Back in December, Jim Webster purchased 50 of the old Easter chairlift chairs to then sell and raise funds for a new rest area and park along the Northstar Rails to Trails pathway. One of those chairs was purchased by Don and Susan Wallace to donate back to the resort, where it will now serve as a bench for years to come.
READ MORE: Jim Webster sells vintage Kimberley Alpine Resort ski chairs for park fundraiser
“We retired here to Kimberley and the attraction was skiing and the Kimberley Alpine Resort,” Don said. “And we’ve said over the years we could have not found a better place to retire and a lot of that credit goes to skiing at the resort here. And so we thought it would be nice if we could present something to the resort to let them know how much we appreciated it.”
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Don said he then heard about Webster purchasing all the old Easter chairs, which gave him an idea.
“And so I went to Brian [Copping] and I said, ‘Brian Susan and I were thinking, and this is the key word, we were thinking, that we may buy a chair and present it to the hill.’ And with that Brian grabbed a chair, threw it in the back of his truck, and this is true, and took off.
“So I didn’t know what was going on until the next morning, I got a phone call from Jim saying congratulations, Ron and Susan, you just bought a chair, and it costs $600 — $500 for the chair and $100 for the base.
So we were stuck.”
The bench now sits near guest services at the base of the hill, with a plaque mounted to it which tells the story of the chair, from the perspective of the chair. It reads:
“In 1975 I was hired by the Kimberley Ski Hill to work at the Easter Chairlift. In 2009 I was replaced by a younger chair with a padded seat.
I was retired to the storage yard until 2020 when I was rehired by Don and Susan Wallace to welcome you to The Kimberley Alpine Resort. Please, Sit - Relax - Enjoy. What a wonderful world.”
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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