The Day I Met the Great Peter Gzowski

June 3, 2002

The following story was written by Jenffer A. Jay from Whitehorse, Yukon. Jenffer has been going to Yukon Learn ever since 1985 when it was known as Project Wordpower. She is very pleased and honoured to have her story chosen for Story of the Week. Jenffer has been writing stories and songs for many years and also draws her own comic strip called "Miss J and the AM". Her stories and cartoons have been printed in the Learner to Learner newsletter. She enjoys volunteering at many Yukon Learn events including the PGI Golf Tournaments.

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by Jenffer A. Jay

It was back in the summer of 1987 when I was working at the Regina Hotel (the Riverside Hotel it is now called) as a luggage handler. When Mr. Peter Gzowski came to town to do his TV show called Gzowski & Company. He stayed at the hotel for two weeks, for those two weeks I helped with unloading and then loading his things.

Soon he started to like my work and then I showed him my cartoons. He liked them and liked me for what I had done with my many handicaps. And how I got far in college with the help of Project Wordpower (now called Yukon Learn). So on the last day I asked him for his autograph. And that's what he did, he signed his name on the back of my library card. Then he noticed that I collected pins so he gave me two pins that he had on him for a "well-done tip." Then he said the next time he is up here with his TV show he promised a bit on me. But that never happened. His TV show got cancelled. I hope I would meet him again some day.

I volunteered for the PGI the last three years because of that meeting, and my belief in literacy for all. And will do it again this year and many more years to come.

Sadly on January 24, 2002 Mr. Peter Gzowski died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, due to emphysema. I will always remember the day that I met this great man. His dream will live on in all the golf tournaments for literacy across Canada that he started in 1986, and will live in our hearts for many years to come.

[This story was taken with permission, from The Yukon News, April 19, 2002.]