Street Level

If logic really did rule the world, then Kathy Roberts would not be my friend.

We are dissimilar in so many ways.

Kathy’s always impeccably dressed. I aim for clean and comfortable.

She never leaves the house without her hair looking perfect and all her makeup on. I manage to run a brush through my hair. Somewhere in the house, there may be some old blue eyeshadow.

Even our politics are polar opposites: Kathy’s late husband, Ian Roberts, worked for MP Betty Hinton. I don’t think I’m even on Betty’s Christmas card list anymore.

But I consider Kathy a friend and I’m pretty sure she feels the same way about me.

More than that, she’s an inspiration, a woman who puts more of her own time, effort and money into helping the marginalized in our community than many other small-business people.

I met Kathy the way I’ve met most people in Kamloops during my eight years here — I was sent out to interview her.

At that time, the coal-dust mess that has covered much of Dallas along the Thompson River was just starting to grab attention and Kathy was at the forefront.

Her house was immaculate — if you ignored the fine layer of black dust that seemed to be on everything, a layer that just wouldn’t brush off.

Kathy and some of her neighbours were starting to form a group that would later take on the railroad to get it to do something about all the dust that would come off the cars as they rumbled into town through that area.

A few months later, I was assigned a story on the fashion-show fundraiser Kathy and two friends (Elaine Paget and Marilyn House) would organize twice a year.

They’d promote their businesses, about 300 women would enjoy a fashion show and lots of money would be raised to help cancer patients in the Kamloops area.

The shows continue each spring and fall. Marilyn has dropped out of the organizing, but Elaine is still there, rounding up the dozens and dozens of door prizes.

Kathy expects that by next year, they’ll have contributed $50,000 to local cancer patients.

She popped up in my professional life again when I was doing a story on the youth safe house on River Street.

You see, Kathy and Ian have supported the house for years now, bringing in Christmas dinners and gifts, sending money, doing many tiny acts of charity — and some not-so-tiny-ones — to help the safe house that was once a refuge for their son, Brian.

That was a bad time for the Roberts family, with Brian going through those truly horrible problems some teenagers can’t seem to avoid — the ones that can be destructive to the family and child.

But he got through it, eventually, with the help of his family and the staff at the safe house.

He cleaned up his life — only to die of heart problems before he was out of his teens.

It was a devastating time, but it cemented the link between Kathy and the safe house.

Now, lest you think this is one big cheerleading column, there have been moments when Kathy has done things and I have: a) been glad I don’t have to cover her when those issues arise and b) wonder what she thinks she’s doing.

But that happens with friends all the time. I know I have written things and said things with which she hasn’t agreed.

But she just keeps on going, helping others.

Even when many of us were wondering about her own well-being after Ian’s sudden illness and death, Kathy kept on going.

She’s doing it again on May 11 with the Flip For Fashion dinner show at the South Thompson Inn, with proceeds going to help the youth safe house run by Interior Community Services.

As with all Kathy-created events, it’s bound to be full of fun, frolic and fashion, along with a mother-daughter lookalike contest (which, no doubt, has my adorable daughter delighted as she lives four provinces away and can’t be dragged off to this event because everyone says she looks just like her mom!).

Tickets are $30.

And yes, Kathy will be perfectly coiffed and manicured, impeccably dressed, obsessing on every detail and maybe even causing some of us to wonder just what it is that drives her, even when we think she needs to stop and put her feet up and do nothing.

Because that’s not who Kathy Roberts is. Kamloops has been good to her, she says, and she wants to give back.

dale@kamloopsthisweek.com

Posted by Dale at 9:55 a.m. Comments