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For the better part of two decades, Laurie Jacob-Toews has been striving to ensure that her favourite part of Stampede remains a key component of the annual 10-day festival.
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“For me, it’s about the agriculture piece,” says the longtime 4-H Club volunteer who also counts herself among the Calgary Stampede organization’s more than 3,000 official volunteers. “As we are becoming more urban, it’s essential that we keep that connection between city people and agricultural people.”
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Jacob-Toews, a social worker by profession, has seen a lot of highs in her 20-year volunteer career. But when asked about her all-time highlight, it’s one that was borne from one of the lowest lows in the Stampede’s, and the city’s, history.
In 2020, the entire Stampede was cancelled as the COVID-19 pandemic first hit. Jacob-Toews and a few of her fellow volunteers on the Stampede’s community projects and development committee, though, weren’t going to let an unprecedented, modern-day crisis steal their chance at once again bringing the country to the city.
“We came up with a Stampede pop-up neighbours event,” says the Airdrie-based equine enthusiast, who with her team partnered with Immigrant Services Calgary to bring western hospitality to the front doorsteps of 12 local newcomer families.
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“We came in our trolley, 10 of us with Stampede royalty and Harry the Horse,” she says with a big smile of the outdoor, socially distanced event. “We white-hatted them (and) welcomed them to Calgary, all on their front lawn — and with horses. You have to have horses.”
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While our city’s renowned penchant for volunteerism is most obvious during the Calgary Stampede, it’s not hard to find those willing to give their time year-round, free of charge, for any number of local charities and initiatives.
It’s mostly why our city, back in 1988, held one of the most successful Winter Olympics ever; and it’s why everything from community bingos and fundraisers to big events like the Calgary Folk Music Festival continue to thrive. It’s also one of the many reasons that, for several years running now, Calgary has made it into the top 10 most livable cities in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index.
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Still, our volunteering spirit has had quite an impact when it comes to producing one of the biggest, best rodeos and western exhibitions in the world. In his 1994 book, The Story of Calgary, author Fred Stenson noted that volunteerism “may be the single most important reason the Calgary Stampede became Canada’s top rodeo and laid claim to the title, ‘The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.’ ”
Nav Hari is one Calgarian devoting his volunteer time to making sure that vibrant western-style history is kept alive for modern-day celebrators. A walking, talking Stampede encyclopedia, he loves to share stories about everything from the roots of such Stampede traditions as the chuckwagon races, to the lofty pancake, both of which are celebrating their centennial anniversaries.
“We were the first East Indians to arrive and settle here,” says Hari, whose great-grandfather came from India’s Punjab region and watched the first Calgary Stampede parade in 1912. “Over the generations, our family was at the first one, and every other Stampede. My own first memory was as a three-year-old on my dad’s shoulders, watching the chuckwagons and having the mud fly right in my face. I love sharing Stampede history.”
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Keeping the Stampede flame lit from generation to generation is something that Brian Johnston has been putting into action since 2015, when his son Logan joined him as an official Stampede volunteer.
“It’s just great to be a part of something that’s so important to our city and surrounding communities,” says the elder Johnston, who figures he’s put in more than 10,000 volunteer hours in his 34 years with the organization. Along with making lifelong friends, Johnston — who for the past few years has been on the Stampede’s community projects and development committee — says he just lives for the opportunity to put a smile on people’s faces and “take them away, for an hour or two, from their everyday concerns.”
All over the community during these 10 heady days in July, you can find many other Calgarians spending their free time bringing the spirit of western hospitality through a variety of events, most of those including a charitable component. One of the most ubiquitous is the free Stampede breakfast, whether that’s a small neighbourhood party or one serving thousands.
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On Saturday, the 63rd annual Chinook Centre Stampede Breakfast — the biggest of its kind in town — saw its usual 400 or so volunteers flipping pancakes, doling out sausage and serving coffee to tens of thousands of patient Calgarians.
Such a crowd wasn’t daunting in the least for Garett Novotney, one of the team members from Trotter & Morton, who kept busy all morning handing out sausage. “I love seeing the thousands of people come out,” says Novotney, whose company helps out Chinook Centre with its electrical distribution and alarm system.
“You volunteer in good times and bad — that’s the spirit here,” adds Novotney, who last week assisted in the post-tornado cleanup in Didsbury, not far from where he and his family live. “It’s great to feel a part of the community.”
Another Chinook Centre breakfast volunteer, Debbie Orban, was too busy pouring pancake batter Saturday to recall exactly when she joined the Calgary Fire Department team at the annual Stampede breakfast, but she knows it’s been more than a decade. “I love coming here, giving all these people breakfast and seeing all the smiles,” says the mom of a firefighter. “This event always kickstarts my Stampede, and it feels good to help out.”
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For volunteers like Laurie Jacob-Toews, that feel-good factor is what keeps her coming back every year. The pop-up neighbourhood events and other outreach initiatives her Stampede committee created three years ago, in fact, were such a success that they are now regular features.
“Can you imagine the parents’ and kids’ faces when we show up on their lawn with horses and a band?” she says with a big smile, making it clear that in her volunteer time, she gets back even more than she gives. “We did that in 2020 because we couldn’t do anything else. Now it’s one of the things I most look forward to as Stampede approaches.”
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