Stories from the Road
“Fort St James, B.C. is located on the south eastern shore of Stuart Lake in the Omineca Country. It’s population is approximately 4,000 with many encompassing First Nation communities. There is incredible history found within this tiny community that dates back to 1806, when Fort St James became part of the Hudson Bay Fur Company. The Stuart Lake Post house still stands today. It is one of British Columbia’s oldest permanent European settlements for the fur traders. In addition to all of it’s history, Fort St James is a well diversified community with many resources. The forest industry being a major component followed by mining, agriculture and tourism.
I grew up in Golden, BC and travelled around most of southern BC. I studied Medical Laboratory Science in Vancouver, BC and I live Kelowna, BC. Staffing Solutions was introduced to me by my cousin and I saw potential opportunities to grow my experience within health care, as well as, the chance to see more of the province.
Fort St James was my first posting of 12 weeks. I had to find where it was on a map as I never heard of this place before. As nervous as I was, I set off on this new adventure. I was quite curious and excited to see how a small hospital operated and to also, meet some of the locals.
This community made me feel very welcomed. There are 12 staff members in at the hospital with the support of BCAS, RCMP members and Fire Fighters. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long to get to know everyone. The definition of a team really shined throughout this community. With minimal staff and services, each health professional played a vital role as each of us relied on the expertise we all brought to provide the best health care possible.
In addition to the wonderful staff and experiences I got within the hospital, I also got to be apart of Winter Challenge that the Nak’azdli Band organized for the town. This Winter Challenge included 10 teams of 4. Our challenge as a team was to gain as many points by carrying out daily tasks. The tasks included: an act of kindness, figure skate as a team, hiking 3km up a local mountain called Mount Pope in the middle of winter at 7 pm with our head lamps, ice fishing for lingcod with our lawn chairs on the middle of the lake at 9pm (as that was when the fish bit), to making snowshoes to race against other teams and we got to explore the historic park to reproduce photos that were given to each team.
Lastly, Fort St James sits on the shores of Stuart Lake which is 66 km long and 10 km wide. My most favourite part of this lake was in the evening, I would walk down to the wharf and watch the sunset. It was absolutely incredible!
I continue to take contracts in Fort St James and look forward to many more opportunities to travel with Staffing Solutions.”
Photo and story submitted by: Meagan S. – Travel Technologist with Solutions Staffing Inc.
