Tamara always went the extra mile

Re: “Beloved mom, wife and Herald reporter passes away,” May 31.

My deep condolences to Heath McCoy, the family, and her colleagues at the Herald on the passing of Tamara Gignac. I met Tamara in the early 2000s. I was providing media services for a client that had a potentially hostile investors’ meeting coming up.

The meeting was a wild west jamboree with accusations and counter- accusations from management and a deeply divided investor group. It would have made a perfect movie script. Tamara did in- depth interviews and research before writing a completely accurate, fair and balanced story.

She was last assigned to cover one of my clients in October 2011. A group of 37 Rotarians, friends and family were trekking to the base camp of Mount Everest in April 2012 under Karl Herzog’s leadership. Tamara came to a packed Nepalese restaurant, where a group enjoyed a great buffet, beautiful Nepalese dancing, and then sat through various speakers talking about trek preparation.

She could have done a phone interview and I would have been elated. But she took extra time to capture the heart of the Rotary Everest Trek 2012 story, which included meaningful colour. Her story was picked up by daily newspapers across Canada. The result? The bulk of $ 150,000 was raised through online donations for a school in Nepal operated by the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation.

Tamara, you have been called from us way too early. You were a wonderful person, a loving wife and mom, and a dedicated professional. You are missed. Robyn T. Braley, Calgary Robyn Braley works at Unimark Creative.