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OUR HOMETOWN: Kelly Walls is an avid Williams Lake volunteer

Volunteering is a way to give back, she says
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Kelly Walls rides on the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin float during the Stampede Parade, Saturday, July 2. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

Kelly Walls enjoys volunteering in her community, something she says is a way to give back.

Outside of working full-time as a receptionist at the Animal Care Hospital of Williams Lake she is very, very busy.

Not only is she the president of the Williams Lake Indoor Rodeo, she is also a director on the B.C. Rodeo Association, a director and secretary of the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin and a director for the Williams Lake Stampeders Hockey Club.

She also volunteers at the Williams Lake Stampede and most recently helped out in the Cowboys Hospitality Tent when the Stampede took place over the July long weekend.

Born in Kamloops to Eric and Diann Reay, Kelly grew up with them in Dog Creek south of Williams Lake.

She attended school in Williams Lake and after school got married and had two children.

Before settling into her job at the vet clinic, where she has been the last 15 years, she worked at Haines Office World, Walk-Rite Shoes, Canadian Tire in the service department, Napa Auto Parts and at the Cariboo Advisor newspaper where she was sales rep for advertising.

Originally she wanted to become a nurse, but after she was in a head-on vehicle collision near 70 Mile House in 2001 that dream was shattered. She was off work for about three months recuperating and had seven surgeries in eight months.

“I ended up with Osteomyelitis in my ankle and had to have it fused.”

Working for a vet was the closest she was “going to get to being a nurse.”

In 2003, she attended the Indoor Rodeo and decided to volunteer the following year.

“My children Dustin and Jennifer were grown and I was a single parent so I just decided to volunteer. I wanted something else to do.”

Over the last 10 years she has been the president of the Indoor Rodeo off and on. She is looking forward to seeing the rodeo return this August 13 and 14, although it will be held outdoors at the Stampede Grounds.

READ MORE: Williams Lake Indoor Rodeo organizers announce summertime, outdoor event

While she doesn’t normally watch hockey, when she was asked by the Stampeders four years ago if she would help with doing the music at the games she did not hesitate.

“I said ‘yes’ and I’ve been there ever since. I wanted something to do in the winter. I actually did music when the Timberwolves Junior A team were here.”

While this is her fifth year as a director with the BCRA, she also does timing and secretary work for the association and often goes away on the weekends during the rodeo season. She was at the Pritchard Rodeo the weekend of July 9 and 10 and will be at the Alkali Rodeo the weekend of July 23 and 24.

“I am secretarying again,” she said of what she will be doing at the Alkali Rodeo. “I take the money from the cowboys who have entered the rodeo and when the timer’s cards and the judge’s cards come back to me I have to make sure everything matches.”

Kelly has never had a desire to move away from Williams Lake.

“I just like how the community, for the most part, all kind of works together with whatever organizations. There are all the little families - the rodeo family, hockey family and baseball family. I also like how if there is a major event or a tragedy the community comes together.”

Kelly said there probably is not anything people don’t know about her because she is “pretty much an open book.”

As for any hobbies?

“Just volunteering,” she replied.



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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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