Hell Yeah operating again, McWalter steps away from group

Hell Yeah Prince George is operating again.

The 35,000-member Facebook page dedicated to promoting positive news about Prince George was reactivated at 8 p.m. Friday night when site creator Scott McWalter turned over control to a group of administrators.

McWalter pulled the plug on the site Tuesday night after a he made a post urging people to attend a court case involving Brink Forest Products, who he works for. Political issues are not normal postings on the site and criticism soon followed.

In a posting to re-open the page Friday, McWalter didn’t reference the Brink posting specifically, but admitted he had erred.

“In life, people never enjoy admitting they made a mistake,” McWalter posted. “Unfortunately, this is exactly what I did on Tuesday evening. As a result, I feel I have let the people who have grown to love this Facebook Group down in a big way – and for that, I apologize.”

He added that he will no longer be involved with the Hell Yeah Prince George Facebook group.

“On Tuesday evening, it became clear that my time with HYPG was over; consequently, the page was temporarily put on pause until now,” he said. “An extraordinary team of people who have spent years volunteering their time as HYPG admins will be taking over the group. Each one of these individuals is a community difference-maker and will steer HYPG in a better direction than I did.”

McWalter named Dave Mothus, Rod Walker, Jen Higham, Tim Bennett, April Tod McLeod, and Kim Matheson as administrators for the site. Mothus then added Becky Lewis, Amanda Hadley, and Alana Bull.

Mothus praised McWalter for the work they have done together.

“I first want to say that Scott has been one of the biggest reasons I am who I am today,” he said. “I did not understand how much this silly little Facebook page would come to matter to me and how proud of the work we did I would be. I am immensely proud to call Scott a mentor and a friend and prouder still that he has the courage to own his actions with dignity and humility.

“The admins have been speaking in the background and we feel a few small changes will come to the page. As we have done in past we will have several polls over the coming weeks to allow you, the members, to decide the direction the page goes in.”

It is somewhat ironic that the group, which was designed to highlight the positive in Prince George, faced a great deal of negativity over the past few days.

“Before I sign off for the final time, I have one favour to ask the members of this group,” said McWalter. “It’s a simple one, really. My wish is that our community continues to build one another up, not tear each other down. Life is amazing and we’re so lucky to live in a place like Prince George. It can be too easy at times to endure a negative mindset  and I hope others will follow these four simple words of advice: focus on the awesome.”