If you were trapped on a deserted island, what important tools of survival would you want by your side? For North Vancouver resident Mary-Jo Dionne the answer’s simple: a humble pen.
“Communication has always been my thing and writing is just one more way of doing that,” Dionne says. “I’ve always said if I ended up on a deserted island and didn’t have a pen, I would panic.”
Dionne, who is described on her website as a “poly-hyphenated creative communications junkie,” recently had her accomplishments honoured at the YWCA’s annual Women of Distinction Awards, where she was recognized in the categories of Arts, Culture & Design as well as given the coveted Connecting the Community award.
A writer, speaker, performer, podcaster and philanthropist, Dionne wears many hats but is consistent in her desire to undertake projects she’s passionate about. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Man., followed by the Maritimes, Dionne has lived in North Vancouver since 2010.
After first moving to the West Coast 20 years ago, Dionne got her start writing snappy copy as an advertising copywriter before later setting out as a magazine writer and contributor.
From there she tried her hand at stand-up comedy.
“I also always had a love for comedy,” she says. “It wasn’t the kind of terrifying that debilitated, it was sort of the kind of terrifying that was empowering. I really ended up loving it.”
Three years later, her love of performing on stage turned into a full-on one-woman production with Glowing: A Reproduction Production, a frank look at some major pregnancy and health challenges that Dionne faced in 2011.
“I turned what was by far the darkest time in my life into something that became a vehicle to talk about a lot of tough stuff that people go through,” she says.
Her humanitarian side has also extended to philanthropy. She started Mary-Jo Dionne Productions Fund in 2015 in an effort to give back at a local level. In partnership with Vancity Community Foundation, Dionne recently launched the fund’s first campaign, The Millipede Project, an effort to provide 500 local kids in need with a pair of back-to-school shoes for the September 2018 school term.
For Dionne, who was raised by a single mother, it’s all in a day’s work.
“Despite our limited means, my mother taught me all about abundance consciousness, which is it doesn’t matter if you have a little – you can still share what you have,” she says.
