Dr. Jeremy Kass hasn’t taken any shortcuts in setting up his first practice since becoming a family physician.
Kass, who with his wife, Alexandra, arrived in Creston last month from Whitehorse, Yukon, will be working with Dr. Daile Hoffman in her 14th Avenue clinic.
“We probably picked the worst time possible to make the trip,” he said of their move south.
They left Whitehorse with Jeremy at the wheel of a U-Haul rental truck and Alex following in their Subaru. Winter weather was expressing itself in full force and they travelled on icy roads in fog and snow as they headed southward.
“For some reason Jeremy’s phone GPS didn’t like the most direct route,” Alex laughed. “I would see a sign at a turnoff in the direction I thought we should be going and he would keep right on driving.”
Eventually their travels would take them straight into downtown Calgary, a few hundred miles off the most direct route.
“They called me and said they were in High River and I said, ‘High River? What are you doing there?’” physician recruiter Marilin States laughed.
On the next day they put the long drive behind them as a crew of volunteers help them unload their possessions into a house they had bought sight unseen, with the help of States.
Jeremy’s life path has been long and winding, too. Born in Brazil, he was raised in Costa Rica and attended university in Mexico. He did his final year of residency in New York City, where his father now lives.
Alex was born in Eastern Europe and met Jeremy in Costa Rica, where she was working for Outward Bound. In Whitehorse, where her parents now live, the journalist and research specialist was working in the health care system.
Jeremy’s original goal was to become an ophthalmologist and work in the U.S. But he and Alex had talked about settling and raising a family in a rural community, where she could enjoy her love of horses, and their dogs and cats would have space to play.
“Alex pointed out that as a specialist I would be limited to living in larger cities, so I changed my focus to becoming a family physician,” he said.
After having lived in the Yukon, the two couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of life in Creston, surrounded by the bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
“People who haven’t lived in the North have no idea how good a fresh tomato tastes after getting used to the ones that have been frozen and are weeks old before they get to the grocery store in the Yukon,” Alex said.
Kass’s arrival is another feather in the cap of the Creston Valley Health Working Group, which is funded by the Town of Creston and Regional District of Central Kootenay Areas B and C, and supported by Interior Health and local physicians. In their search for a new home, Jeremy and Alex were focused on Vancouver Island. But Creston caught their eye when they were reading about opportunities on the HealthMatch BC website.
“Creston very quickly was on our radar,” he said.
States invited Jeremy to for a visit to Creston after they both attended a medical conference and he was sold.
“Afterward I was talking to Alex on the phone and telling her about Creston and she said I didn’t have to sell her on the valley — Jeremy had already done that!” States said.
It wasn’t only climate and geography that impressed Jeremy, though.
“When Alex and I came down we met all of the local physicians except one, who was on vacation,” he said. “I couldn’t believe how welcoming they were.”
The common message he received was about the importance of living a balanced life, one that allows a busy professional to take advantage of the opportunities that rural living affords.
“Their attitude was a huge factor in our decision-making,” he said.