SEptEmBER 2018 BCBusiness 55
"W
e basically
play at
places where
people have no choice but to
hear us," Lawrie Ferguson
declares cheerfully about her
band, Couldn't Sleep (more
about the name later). "So, little
parties and stu•." Their biggest
audience so far was at a birth-
day celebration with about 60
guests. Last summer the group
put on a backyard concert from
the lower deck of Ferguson's
New Westminster home
while friends and neighbours
watched from the lawn or their
own yards. Ferguson is plan-
ning a repeat performance this
year. "No one has complained
so far," she says. "We don't go
that late because we're really
old ourselves."
Ferguson, 54, isn't shy about
appearing before an audience.
The Tina Fey fan has taken
a standup comedy course,
performed locally a couple of
times and likes to incorporate
humour into work events.
Growing up in Salmon Arm,
she was a drummer in Vernon's
MacIntosh Girls' Pipe Band.
But she only picked up the
sticks again when her father, an
accomplished snare drummer
who played with many bands
and taught drumming as well,
developed advanced dementia.
"Alzheimer's patients really
respond to music even though a
lot of their other faculties aren't
quite there," she explains. "I
would go up, and we would
have little drum pads, and he
tANYA gOEhRINg
Bang On
Coast Capital Savings CMO Lawrie Ferguson
drums up enthusiasm
by Felicity Stone
W E E K E N D WA R R IOR
(
quality time
)
waRRioR
sPoTLiGHT
As chief marketing officer
of one of Canada's largest
credit unions, Lawrie
Ferguson manages Coast
Capital Savings' brand-
ing, advertising, digital
and social media, product
development, commu-
nications, public affairs,
government relations and
investment in community
youth initiatives. She is
also executive sponsor
of its expansion steering
committee, overseeing
Coast Capital's transition
this fall from a provincial to
a federal credit union, just
the second in Canada to
operate nationally.
O FF
T H E
C LO C k
