It's for the Earth!
by Marie-LN Fortin

April 22nd is Earth Day, a celebration to remind us that we need to take care of our planet…every day. For the occasion, the collaborators at Hilltrip wanted to remind its fellow mountain lovers to be environmentally friendly...every day. To do so, we organized, with the help of Base Energy Drink, the Hilltrip Hoedown Party, a western theme party at Garfinkel’s, one of Whistler locals’ favourite bar.

Our goal: increase awareness for Earth Day and raise money for Hilltrip’s carbon offset project to make up for some of the greenhouse gasses produced by our beloved snow sport enthusiast with a people auction.

Our result: Hilltrip purchased $185 worth of Wind Power Certificates from Pembina as part of its carbon offsets project. That means, 6.37 MWh of clean energy was bought and contributed to reduce CO2 by about 6,370kg, which is equal to not driving a car for 27,711 kilometres or planting 32 trees! By the way, based on Pembina, the average annual household electricity consumption in Canada is approximately 11.4KWh.

By having a western theme party, the idea was to show that even cowboys, who like to chew on tobacco, kill things and burn gas, can become aware of the importance of balancing our ecosystem and be part of the solution by contributing in offsetting some of the greenhouse gases that are produced by us, snowboarders using snowmobiles to enjoy the pleasure of a cliff line in a remote backcountry area.

For those who didn’t have a costume, cowboy vests made out of grocery paper bags were provided and recycling bins were on site to minimize waste. The highlight of the night was the people auction animated by Scott Musgrave. All people auctioned came with a gift certificate from one of the best restaurants in town, including Sashi Sushi, Sushi Village, Caramba, Milestones, and the Brew House. Thanks to Phil, Paula, Emily, Claude & Marc, and Rex Thomas for being one of the beautiful people auctioned.

Through small steps towards restoring and protecting the earth, it’s possible to be part of the solutions. For example, you too have the power to do something about climate change by choosing Wind Power by Pembina. For more information on how it works, visit www.pembina.org/wind_power.asp. If you are not ready to spend money to offset some of the greenhouse gases you produce, you can also reduce your production by entering The Nature Challenge at www.davidsuzuki.org/WOL/Challenge.

Thanks to our sponsors Base, a Canadian energy drink made of natural ingredients; Snowboard.com, the world’s largest snow sports website and Bacardi Rum, the source and solution to all our problems…is us.

A special thank you to Catherine Viens Charron for organizing the best beautiful people auction from whistler and for the amazing decor, Kelly Saldat Brix for her Earth Day awareness support, Andree & Phil St-Germain for their precious help when needed the most, Scott Musgrave for being such a good MC, Eric Blouin for his great graphic design skills and Base Energy Drinks.