As a guy who pours heart and soul into promoting cross-country skiing and biathlon as lifelong activities, Jim Burbee has always gone the extra mile.
He has left his mark on every one of the 55 kilometres which make up the trail system at Otway Nordic Centre.
Cross-Country Canada has taken notice of Burbee's efforts over three decades to develop the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club and promote the growth of cross-country skiing and biathlon locally and in the rest of the country and has selected him as the 2015 winner of the Dave Rees Award.
"I looked at the list of previous recipients and it's pretty cool company, it's a real honour," said Burbee, 68. "I've been at the club a long time and the last few years have been pretty flat-out with the Canada Games and it's nice to get the recognition but there are certainly a lot of other people who have had their shoulder to the wheel as well. The best kind of recognition is from your peers."
While his work with the club is time-consuming and pays him nothing, Burbee is more than willing to do the job and is in no hurry to give up his volunteer duties. In the lead-up to the 2015 Canada Winter Games, as sport leader for cross-country and biathlon, most of his days were spent at Otway Nordic Centre.
"My wife (Geraldine) says it's a good segue into retirement because you're halfway there, you're still working but you're not getting paid," laughed Burbee. "I'd say the last two-and-a-half years I probably put in 5,000 hours out there. It was pretty intense but it had to fit into that window and by November 2014 we were just about done."
When the Games were awarded to Prince George and infrastructure funding available fell well short of projections, Burbee orchestrated a land swap and enlisted the help of the business community which donated time and equipment to construct a new biathlon stadium and build new technical buildings for biathlon and cross-country. The value of those projects, an estimated $1.7 million, was nearly five times the funding provided by the Games organizing committee.
Burbee also made use of club resources to create a network of new FIS-rated race trails and widen existing trails. He was the sport leader for cross-country and biathlon during the Games competitions, providing direction to a group of 125 volunteer officials, many of whom he trained in test events in the lead-up to the two-week Games.
Burbee has been involved with the Caledonia club since it began in 1957. He and Wayne Cameron brought the Jackrabbits learn-to-ski program to Prince George in the early 1980s and the program has continued to thrive, attracting 250 young skiers annually. In 1987, after several years as Jackrabbits co-ordinator, he became a volunteer coach with the club's Junior Racers program and went on to earn his Level 3 coaching certificate in 1995. He was the club's head wax technician at B.C. Cup races and supported local skiers at the national championships, from 1993-99
Burbee has been a fixture on the Caledonia board of directors since the early 1990s and is currently the club's chief of competition, having worked at numerous local, provincial and national events. He served as chief of protocol and hospitality at the Haywood Ski Nationals at Otway in 2005 and also worked as an official at NorAm and World Cup races and at the 2010 Olympics.
"If you look back in the history, we've had more national championships here (six) than any club in Canada," said Burbee, the northern zone chair with Cross-Country B.C. and a PacificSport Northern B.C. board member.
He worked on the bid package for the Canada Games and his continued involvement in hosting competitions, developing officials and making improvements to club facilities provided the infrastructure needed to hosting the event last February.
Burbee said the exposure of hosting the Winter Games broke down barriers and he will continue to push the club to bid for more big events. The Western Canadian cross-country championships will be held at Otway next February and Burbee plans to file a bid for the 2017 biathlon national championships and cross-country ski nationals. That could pave the way for NorAm events in future years.
"People want to come here now, they've seen what's here and they want to come back," he said. "We had that window of opportunity and made the most of it."
Now retired from his career as a professional forester/forestry consultant for Northwood Corp., it was Burbee's idea to generate revenue for the club by establishing and managing a wood lot through the Nordic Forest partnership. The money was used to sponsor club skiing programs and paid for the club's first large-scale PistenBully trail groomer in 2006. Through his contacts in the construction industry, Burbee obtained fill material and voluntary labour to fill hazardous dips on the ski trails and widen corners on trouble spots to make the trails safer for skiers. His diligence in clearing brush and vegetation on the trails allows skiers to get on their skis after only a few light snowfalls, which annually extends the seasons at Otway.
"Over the past 30-plus years, Jim has selflessly dedicated tens of thousands of hours to growing the sport of cross-country skiing in so many ways that have literally shaped the sport from a local level, right through to a national level," said Caledonia club president Kevin Pettersen, in his Lees Award nomination letter promoting Burbee. "Jim is an amazing force and carries incredible energy and has almost literally moved mountains to the benefit of our sport."
Other notable local cross-country builders picked for the Rees award were Prince George Sports Hall of Fame member Bjorger Pettersen (1991) and Georgia Manhard of 100 Mile House (2003).
