Blog #2: Invictus

Invictus is an excellent Clint Eastwood movie telling the story of South Africa uniting around the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

The film relates to community development primarily with how Nelson Mandela and the captain Francois unite the country together by using Rugby as it's vehicle to overcome existing issues in the country; most notably, apartheid. By getting the South African black citizens to cheer for the white South African team, the country united to overcome these issues.

Nelson Mandela greets captain Francois

This is a great example of community development because Nelson Mandela was able to unite the entire community of South Africa into one level nation of people and destroy the racial discrepancies. Although the team only had one black member, they were still able to get the support of their country by winning games. Playing at home didn’t hurt their chances either.

Fighting Aparthied

The use of sport is a very powerful tool in connecting people and allowing communities to develop. Sport can connect people in ways that no other vehicle can and because of this, Nelson Mandela chose to use the Rugby World Cup to connect his country.

I had seen this film several times prior to this assignment and was blown away the first time I saw it at how powerful sport can be in uniting people together. It was partly this reason that greatly influenced my decision to join the sport and rec program at Mount Royal. Sport is one of my favourite things because of how powerful it can be.

Sport unifies people in no other way possible. The most effective way is at the national level. When teams win, they gather support. Another very good example of the unification of people was the 2004 Stanley Cup Run for the Calgary Flames. By winning and going deep into the tournament, they were able to gather the support of the whole city and connect people together.

Blog #1

Mt. Macpherson Lodge, Revelstoke BC

Anyone fortunate enough to have skied the magnificent slopes at Revelstoke knows how close-knit the community is. For evidence of this, look no further than the recent completion of the Mt. Macpherson Nordic lodge. This article, written by Jill Zacharias of the Revelstoke Times discusses the process involved with constructing the lodge and the effort put forth by the community to accomplish their common goal.

By working together, they were able to acquire all of
the necessary materials as well as licencing in under a year, a process that typically takes anywhere from 2-5 years. The key, however to the success was the amount of volunteer labour involved. Glenn O’Reilly, a local Revelstoke enthusiast drew up the building designs, free of charge. The day lodge also features maintenance facilities for storing snow equipment as well as race facilities, meaning that races can now be held there.

A view of Revelstoke's world class snow

This article really spoke to me as I am someone very passionate about the ski industry and would like to be involved with it for the rest of my life. It seems that every mountain resort you go to has its own culture and a very special community within. Seeing these kinds of things happen reminds me why I love this sport so much.
The people participating are all so passionate about the sport that they do whatever it takes to improve things for others.

To complete a project of that magnitude takes a lot of cooperation from a lot of people and to me, that’s what makes ski communities so incredible. Everyone works together to accomplish as much as possible. From donating time money or materials, the whole Revelstoke community worked together and created a beautiful lodge that will be around for a long time.

Another good example I see of communities working together is Castle Mountain. The resort was very close to going bankrupt, but local business owners decided to buy the resort and keep it going for everyone else who enjoyed the hill so much. For me, it’s the passion of the people in the industry that keep me coming back to the mountain.

Part of Castle Mountains community

References:

Zacharias, J. (2011). It takes a whole community to raise a ski lodge. Revelstoke Times Review.     Retrieved   January 20, 2011 from:     http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/revelstoketimesreview/community/114230819.html