Former valley mine worker and Atlas story-source Bob Moffatt submitted this letter to The Mail for Atlas Coal Mine executive director Linda Digby’s selection as a Drumheller Hero.
Linda may have originally seen the position as just a job. If that was the case, it is certainly not that now. When you get to know her you will see it is now a passion and a source of dreams for the future. You do not accomplish the strides that she has made by working an eight hour day.
As a volunteer at the Atlas, I have been first hand witness to the efficiency and dedication Linda brings to her position. She has excellent rapport with her staff, both full time and seasonal.
I have also been privileged to sit in on planning sessions for future developments and observed Linda’s demand for details and her insistance that the site remain as intact as possible and yet expand in educational role.
Linda and her staff are excellent at drawing stories out of miners who insist they have no story to tell. How much they care about these miners is evident when one of them becomes ill or passes away. Want to make Linda smile? Bring another miner who worked in the valley to her office for an interview.
I do not believe the Atlas would have been resurrected nor received the funding and recognition it has today without Linda Digby.
Born in El Centro, California, Linda immigrated to Canada in 1983 and moved to the valley in 1988. She opened the Groundwork Natural Science Education in East Coulee, then the Dinosaur Country Science Camp until 2002. She became the executive director of the Atlas Coal Mine in 2001. In 1993, Linda and her husband Robin piloted an immersing way to involve tourists in experiential learning, “Day Dig’, which is now used often at the Tyrrell. “What has always motivated is the joy of making a connection inside somebody, by bringing people into this wonderful relationship which is interpretation. There perception changes about some little thing about the world and you’re a part of that process.”
