Co-op Community Champion: Kim Livingstone

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A local business owner’s passion and commitment to giving back to the community has led to multiple opportunities for kids in Fort St. John.

June’s Co-op Community Champion, Kim Livingstone, says she has helped raise around $44,000 over the last five years for different causes, resulting in kids being able to play hockey, participate in summer camps, and eat through school breakfast programs.

The owner of Sand and Stone Jewellery has been making Fort St. John shine over the past couple of years through her online presence (16,600 followers on Instagram, 13,000 on Facebook) and for having her jewelry featured at the Academy Awards gifting suite in 2017. However, some might not know how community-minded the business owner is, specifically towards raising money for kids in the community.

“I really just focus on kids because they have no choice. These are kids that are hungry, or they want to go camping or wanna play hockey. Maybe their parents are in a really tough situation, which I get, I’m now a single mom, and it’s been hard,” said Kim.

A significant contributor to Kim’s fundraising efforts over the years has been the Fort St. John Tradeshow, where she would collect donations and then challenge businesses to match them.

At the 2023 tradeshow, with the community’s help, Kim raised $1,600 for the School District 60 Breakfast Program, with the Fort St. John Firefighters Charitable Society matching the donations to bring the total to $3,200.

“If my kids are going to school and there’s a kid sitting beside my daughter who’s hungry, that kills me.”

Kim says in the past, her fundraising has helped 16 kids be able to play hockey and 45 kids go to summer camps because their parents, unfortunately, couldn’t afford it.

“I’ve always said that if we can just change the life for one kid, then that’s us making a difference. And then people have always shown up, and we’ve been able to change multiple kids’ lives throughout the community.”

Now, Kim would be the first to say that she wouldn’t be able to raise money for the community if it wasn’t for residents, business owners and other organizations.

“As soon as I kind of put something out there, the community rallies with me, and I’ve always said that I feel like everybody always wants to do good and donate to their community but sometimes just don’t know how. So not only do I want to make a difference in my community, because that’s who I am, I love being a place where people can come and donate to their community as a collective.”

Helping others in the community has always been close to Kim’s heart, even before starting her company. Although, she says Sand and Stone Jewellery has given her opportunities to help in a way that she would never have been able to on her own through the relationships she has made.

Kim was born and raised in Armstrong, B.C., and moved to Fort St. John in 2006. She started Sand and Stone in 2012 as a hobby, saying she never expected it to be a legitimate business.

“It just kind of kept rolling, and I just had to figure it out along the way, and then it just became way bigger than I ever thought it would.”

Kim has also passed her philanthropist ways on to her two kids, encouraging them to be empathetic and help others in need.

“I just have wanted always to be a leading example for my kids and be able to show them and have them be a direct part of my company. Like I was pregnant with my son when I started. He literally does not know a life without me owning and running this company. And he’s seen me do amazing things, raise money, and change lives. And I just think it’s really important because I can totally see that rubbing off on him.”

Another passion of Kim’s is advocating for women in business, especially those looking to start their own companies.

“For the longest time, I was, and still am, I’m just a huge advocate of, um, Of women finding their dream and realizing that you can raise babies, raise a company, and do something amazing for the world all at the same time.”

In the past two years I’ve been writing Co-op Community Champion, I’ve never had anyone as excited to be selected as Kim. Even during our interview, she kept thanking me, saying the day I phoned her wasn’t a great day, and overall she’s been going through a rough patch in her life.

Being selected served as a reminder to her of the effort she puts into giving back to the community and was something she needed at that moment.

Everyone I have talked to for Community Champion says they don’t look for recognition, but the reason we have conducted this series for around two years is that those people SHOULD be highlighted for making our community a better place. They deserve it.

Congratulations to Kim Livingstone for being named June’s Co-op Community Champion.

Anyone looking to nominate a community-minded person in need of recognition can head to Energeticcity’s website.