By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON May 19, 2012 The Rotary Club of Burlington Central did something recently that should have been done some time ago, which was to recognize Deb Tymstra for the contribution she has made to the arts in Burlington.
The Paul Harris Fellow Award was given to Tymstra for her “tangible and significant assistance for the furtherance and better understanding of friendly relations among peoples of the world”. That doesn’t tell the half of what Deb Tymstra has done for Burlington.
We have in the past been critical of some of the governance practices of the organization Tymstra created but that criticism can’t for a second take away from the job she did during the years of tireless work in advancing the arts in this city.
Always an artist at heart, Deb Tymstra worked tirelessly on behalf of the arts in Burlington. Rotarian Award richly deserved.
The early, hard, ground breaking work done when a performing arts centre wasn’t much more than a glimmer in the eyes of Mike Wallace and Walter Mulkewich got done by Tymstra. She didn’t do it all but she was always there doing the work that had to be done.
She was both tireless and shameless in raising funds, raising the profile of performers in Burlington and never letting the community forget what it needed.
When the fund raising for the building of the Performing Arts Centre began, it was Tymstra who stepped forward with a $64,000 donation which amounted to almost all the money in the till of her organization.
When the people behind the building of a centre decided they wanted to use the name “Performing Arts”, which Tymstra had for her organization, she graciously stepped aside and came up with a new name for the works she was doing in the community.
Creative Burlington didn’t last as long as Tymstra had hoped but its closing had nothing to do with the passion and dedication she brought to the drive to develop not only a place for the performing arts to perform but the information and contacts of the people who did the performing.
Tymstra was never adequately recognized by the Burlington Performing Arts Centre people. Thankfully the Rotarians saw the gap and filled it.
