Chalaine Hannah, 34, has been in Kitimat for the past nine years and has become a familiar face in the community. However she did not start her journey through life in the rainy north of B.C.
She was born in a rural Ontario town called Hanover, which is just a couple of hours outside of Toronto. Hanover had a typical small-town feel as the town has a population of under 8,000. Hannah enjoyed her time in the town and found herself getting into sports.
“It was good, I grew up playing a lot of sports, it was a really small town, you went to school with the same people all the way through,” said Hannah.
She played baseball as her first foray into sports before finding curling in her high school years. Hannah grew up taking french immersion in school, she also became fluent in another language. Both her brother, Joshua and sister, Jessica were deaf and Hannah learned sign language to be able to communicate with them.
The need for sign language was not permanent as her brother was the youngest male in Canada to get a cochlear implant. Hannah’s sister got a hearing aid to help with her own hearing issues.
Hannah attended and graduated from John Diefenbaker Senior School in Hanover and headed to post-secondary school. She felt as though there was a need to go to post-secondary school.
“In Ontario, I feel like the weight of going to school is much bigger, while here in B.C. the focus is on life experience and trades,” said Hannah.
Her first experience was in university where she spent two years before turning her focus to business. She then went to Conestoga College’s Doon campus and took a business course with a focus on finance.
Hannah enjoyed her time in college though there are some things she would’ve liked to do differently.
“I wish I went further from home, I was in Cambridge at Conestoga so I spent a lot of time travelling back and forth from home, I lived in a house with five other people and it was good, I got the experience I needed,” said Hannah.
Following her completion of the business program, she went back to where it all started.
“I went back to Hanover for a couple of years and I worked for two lawyers as a personal assistant,” said Hannah.
It was an experience she thoroughly enjoyed, doing a large variety of tasks for the two including doing errands and picking up kids. She also did a lot of scheduling and seeing clients while helping with day-to-day tasks.
“It was a very well-rounded experience, it was crazy watching someone build this business from their home and be two successful humans while also raising three kids and running a home,” said Hannah.
This job lasted just under two years before a change in scenery came, courtesy of an opportunity in Kitimat. Hannah took a trip to see her mom, Ann Ransom, in Kitimat.
“I came out to visit her and I loved the area,” said Hannah.
“My mom got me a job in Kitimat working on the Kitimat Modernization Project, she was living out here and still is, she was working on the modernization project.”
The move to Kitimat was a complete change to Hannah’s life and the decision happened very quickly.
“It seemed like a huge adventure, I came out in the summertime and obviously it was beautiful, the weather was nice and I’d never really seen the mountains before, it was such a tempting adventure,” said Hannah.
She worked in accounts payable with the Kitimat Modernization Project and eventually transitioned to a personal assistant role with a construction manager, another job Hannah really enjoyed. When the project finally wrapped up it was time for her to decide what her next step would be.
“I was on the fence it really depended on where I was going to find a job, at that point I missed my friends and family in Ontario,” said Hannah.
At that point Hannah had made friends in Kitimat and enjoyed the town, her next decision was based on where the next job opportunity was.
She took some time off and took a trip to Mexico and then came back to Kitimat, she worked a few jobs before both she and her mother would transition to jobs with Rio Tinto.
She began her work with Rio Tinto doing costing on a large project, eventually moving to do some work in human resources and now is the changed management lead for a special project. Her work is something that she has enjoyed and appreciates what industry offers.
“I think Rio Tinto as a whole has good values, I think industry itself is really amazing and the process of what we do to make aluminum in Kitimat is really interesting,” said Hannah.
Hannah found herself wanting to get more involved with the community and took on a position volunteering with the Kitimat Ice Demons.
“This is my third year with the Kitimat Ice Demons, I am their treasurer, but also our board with the Ice Demons is small so roles and responsibilities overlap outside of our title, I do a lot of different things with them,” said Hannah.
For the Ice Demons she will do game day organization, programs and help with events for the team.
This is not the only volunteer opportunity that Hannah took, as she found herself volunteering with the Hirsch Creek Gold and Winter Club.
“Being an avid golfer here I grew to really really love our golf course, I think it’s the hidden gem of Kitimat with so much potential to grow and I think it’s under-utilized,” said Hannah.
“I’m really passionate about growing the game for women and getting more women out, as well as getting more of the younger generation into golf.”
Hannah says the golf course in Kitimat doesn’t get the recognition it deserves for how beautiful it is. She got interested in joining the board and has been on the board for nearly two years, now she sits as vice president.
Specifically, Hannah works with the match committee and helps organize tournaments and events, she enjoys finding new ways to do the tournaments and get people involved. Hannah hopes to challenge herself and one day win the club championship. Golf is a game she believes she can only continue to improve at as it’s impossible to master.
“Golf is a game that you will never master, no matter who you are, it’s competition with yourself at all times,” said Hannah.
You have multiple firsts in golf she says it can get addicting and it helped her fall in love with both the course and the game of golf.
Since golf is only during the summertime Hannah wanted to find something to do during the winter to stay active and ended up curling at the club as well. Curling was something she started on Ontario where curling is a much bigger sport.
Hannah hopes to grow the game of golf in Kitimat and get some more interest in curling. She plans to stick around and continues to enjoy her time being involved in the community.