Tourism Kamloops is excited to welcome Helen Saur as our new Office Manager
Not everyone who moves across the world for a job and ends up staying because of the landscape. Helen Saur did.
She arrived from Germany with a lifelong goal of living in Canada, and Harper Mountain gave her the perfect start. One winter in, and she already knew she wanted to stay. The skiing was close, the trails were everywhere, and Kamloops had more to explore than she could get to in a season.
A friend had to explain early on that it wasn't a desert, technically, but semi-arid grasslands. She adopted the distinction. By spring, she was hiking Lac du Bois with her dog, watching everything bloom, and calling it magical without much hesitation. It wasn’t the version she carried in her head, but the real thing has a quiet beauty that surprised her. What she found was stunning in its very own way.
At Tourism Kamloops, she works as Office Manager, a role she describes as wonderfully varied. She supports CEO Erik Fisher, handles operations, and moves between projects depending on where she is needed. She holds a B.A. in Sports Management and an MBA in Business Administration, and she worked a nearly identical role in Germany before making the move, so she arrived knowing how the job works. What she didn't know yet was Kamloops, and the perk of her position is that she is learning it faster than most. Tourism Kamloops sits close to the community and close to the visitors at the same time. For someone who loves exploring new places, she landed in the right room.
Starting a new job in a new country carries its own particular weight, and she is candid about the fact that the team made it easier than she expected. "I couldn't have wished for a more welcoming team," she says. "They made starting to work in a new country very easy for me." That kind of landing matters. It's the difference between a place you're trying out and a place you're building something in.
If her family flew over from Germany tomorrow, she knows exactly where she'd take them. The Grasslands first, then the Wildlife Park and the museums, the Indigenous heritage woven through the history of this place. And then, maybe most importantly, she'd introduce them to the friends who became family here. The one who is part of the reason she stopped treating Kamloops like a stop on the way somewhere else.
She is planning her first full Canadian summer with some ambition: fishing trips, a possible hunting licence, and eventually getting out on the mountain bike trails she has been walking past since the snow melted. She is also planning to cook Swabian Spätzle for the team, which is a traditional pasta dish from her home region in Germany, and she is watching to see how that lands.
She has been here less than a year. She came with a dream, landed with a dog and a pair of skis, and found a team that was ready for her. We are lucky she chose Kamloops. We are even luckier she chose us.
