city does things,” she adds. “And that in itself is a really awesome development.”
Indeed, that success is one of the reasons Damude is stepping back from active service with the commission. The city is reviewing the sustainability commission’s structure and its Official Community Plan, prompting her to think it might be time for change.
“So it’s a good time for the commission for me to step aside, and for me it’s time to dial it back a little bit and make life a little simpler, spend more time with my family and in my garden.”
But it’s hard to keep a community activist down. She has one last official duty with the sustainability commission — an e-bike show and shine, next week.
And then there’s her new favourite project.
“There’s one that’s near-and-dear to my heart, and that’s the development of a commuter bike trail between Rossland and downtown Trail,” she says. “Because it’s kind of new, I’m committed to staying in touch with it until that project is ready to roll without my involvement.”
But she’ll still be in Rossland, and her work at the Bailey Theatre will keep her active in the arts (she helped create the Rossland Community Arts Council 20 years ago).
She says she’ll still be supporting her community, if not in a leadership role.
“It’s been a great experience and I don’t think it’s the end for me,” she says. “There’s lots for me to continue to get involved with, but I won’t be the co-ordinator, the go-to person anymore.
“But I am really excited about what might come next for the commission and for myself.”
