Kimberly Edwina Louise Smith was born in Winnipeg, MB to Parents James Everett & Sylvia Yvonne Smith. She was soon followed by sister Sherri and brother Gary.
In the early 1970’s the family moved to The Pas, where Kim continued her junior/senior high school. Her dad Jim was both truck driver and mechanic, and CB radios were all the rage. It was through the local CB radio club she was introduced to Ken. Social media involved microphones, not I-Pads, back then.
Kim & Ken married July 14, 1979.while they had no kids, Kim was known as a crazy Cat Person. After 37 years of marriage, multitudes of cats & kittens, the last 15 years have been spent with “Iggy” & Snuffy”. Kim loved all animals, enjoyed feeding all the critters at the cabin at Rocky.
To say Kim was ‘involved’ with the community would be an understatement. She moved from charity to project to volunteer to executive to registration at just about everything.
Kim co-chaired the Northern Manitoba “Ride for Sight” for 15 years, raising $330,000 towards research into fighting Retinitis Pimentosa. During this time began her the love affair with motorcycles, first as passenger, then to owning her own Harley. She was proud to fundraise all year long, just to put on a weekend charity ride for 300 of her close biker friends. She wanted every dollar raised to go to research, not a penny spent on costs.
Kim next organized 70 Paramedics from across the province, to work at “Classic Rock Weekend” in Minnedosa for 8 years. The stories of what we did will remain ‘classified’ to only all our EMS family that worked their Ass off every year and kept coming back next year.
She worked on the Executive of 2 versions of Manitoba’s EMS conference called InterAct. Of course, as Registration. While on committee she took on a project to fundraise and have built a memorial Board, listing all Canadian Paramedics that died in ‘Line of Duty”.
It was not all work and volunteer. With her husband Ken as driver, they toured their Harley from Toronto, around the Great Lakes, twice to Sturgis (no not the one in Sask), twice to rallies in Wyoming, twice to west coast, and her favorite, the long trip to Alaska.
Be it rain, heat, rain, high winds, rain, grasshopper hoards, rain or even a flood, the only way to keep going across the country on vacation, was the saying “We do this because we like it, right?”
Kim was always the volunteer for doing first aid at community events. She loved to tell the story that the most dangerous event at Trappers Festival was “Tea Boiling”
Kim had to give up her passion of driving bikes due to arthritis in her hands. But it was replaced with a Pontoon boat. She fished but more enjoyed taking out friends and new EMS staff so they could experience the northern outdoors. She loved the birds and squirrels, the deer and even the bears. The greatest joy was feeding fish to the bald eagles and having them come down to get it.
She had just started snowmobiling, only been on a couple of trail rides. Friends had seen a new snowmobile rescue sled in Creighton, and she went with Ken to look at it. She agreed that was the next fundraising project.
When Kim attended funerals, she would say the guest of honor was missing out on the best part. Friends and family had the best part with Kim, playing Classic Rock and drinking wine while she was still here.
Kim was pre-deceased by her mother, Sylvia.
Kim Gurba passed away Saturday, Oct 15, 2016 at The Pas Health Complex
Please, in lieu of flowers, donations to Sno-Medic would be appreciated by her friends, family and her community. Donations can be made or mailed to The Westoba Credit Union, 261 Fischer Avenue, P.O. Box 1379, The Pas, Manitoba, R9A 1L3. Please make cheques payable to Sno-Medic.
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