Barb Snelgrove is a power train in the LGBT community. Self-driven, dedicated, and deeply motivated, she’s a force of nature.

“Every day when I open my eyes and take that first breath, I’m happy,” the Vancouver woman says with infectious laughter. “It’s a good day. It could only get better from there.”

Since 1998, when she stepped up to get involved, Snelgrove has devoted countless hours and days to helping make things better.
“Bettering my community is sort of where my volunteer focus comes from,” she says. “I’ve always been a cheerleader for my community.”

Best known for her expertise in marketing, public relations, and communication, Snelgrove also has a knack with the microphone, making her a sought-after host.

According to her, keeping an audience is like being a circus ringmaster: “You’re moving things along, and you’re hopefully entertaining as well as poignant when need be.”

MCing the 2016 Pride Legacy Awards in June after the mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, Snelgrove exhorted the audience to be prouder, louder, and unafraid.

Although she isn’t doing as much hosting as she did in previous years because of professional and other commitments, she remains the voice in major events. These include the Pride run and walk event on July 24 to kick off this year’s Pride week.

Snelgrove says her love of hosting goes back to growing up in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood. It was a household showered with love by their parents, and as she remembers, one that “always had all the neighbourhood kids over”.

“Everyone was laughing all the time,” Snelgrove recalls during an interview with the Georgia Straight at Roundhouse Radio, where she works as the station’s promotions and communications director.

While her own business, Megamouthmedia Consulting, has taken a back seat because of her full-time engagement with the Vancouver radio station, Snelgrove continues to be fully plugged into various initiatives in the LGBT community.

She’s a member of the City of Vancouver committee to oversee programming in Jim Deva Plaza, scheduled to officially open on Thursday (July 28). The creation of the plaza was one of the recommendations made by Snelgrove and her coauthors in a 2013 report about revitalizing Davie Street.

Snelgrove is a member of the city and police department’s diversity advisory committees. She is on the selection panel of the LOUD Foundation scholarship awards for LGBT students. She sits on the advisory panel of Positive Living B.C., which supports people with HIV and AIDS.

“I had incredible parents who gifted me with life skills that I’m very proud of,” Snelgrove says about how she’s able to do all these things.

Perhaps no one’s prouder of the community than Snelgrove herself. “The people and organizations and passions that make up our community…are so diverse that it just…blows me away sometimes. I’m amazed, and I’m smiling just talking about it right now. It really, really is. We’re so blessed here.”