The passion Stacey Poirier feels for her hometown comes across in how she talks, and if you have any doubts, you just have to look at her calendar.
As a member of three boards, she spends most of her free time volunteering to keep building and supporting the Williams Lake community.
Poirier is on the board for the Williams Lake Slo-Pitch League and works at their concession. She is on the finance committee for the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Society board as well. But you can tell her heart truly lives in the theatre.
Poirier has been a member of the Williams Lake Studio Theatre Society (WLSTS) for more than 20 years, performing in her first play there in 2002.
But her passion for theatre started much earlier, and Poirier said she has been performing practically since the minute she took her first steps.
"I'd just walk around the house singing and dancing," she recalls.
Her first role was as The Little Christmas Tree, which included singing her very first solo at just six years old.
"I still remember it," she said. "I knew I wanted to do that for the rest of my life."
So she studied piano, took voice lessons, had band class in school and even had a jazz band called Black Koffee.
Then, in high school, she took drama with Jill Sawatzki, which she said changed her life.
"She's the reason that I am the human when it comes to theatre that I am," said Poirier.
Now, the year she turns 40, Poirier is still singing and dancing her way through life, and loving it.
Williams Lake Studio Theatre audiences would have witnessed her hard work on stage first hand, if they saw her perform in last season's production of Mamma Mia!
Poirier played Donna, the mother of the bride. Donna was involved in a historic love quadrangle, with three possible answers to the question of who the bride's father might be. Poirier was a force on stage. She said the role of Donna was one of her all-time favourites in her more than two decades with WLSTS, alongside her 2013 role as Joe Larch in Little Women.
Poirier she said she loves directing as much as being on stage, working with the cast and crew to create something incredible and watching everyone grow as they do.
"I am constantly amazed by Stacey’s passion, dedication, commitment and professionalism when it comes to working with her at the WLSTS," said Mimi Searles, who has known Poirier for over 20 years and said the two have become close friends in the last five.
"As a friend, I have never encountered anyone as fiercely loyal and supportive of the humans she loves," said Searles of her friend, who she said also brings both business smarts and a trusting and inviting atmosphere as a board member.
WLSTS has become like family to Poirier, and she said they all take care of one another.
After a cast and crew spend six months working together on a production, putting in long hours both evenings and weekends, this probably only makes sense.
"It creates bonds," said Poirier.
Besides her time on stage and as a director, Poirier has helped fill nearly every role there is with the theatre, from helping with makeup to stage direction, to lighting, and she said she is blown away by all the knowledge and talent in the group. She also appreciates how those with skills are so eager to teach and share their knowledge.
Poirier has moved away from Williams Lake three different times, leaving for jobs and with family.
But when she left, she said she never found the same feeling of community as she has in Williams Lake and now she knows she isn't leaving.
"I'm done trying to fight it. This is my home."
