Longtime recycling and waste reduction champion Mary Forbes is running for school trustee in the upcoming Oct. 20 election.
Forbes cites the vote of non-confidence in the existing board coupled with attending her child’s first day of school this year and learning there were not enough teachers in place as some of the reasons she is putting her name forward. Forbes said if she wants something changed she needs to try and do it herself.
“I cannot point fingers, maybe they were overwhelmed, maybe they had some horrible things happen, maybe it was a horrible dynamic. So many bad things can happen. I can’t say, ‘heh, you’re doing it wrong,’ and do nothing to help.”
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Being active on several other boards in recent years already, and working in schools through her Wast Wise contracts Forbes said she already has the skill set needed to be a trustee.
“I know all of the schools and all of the teachers, for the most part, because I teach in them with the waste education program or with Scout Island. It just seems like a natural fit.”
Forbes is running for the Zone 2 seat representing 108 Mile and Lac La Hache.
She said she originally put her name in for that seat because there were no candidates and she wanted to ensure someone was running.
However, since then, Robyn Angus was also nominated.
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“I also recently did a waste audit for the entire 108 subdivision part of the CRD so I know the landscape quite well and I’ve taught at the school there for the last 10 years doing waste education. I also taught at Forest Grove and formerly at Bridge Lake School before it closed.”
She also travels between Williams Lake and 100 Mile House regularly teaching the program. “It was a corridor that made sense for me because I’m travelling that distance frequently.”
Very often, Forbes is asked if she is related to Molly Forbes from Lac La Hache.
“She used to chase the fish on the frozen ice on Lac La Hache with her ice skates and someone would be waiting at the end to spear them. I’m not related to the Lac La Hache Forbes, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think they are super cool.”
Born and raised in Williams Lake, her father, the late Harry Forbes, built the gymnasium at Lac La Hache and quite a few of the other schools in the region.
“He re-floored the school at 108 and I think he did some work at 100 Mile. He worked for the contractor that had the contract when all the schools were being built in the 1970s and early 1980s.”
Forbes is married to Pierre Mayette, a letter carrier with Canada Post, and together they have two daughters — Phaedra who is in Grade 1 French Immersion at Nesika and Abigael who will go into Nature Kindergarten next fall.
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