What does resilience look like?

Well, my friends, we’re walking it, right now.

Bumpy. But still putting one foot in front of the other, and constantly adjusting your load, depending on whether you need a hand, or are feeling strong and can lend one.

When Heather Geluk saw this video of Andy Grammer performing his song “Don’t Give Up on Me” with a school choir, she choked her up, and found she was left with a little seed of an idea lodged in her throat… imagine something that celebrated the things that locals have been doing, as business people, carers, parents, neighbours, musicians and artists, to cultivate our resilience.

She hadn’t even been living in the ‘hood that long. As she told the Pique,  she had literally just moved to Squamish from Toronto when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

“Quickly and unexpectedly, she found herself self-isolating at home. On a whim, she reached out to Meg McLean, the admin of the Facebook page What’s happening in Whistler during COVID-19 to ask if she had any ideas for sourcing content. That was the start of both their unlikely friendship—built online and over the phone from Squamish to Whistler over the last month—and the music video project that officially launched on Saturday, May 16, called “Together From Sea to Sky.”

They put out invitations across social media for people to share any video clips or photos that were supportive or uplifting, while behind the scenes, they reached out to local musicians and performers Brother Twang, The Hairfarmers, Ruckus Deluxe, and Heather Paul to cover Andy Grammer’s hit song – with Grammer’s blessing.

 

Ultimately, the message they wanted to share was:

 hope and positivity will always win

In a new and uncertain time, I turn to news and social media to try and get my bearings, as if  more information will help line up all the compass points. A lot of this has felt like noise and I’ve had trouble filing it into a cohesive big picture. Or distilling it in a meaningful way so I don’t just feel completely overloaded. And the algorithm bias built into Facebook has meant that the toxic stuff and the emotion-stoking stuff, always bursts to the surface. So to be reminded about what’s really been going on, from 150 contributors, out in the neighbourhood – all the daily acts of kindness, of resilience, of creativity, of doing the best we can – has been one of the best things to orient to that’s crossed my radar in the last week.

 

Recognition to: 

Andy Grammer & S-Curve Records

Kevin Hardiman, Two to the Left Films

Brother Twang

The Hairfarmers

Ruckus Deluxe

Heather Paul

SkiiTour

Robin O’Neill Photography