BETTY-LOU CAHOON took up photography after 35 years of waitressing in her hometown of Lillooet. “My wrists were shot,” she says, admitting that her best effort was to carry five plates on one arm. “Three is more usual. We didn’t use trays back then.”
A self-taught photographer, she now uses her Canon EOS Rebel to capture the indigenous osprey, bears, cougars, bucks and mountain goats that roam her stunning desert landscapes. “I hike into the mountains and then I wait, and I look,” says the fearless wildlife photographer. “My grandfather lost his eyesight when he aged, so I’m out there seeing as much as I can,” she adds. “You go out over and over again, and then you see something worth photographing.”
Betty-Lou sells her wildlife and scenic photo cards and calendars in the Lillooet Museum, where she works during the summer months. “There’s a lot of rubber tire traffic coming through here,” she says, referring to the tourist buses, campers, trucks and cars passing through her town, especially between April and September.
DEBBIE & STEVE NEIL retired to Saltair, near Ladysmith, from Toronto nine years ago. “We liked the lifestyle and the weather out here,” says Debbie, a former Child & Youth Counsellor in Ontario schools. “We wanted to get to know our community,” she adds, “so we started, first co-hosting and then becoming the hosts in our community for Home Routes/Chemin Chez Nous, a cross-Canada not-for-profit arts organization that coordinates 11 different Canadian home concert routes for musicians. There are six annual concerts per region, at $20/head, with all proceeds going directly to the musicians.
The Neils accommodate about 30-40 community members in their home. Debbie and Steve, a former fibre optics engineer, added a potluck component to their events, so that neighbours and friends can eat together prior to the 90-minute performance. “It’s friends and friends of friends who come. For us, it’s our community service,” they say, adding that, as hosts, they also give one-night accommodation and breakfast to the performers before they leave for their next gig on their 12-day trek. The Ladysmith concerts are on the Red Cedar/Southern BC route, which originates in Vancouver and ends in Victoria.
“Food and music bring people together,” concludes Debbie, “and being up close to the musicians is a bonus.”
Learn more about Home Routes/Chemin Chez Nous here: https://www.homeroutes.ca/
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