Palma Berger, nee Brus

Palma Berger was born in Australia. She came to Dawson during the 1962 Dawson City Festival and worked for her future husband as a bartender in the Bonanza Hotel. They were married two years later and lived in Vancouver before they returned to Dawson.¹⁾ The Bergers purchased the Orpheum Theatre in 1966. They also opened the first Sears outlet in Dawson and ran a bus depot for twenty-one years. They opened a drug store [without a druggist] after the town had been without for fifty years.²⁾

Palma Berger was a founding member of the Dawson City Arts Society (DCAS) and sat on the Board from 1999 until 2007. She served on the DCAS executive until 2005 and volunteered for many programs, notably providing meals for the annual Youth Art Enrichment Program. In 2006 she initiated the seniors’ painting group. She was a member of the Nutty Club which produced a community newsletter. She was founding member of the Klondike Sun newspaper and served on the Board from 1989 to 2008. She wrote for the paper, took photographs, and assisted in circulation. She spent ten years on the Dawson School Council, ten years on the Dawson Campus Committee for Yukon College, and served a term on the Board of Governors for Yukon College. She volunteered with the local Air Cadets, chaired the Dawson Library Board, and served on Dawson’s recreation committee. She was instrumental in bringing kindergarten to the Robert Service School and was a volunteer teacher for the first group of students. In 2013 Palma Berger received a Commissioner’s Public Volunteer Service Award for her many years of volunteer service.³⁾ Three of Palma’s paintings are in Yukon’s Permanent Art Collection.⁴⁾