For the first time in 35 years, the BC Winter Games were held in Fort St. John. In order to make it happen, hundreds of volunteers descended on the northern city to lend a helping hand.
One of those people was Charissa Tonnesen. Best known as our local pharmacist, Tonnesen is also an avid member of Northern Rockies Karate-do, the host club for the karate portion of the games.
Tonnesen was one of 35 volunteers helping with karate. She says the games were extremely well run. As part of her duties, she was in charge of organizing the medals. As she was getting ready to start handing out medals, she discovered she was short a few. “I texted somebody to ask for more medals and they had it to me within 15 minutes. It was amazingly quick. We managed to get those medals to those kids even before the end of the ceremony, which I didn’t think was going to happen.”
Karate has been part of the BC Games since 1978, providing young athletes with coordination, stamina and agility. Over 130 participants have made the trip to Fort St. John to compete in one of the five styles; Shito, Goju, Shoto, Wado and Chito.
Jason Farguharson was born and raised in Fort St. John and took on the role of Karate Sport Chair for the Games. Jason runs the Northern Rockies Karate-do, which teaches Karate in Tumbler Ridge, Hudson’s Hope, Chetwynd and Fort St. John. He says he is humbled by the experience and expertise that has stepped forward and donated their time for the sport.
“We have never had an event to this scale in the Peace Region. We have international coaches and officials here, also athletes that are pan am champions turned coaches,” he says.
The tournament was officially run by Karate BC. But Northern Rockies Karate-do was responsible for making sure that the mats were there and everything was set up properly. “Although I have to say, we were supposed to get there on Thursday and set up all the mats and chairs and all that kind of stuff. I got there at the time we were supposed to start, and it was already done. The athletes put it all together for us. It was just an amazing group of kids.”
She says she has volunteered for tournaments before, but this was “another level up. It was definitely a unique experience for me like I’ve been to a lot of tournaments. I’ve helped on score tables. I’ve been to tournaments and helped with officiating. I helped with the Friendship tournament in Penticton last year, but this was definitely a more all-encompassing experience. And it was it was interesting, and it kind of opened my eyes to exactly how much has to go right in order for a tournament to run. It’s a lot of work for a few days. But totally worth it.”
