In Focus | Stacey Luckin

In Focus is our gift to the community. A way for us to help show our recognition for the people, businesses, and organizations that help make our city great. The team at KelownaNow.com is passionate about this community and the people that make it amazing. We want to show our friends, neighbours, family and colleagues that we notice them and the fabulous things that they do.

What is your name?
Stacey Luckin.

Where are you from and how long have you lived in Kelowna?
I was born in South Africa. My family were dairy farmers in the small community of Rosetta, Kwazulu-Natal in the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains. I have always enjoyed travelling, so after I completed university, I backpacked through the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand over a number of years before moving back to Johannesburg and settling down to work. In 2008, I immigrated to Canada with my family and initially lived in Vancouver, before coming to Kelowna four and a half years ago. I do not plan any more moves!

Who is your favourite person to spend time with and why?
I’m blessed with some fabulous favourite people in each place I've lived, who've been just the tonic at that time, in that place. Starting at the very beginning, my maternal grandmother who always embraced everyone with her unquestioning, unconditional love, compassion, generosity and an unfailing resolve that a shared hot pot of tea solves most things.

If you could go anywhere in the world right at this moment where would you go and why?
My grandparents took a trip on a barge on the Canals of France when I was very young and the idea has stayed with me ever since. Cruising the canals, through rustic French landscapes, cycling into quaint villages, munching on petit pain, brioche and brie with café au lait.

What is your favourite local store in Kelowna and why?
I'm always on the hunt for a bargain, I love thrift stores and my first stop is always the collection of thrift stores around Hwy 33 and Rutland Road. My latest fabulous finds come from a store I stumbled on by chance, Rosebuds Consignment on Kirschner. I was so excited, I dragged my friends back there over spring break. Whoever does their selection has a good eye for clothing and accessories and they got my money!

What is your favourite activity?
I like a little bit of everything; running on one of the trails in Kelowna, biking or golfing with my ‘favourites’ or a dip in the lake. I’m also my kids’ taxi for weekend soccer games all over the Okanagan which are exciting to watch. I am champing at the bit in anticipation of the new Rail Trail. I hope there is a coffee shop at the end of it.

If you had to choose: pizza, tacos, or burgers?
Tacos, food for the fingers, crunchy and light and stuffed with flavours. Never heard anyone complain about a taco or three.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you?
Which one! Despite multiple reminders, I recently forgot to take the monthly chili and buns to the Boys and Girls Club that they were expecting to serve for dinner. They received it a day late with a very sheepish apology.

What is the most inspiring thing that has happened to you?
Helping to build a home with Habitat for Humanity in a township in Johannesburg, South Africa. We built a one roomed house for a young family who had been living in a shanty lean-to on a bare patch of dirt in dust and poverty. The family were involved with the building, with the intention they pay it forward in their community and that they gain employable skills. All they had was that bare patch of fenced ground, with a small home. Then I went home to my 6-roomed home, landscaped garden, appliances and running water. Very humbling.

Tell us your favourite childhood memory.
Playing a swing-ball tennis game with my dad, brother and sister on the lawn at our beach holiday home, one late, warm, long summer evening. We were hitting the tennis ball that swings around by a string attached to a pole and the next person has to hit it back. It was chaos. My father was laughing and we kids were giggling so hard we kept falling over. I remember thinking that this was just the most fun ever.

Where do you volunteer or give back to the community?
I volunteer with other members of St Andrew’s Anglican Church on Lakeshore. I’m on their council and currently chair their five-year stewardship campaign. They have a passionate community who contribute time, talent and resources to a variety of outreach projects, including making their highly anticipated monthly chili for the Boys and Girls Club. We’ve just finished collecting and donating household items for our annual Start-up Kits for clients of NOW Canada, Willowbridge and the Boys and Girls Club. These kits provide individuals leaving transitional housing and treatment programs with sets of essential household items for the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, helping them start up again from the little they may have.

If you could change one thing in the world what would it be?
Stop the alarming rate that cash loans and credit cards that are handed out like candy. We definitely need to be teaching people, especially young people, to identify their attitudes to money, their money habits, their attitude to credit, the cost of credit and the value of budgeting, managing and saving money. Whatever happened to rewarding the cash consumer and saver?

What is your favourite activity in Kelowna?
A bike ride with friends from H2O, up along Mission Creek, across to and down along Mill Creek, a stop at Gio Bean on Waterfront Road for a coffee and scone, then back along the lakeshore and Abbot. There has to be a coffee incentive at the end of my activities! My other favourite spot is a ride or run along the spectacular Kettle Valley Railway in Myra Canyon. It should be a world heritage site.

Where would you sneak away to in Kelowna to spend some time alone?
Until recently, I could walk to the end of my street to some open ground to breathe in the view of the lake, mountains and sunsets, but developers just built houses in ‘my view’! Fortunately, Kelowna has so many other lovely spots, so I’ll either take a coffee to an empty bench at a beach, or the top of our park in our suburb, anywhere, outside with a view will do.

Where would you like to see positive change in Kelowna and why?
A phrase that popped up in my mind was ‘paved paradise and put up a parking lot.' As one of BC’s fastest growing cities, we are in the middle of lots of development. This shows tremendous confidence in our city, but the reasons I chose to live here are because it is smaller, quieter, not overly developed and I can see and walk to green space, see the stars and hear the coyotes and owls at night in an almost perfect stillness. Recent rapid development has displaced the wildlife, paved roads where there were trails and built houses where there were trees and grass. Mayor Basran recommended we read 'The Happy City', C. Montgomery. I’m hoping he and his council strive for the balance that makes a happy city, where green space, game corridors and eco-tourism also have a place. I’d like to see a 100-year plan for the city, one that plans beyond our future, strives for balance and rewards entrepreneurs with incentives designed to keep and retain talent.

What do you think makes Kelowna great?
It’s not too big, it’s not too small, it’s just right! It has so much to see and do and taste and experience and it seems to attract some fantastic citizens.

What are 3 things on your bucket list?
Travel, travel & travel. I love visiting places, so I’d like to cycle around Holland, take a train trip across North America with my kids and see the Aurora Borealis.

Tell us something that not everyone may know about you.
I can hand-milk a cow and ride a motor bike, I refused a free bungee jump and I’ve eaten every flavour of Ben & Jerry’s.

Why did you get into/start this business?
I was working in the insurance and investment industry in South Africa and realized that many of the people we dealt with were simply not able to invest financially in themselves and plan properly for their futures. I was involved back then in trying to educate clients on simple budgeting techniques to help them recognize and manage their spending attitudes and habits, and to create the room they needed to invest in their own personal savings. Coming to Canada, it was just a natural fit to find myself in a very similar line of work.

What is the goal of your business?
I work with Licensed Insolvency Trustees and provide confidential counselling to their clients, help them with debt and budgeting solutions, rebuilding credit and assist them in a positive and successful transition to the other side of difficult financial circumstances.

What has been your biggest struggle either in work or life?
Taking a leap of faith into the unknown. I’m generally not a big risk-taker, so very big changes, even if I list all the pro’s and cons, are tough for me to navigate.

If you could start all over again would you do things the same or would things be different?
This is a catch-22 question. Hindsight, the perfect science, is always a little too late to the party. Would I still be who I am today if I hadn’t experienced, done and seen all that I have? I am the sum of all my experiences. So, my answer is yes and no!

What do you always find yourself saying?
'Is it time for a coffee yet?'

If you could spend one whole day with anyone in the world who is currently alive, who would you select?
My mother. We live on different continents and it takes a 30-hour journey just to visit her. Popping in for a casual coffee is out and phone calls don’t allow hugs.

Why do you think it is important to shop locally?
We want to keep our locals strong, motivated, encouraged and thriving so that they stay in our community. I love Summer in the Okanagan because that's when all the local, fresh produce arrives and my kids insist I buy local because it tastes so much better.

What has been your proudest accomplishment?
My kids, a wonderful collection of family members and friends and some pretty hilarious memories.

Give someone you think that deserves it a shout out and explain why!
As the mother of two healthy, rambunctious kids, I have a deep admiration for women who run their homes, their own businesses and manage their lives with children who have health challenges and disabilities. My shout out is to two such special women. The first is Tyra Skibington of Mind Over Mat. She's a mother of two, her youngest was diagnosed with a rare chromosome syndrome. Tyra’s an accomplished fitness instructor who makes us Sweat. Smile. Repeat. in her Kettle Valley studio with contagious enthusiasm and weekly ‘bytes’ of wisdom. I also want to recognize Dr. Anita Bratt is a Naturopathic Physician and mother of three. After her oldest son was diagnosed with autism, she passionately pursued the research and treatment of autism and hosted the first outreach clinic for autism and ADHD in Western Canada. Best of all, she’s a friend and makes a swinging chocolate martini.

My choice for the KelownaNow In Focus spotlight is:
Tyra Skibington of Mind Over Mat.

Some general comments I would like to share are:
The words I cheer from the side of the soccer field, 'GO KELOWNA!'

We encourage you to leave your comments and words of support below and submit your own nomination by clicking HERE. You are also welcome to submit a form of your own by clicking HERE. Thank you, Kelowna.