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Medicine Hat News: Tell us a bit about
your background and where you came from?
Jody Lamb: I was born in Winnipeg, but
raised in a little town called Eriksdale. I was raised there my
whole life until I graduated and went off to the University of
Manitoba and did a Bachelor of Arts Degree.
From there I went off to Mount Royal
College in Calgary, where I did my journalism program and
eventually moved over to communications and started down that path.
I knew right from a young age that I was adopted. My parents were
open about it and I have a brother who was adopted as well. In
1977, I made the connection with my birth family and have had a
good relationship with them over the years. In fact, when I was
just home for Thanksgiving, my birth mother came up to the farm and
I spent the day with her and my (adoptive) mom, and then I went
into Winnipeg and spent a day with my birth mom and her kids.
News: What brought you to Medicine
Hat?
Lamb: I had been to Medicine Hat quite a
bit, because I had these very close friends who lived here and
I’d visit them whenever I was travelling through from
Cranbrook, where I had been living. They told me that the city was
going to be looking for a communications person and I applied. I
grew up in the prairies and Medicine Hat has that feel — that
kind of social network. I remember moving here in January of that
first year and our neighbours invited us to their family’s
25th wedding anniversary, and that’s just the way it is.
That’s the way people are. They invite you to their family
gatherings. I love Medicine Hat. It’s a big community and
it’s become home.
News: What’s been the major
challenge you’ve faced since taking over as the city’s
communications manager?
Lamb: The major challenge would be just
establishing a culture of communications because it hadn’t
existed before within the city. It wasn’t the way we had
operated at the city. The challenge was getting that into
everybody’s mindset whenever we’re launching a new
service, or changing a service, or just making any kind of a
difference to the way we interact with the public. We needed to let
them know that we need to communicate to the public that there is a
change coming. When I first came, we had this little catch phrase
that there shouldn’t be any surprises. What stuck with people
was the idea that there shouldn’t be surprises to the public
when there are changes, whether they’re good or bad.
News: What’s the best thing you like
about Medicine Hat?
Lamb: I think it goes back again to that
social makeup of the Prairies. I really missed that when I was
living in B.C. There is a certain way in the Prairies in the way
people get together and I think the best way to describe that is
when I was growing up. Being back on the farm, people just dropped
by for coffee and somebody always had cookies, a banana bread or
whatever, and they always have it ready just because people always
drop in and I like that about the Prairies. People kind of have an
open door and you can just drop in on somebody and visit them for
the afternoon. It’s very social.
News: What are your favourite things to do
on your time off?
Lamb: Having recently moved to Riverside,
right now it’s going for a walk on a fall day with a friend
and just heading out into nature down by the river. I usually do
that on the weekends. I’m also a skater and I like to go for
that free public skating for one hour at the Family Leisure Centre,
whenever I can. There’s just something about skating and it
absolutely clears your mind.
News: If you didn’t do what you
presently do for a living, what else would you like to be
doing?
Lamb: I’d be writing movie scripts.
I love the way the dialogue and the movie unfolds and I love the
idea of putting that down on paper and the way the characters act
and look and I just find that fascinating.
(Although she doesn’t usually buy
DVDs, she does have what she calls “quirky ones” like
Fargo and “deep ones” like The Red Violin and Nick and
Norah’s Infinite Playlist.)
News: What’s your favourite kind of
music?
Lamb: I love U2, although when I’m
driving around in my car, I like rock music and I like it loud.
I’m not too much of a mellow listener when I want to unwind.
(She’s seen U2 live in Calgary, but the ultimate for her
would be to see them live in Ireland.)
News: What do you like having for
breakfast?
Lamb: I stay pretty consistent. I’m
an oatmeal and berry breakfast eater. I didn’t for a long
time and I started again about a year-and-a-half ago. It makes all
the difference in the world.
News: What kinds of vacations do you like
taking?
Lamb: I have two vacations I have set as
goals for this year. I turn 40 in May , so one of my goals is to go
to New York City which I’m going to do. My sister just moved
there and we’re going to make a family trip to go see her.
The other one is a trip to Easter Island. I’m not a
sit-on-the-beach kind of person. I like to go and experience the
culture and the history of a place. Easter Island, I think, is
about a society that once existed that’s no longer there and
they left behind a marking and I find that kind of stuff
fascinating.
News: Who’s the funniest person you
know?
Lamb: I’d have to say there are two
of them — my 20-year-old son James and my brother Michael.
They have this ability to say things to people that most people
might be offended by, but with them, it just comes across funny and
down-to-earth. Both of them have the same kind of sense of
humour.
News: What’s your favourite kind of
restaurant meal?
Lamb: Anything with any kind of fish or
other kind of seafood in it. I just went to Vancouver Island for a
week and my goal was to eat every single meal with some kind of
fish or seafood in it and I achieved it. Whether it was breakfast,
lunch or dinner, they all had fish or seafood.
News: Do you prefer a book or a video
game?
Lamb: I prefer a book — hands down.
Anything that talks about the way societies unfold, or is about
unique and neat ideas — I like those kinds of books.
News: Is there one gadget or electronic
device you can’t live without?
Lamb: That would be my computer. I had
always said I’d never be a Facebook person, but I got on
Facebook because I have a grandchild and she lives far away. I love
going on Facebook because I love seeing the latest photographs of
her. My niece and nephew live back in Winnipeg and I like logging
in to just see what’s happening in their lives too.
News: What would you say has been your
proudest moment personally or professionally?
Lamb: I don’t know that I have a
particular moment that sticks out. I’m proud of the work that
I do and what I’ve accomplished, but to me that’s not
the end all and be all. For me, it would always come back to
friendships. I would say that I have friends — long-term
friends — that I’ve had since I was very young.
I’m really proud knowing that I have friends and family who
support me, and whom I support as well. I think that’s what
I’m proudest off.
News: What’s your preference? Tim
Hortons or Starbucks?
Lamb: I love Chai Tea Lattes and Tim
Hortons just doesn’t have them.
News: Do you have a certain philosophy
that you try to live by?
Lamb: I would say yes. At the end of the
day, I just want to know that I lived a good day and that I made
the decisions I made for the right reasons, based on my own values.
I think I live every day that way. I know what I believe in; I know
what I value; and I try to do all the things each day consistently
with what I believe in.
News: Are there any mentors who have
influenced your life?
Lamb: I think I look at people in the way
they have lived their lives and the unique characters they are. I
remember being a little kid and I was four or five years old, and I
couldn’t wait to be like 75 years old, because I loved older
people. I just loved the knowledge I got from older people like my
grandfather, grandmother and an uncle who passed away at the age of
about 79. They all had influences on my life. They would sit down
and just ask about life, about where you think you’re going,
what you think you want to do, and they’d make you think
about what you wanted to achieve. |
