ACTION 2 – Another success!
By Marie Fortin, November 22

Saturday
evening, November 19th, HillTrip presented Action2 – its second
fundraiser silent auction & slide show event to fight global warming.
Through the Silent Auction, Showcase Raffle, BASE fundraising drinks
and ticket sales, Hilltrip raised
$2,275. The funds
will be equally donated to the
David Suzuki Foundation Climate
Program, Hilltrip for its environmental initiatives and A.W.A.R.E,
the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment,
to aid each organizations
fight global warming.
Overall, this all ages event was a huge success. I’m very happy at how Action2 turned out. Everybody who came learned something about global warming and that was one of our main goals.
In the lobby guests were introduced to
AWARE,
the One-Tonne Challenge
and Hillbilly & Enviro-Ethica
Wax; and were invited to join the AWARE environmental
group, participate in the One-Tonne Challenge as well as buy environmentally
friendly wax.
Moving from this environmental immersion, attendees could learn more about climate change in our mountains by reading each of the 5 Melting Mountains panels that were placed in the stairway to the main floor where the silent auction was located.

From 7 to 9pm the silent auction and Showcase raffle took place.
Most guests participated and won items at a great price. The Sapient
Snowboard from Showcase was the highlight of the raffle. There was
80 items up for auction, including 25 art pieces where starting
bids ranged from $10 for print to $600 for originals. Other auction
items ranged from beauty products, ski and snowboard gear, Ziptreck
tours to catskiing trips, and starting bids ranged from $10 to $300.
As part of the Catskiing packages, the equivalent of
2,000kg
of CO2 in carbon offset is provided by Hilltrip, witch
makes the catskiing trips auctioned carbon neutrals.
The product and art were amazingly displayed. Of highlights,
Chris
Dyer’s skateboard art, available in originals and through
Creation Skateboards and
Vanessa Stark’s artwork
hanging beautifully on the walls, was a huge hit.
Dave Barnes’
wonderful original paintings and designs were showcased through
Action2 posters, flyers, stickers and the program guide. (See a
complete list of items auctioned here.)


Following
the silent auction was the highly anticipated slide-show featuring
majestic and timeless photo’s of our environment and lifestyle as
seen through the eyes of
Eric Berger, Russel Dalby, Magalie
Roy and Phil Tifo. During a brief intermission the audience
was wowed by a moving speech from
Tyler Bradley,
environmental chemist and co-owner of
Hillbilly
Wax-Works & Ethica Enviro-Wax brands. Tyler informed
the crowd about new developments in snowmobile technologies and
about the impact of environmental toxins, specifically the perfluorochemical
family and things such as Teflon.
In the end, the eclectic blend of photo, music, information and passion brought to light many of the things we, as a mountain community, need to be thinking about everyday in order to make informed decisions which will help to preserve this wonderful place for generations to come.
An article published a week ago by
GreenBiz.com
mentioned that studies in the states forecasting that ski resorts
in the Rocky Mountains will be all shut down by 2050 if global warming
continues at its current rate.

A big thank you to everyone who came to Action2. A lot of people
volunteered their time to make this event happen and it’s great
to see that so many people came to support the cause. I would like
to thank Danielle Poirier for her incredible work on the merchandising
of the silent auction.
Global warming is such an important issue,
it’s important that we realise the urgency of the situation and
start acting now.