Nightclub owner says giving back to the community is important.
Glen Vienneau
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 19/01) - It's mid-afternoon and there's only a handful of people, including patrons and the bartender, scattered through the Raven Pub.
Music breaks the silence in the dimly-lit room, as one man, owner of the downtown establishment works away on his laptop computer.
 Jim Sturge |
"I love to meet people.
"It doesn't matter about the colour, creed, race or religion, it's just people being people," said Sturge.
"And that's what makes any business work, each and every business, you cannot filter out those that you want and those that you don't want."
This all encompassing acceptance is a principle instilled in him during his childhood in Newfoundland.
Sturge came to Yellowknife in 1997 and bought out the Raven about a year ago.
"Most people from back there (on the East Coast) have a sense of togetherness, where they like to be amalgamated with a group, because we've been brought up that way."
He was looking for a change after working in the consumer home electronic and repair business for 20 years.
A long road to prosperity
He has wandered quite a bit.
Sturge's travels took him to Whitehorse in 1989.
Economic slowdown sent him looking for new horizons five years later.
He wound up in Campbell River, B.C. where he met his business partner and companion, Jacquie Fontana.
His stay there was just 17 months. Once again, economics made him pull up roots.
"So, I thought, the North has been fairly good to me."
A four-day stay in Yellowknife is all he needed to realize this city was the land of opportunity he sought.
"I could see how any business within reason could work here," said Sturge.
"I think one of the biggest fallacies surrounding anyone moving to the North (is that) most people moving to a Northern community are running away from something."
Aside from the business opportunity, he found a fascination in the mixture of people in the city.
"We're all here for one thing: to try and better ourselves.
"If we ever leave the North, we'll leave better than we were when we came here."
Giving from the heart
Aiming to better himself and the community is a trait he credits from his East Coast upbringing.
Since last summer, the club has raised $7,600 during two 50-50 draws. That money helped to buy two intravenous pumps for Stanton Regional Hospital.
The success led to a third fund-raiser, this time for the Yellowknife Day Care Association.
"You do have to give back, you can't just take and take all the time," said Sturge.
He said he doesn't do it alone; his patrons are also generous.
"I'm finding that the mixture of people we're getting in here, they are coming with open minds, hearts and pockets when it comes to contributing to the hospital or any kind of needy cause out there.
"They give so willingly and you can tell that it's coming from their heart."
He said it's also important for an establishment like the Raven to give back to the community.
"We're here to share. We enjoy a profit of course, that's any business person's outcome, they want to have a profit, that's the total purpose."
But, providing his clients a "safe" environment to have an enjoyable evening is not without consideration of the social aspects of drinking such as over-intoxication, home abuse or drinking and driving.
"I am not and none of the people working in the Raven's Pub are in favour of that sort of thing," he said.
"We're not just here to take all their money and get them drunk and kick them out the door, that's not what owning a night club is all about."
Giving others the opportunity to better their lives can take forms other than the fund-raisers. For example, he hopes to do that by bringing some East Coast flavour into his club by giving musicians a forum to jam.
It's another way he said he can get satisfaction from running his business.
"I think it's great to go to any community that's been under-serviced with respect to giving and all of a sudden get something started," he said.
For Sturge and others who settled far from their homes, it is up to those who live here to make Yellowknife what it is.
It is the adventure, the people and compassion for others which gives him the self-worth while longing for his home.
"Home is always where the heart is," said Sturge.
"If we (Eastern residents) had the choice or the opportunity to return, I'm sure that we would take that on in a New York minute."
