This past March we lost an exceptional member of the Power To Be community.

Pat Elemans was a tireless leader as the Assistant Dean of UVIC’s Gustavson School of Business, but always made time for cooking, travelling, and volunteering with local organizations where she could advocate for positive community impact.

One of Pat’s greatest joys was spending time in the outdoors with her family and friends and she wanted to ensure that others, no matter their barriers, could do so too. A long time supporter of Power To Be, Pat joined the Board in 2014 and during her tenure as Director and Chair of the Nomination Committee imparted a high level of passion, knowledge, and skill to everyone at the table, furthering our organization’s networking reach, community relationships and fundraising efforts.

Taking time to champion others, she loved leading a good brainstorming session, ensuring that every voice was heard, and never let a chance to give positive feedback or have a mentoring moment go unfulfilled. I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of a few of those moments when I first started working at Power To Be and will never forget the way in which she effortlessly used warmth and humour to build confidence.

In 2014, while I was writing her bio for the Power To Be website, I asked her the question, what do you want to accomplish? Her answer was simply – to live a happy and purposeful life. Anyone who knew her would say she accomplished that and much, much, more.

“It is exceptionally sad to have a person such as Pat be taken from us so early. I am very fortunate as not only was I provided the opportunity to work with Pat on the board of Power To Be, but also I was privileged to have her as my associate and advisor at the University of Victoria. It is not surprising that I had the pleasure to engage with Pat in more than one organization as Pat diligently worked to support many organizations all with a myriad of beneficial objectives. Pat’s energy, enthusiasm, and pragmatic approach will be sorely missed by all of us. I will always recall Pat’s kind humor and desire to contribute, and contribute greatly is what she did.”

Mike Shannon, served as Vice-Chair and then Chair during Pat’s tenure

This blog was written by Jasmine Parr, Power To Be incredible Community Engagement Specialist.