| Coming Soon...
This week’s column is dedicated to Don Ungaro who tragically died February 6. Don celebrated family, friends, faith and community and his passing will make a void in many lives. We will all miss you.
Jim thought that I missed this, but he was wrong. Jim Juba, long-time and well-known director of operations Central/Southern B. C. for Canada Post has recently retired. Jim was with Canada Post for over 33 years, 18 of those in Kelowna . He started his career in Saskatoon . His retirement will not be boring. He has already been skiing a lot and intends to play lots of golf – seven days a week he tells me. If that’s true, he’s going to have to join us ladies on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Hope he’s ready for that. Jim’s also going to be taking care of things around the house as his wife, Christine is still working. Happy retirement!
Pat Moberg of the Briar Patch in Tutt Street Mall on Tutt Street is importing a new product hand made in Ethiopia . “Sabahar” is an Ethiopian textile company producing handmade silk and silk/cotton products. The name Sabahar comes from the legendary Queen of Sheba/Saba (Amharic) and “har” means silk. The neat thing is that the company was started by a Canadian gal, Cathy Marshall, who is known to people in our community and has been in Ethiopia for 12 years. Sabahar employs Ethiopian artisans (fair trade and employment principals are respected) to use traditional skills and designs with local available products. They produce unique, high quality silk products such as scarves, placemats, napkins, shawls and small handbags. They are all hand spun, hand woven, hand dyed and hand beaded in various sizes. All are naturally dyed with marigolds, safflower, madder, meskal flowers, onions, hibiscus, coffee, henna, ivy and ensosela. The products are lovely and Pat is now in the process of re-ordering as all the samples that were brought in were well received. Drop by or call 861-3457.
Melanie Routledge former front desk supervisor at The Grand Hotel has joined the team at the Ramada Hotel and Conference Centre on Harvey Avenue as their new front office manager.
Landmark III Insurance and Financial Services owners Randy Quigley and Jeremy Harris are pleased to have Sarah Dunn join their firm in a sales and administrative position. Sarah and her family relocated from Burlington , Ontario last August and she brings with her 17 years experience in insurance and wealth management. Call 861-1219
“Salloum Langin” lawyers on Bernard has a new solicitor. Joe A. Wiseman has joined the firm effective February 13. He has been a solicitor for over 23 years and specializes in corporate and commercial law along with wills and estates. Call him at 861-5678
Two exceptional individuals were honoured with the Exceptional Service Under the Sun Awards at the end of last year for their outstanding service. Congratulations to Jill Demers of the Glenmore Tim Horton’s, being the award winner for November and Harry Brust of Quest for Success, December’s winner.
Dr. Oussama S. Al-Dimashki has been appointed to the board of Altek Power Corp. located in Kelowna . He is currently the managing director of Middle East Development, LLC, Dubai , UAE. This organization is primarily involved in major real estate investment and with interests in electric power project development. The reciprocal interest between Dr. Oussama and Altek Power lies with a common interest in power production and the resultant growth of the company. Altek develops timely, profitable and environmentally responsible energy solutions. As an independent power producer, Altek provides quick-to-market electrical generation plants which respond to energy needs worldwide. Byron P. Loewen is the Chairman and CEO of the company located at #1004-1708 Dolphin Avenue . Call 717-3707
“SYNLawn” is the most advanced synthetic grass on the market, specifically designed for landscape, playground, golf and field applications and now there is a SynLawn distributor in Kelowna and the first in Canada . The showroom and shop, located at #140-948 McCurdy Road (behind Whitespot) is run by Dale Marsh the Okanagan Distributor with Glen Nagy as the sales manager. Well-known Kelowna businessman, Reg Henry and his partners have acquired the rights for this versatile product for Canada . I’ve seen the product and it’s really neat. They offer six varieties of grasses to work with and can meet even the most demanding landscape challenges. The product is ideals for pets, slopes, low-light areas, high traffic areas and in places where natural sod simply will not grow, all virtually maintenance free. The Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Casino has close to three acres of SYNLawn throughout their resort, about a $3 Million application. The company installs for residential, commercial common area, parks and recreation, driving ranges, sports fields, roadways and medians. It can be used just about anywhere. It would be great to have a good synthetic putting green in the back yard. Call 765-4032
Kelowna company Market My Club, a division of Lunapress Inc. known for its graphic design and marketing expertise has been contracted to provide marketing and promotional materials for a revolutionary new product set to take the international fitness industry by storm. The company will act as exclusive providers of marketing materials to authorized “Podfitness” facilities. Podfitness offers the world’s first customized audio workouts. Subscribers identify their health and fitness goals, choose from a selection of some of the best known personal trainers in North American, pick their music and then let Podfitness create a personalized workout they can download onto their iPod or MP3 player. With more than 42 million iPod units and millions of other MP3 players out there, it’s the next logical step to workout products. Podfitness will begin offering consumer downloads on February 27. Sherry Robb is the founder of Lunapress and Market My Club. Call 862-5782 www.marketmyclub.com or www.podfitness.com
Horizon Air is purchasing two Bombardier Q400 high-speed turboprops that were previously operated by Hainan Airlines based in the People’s Republic of China . The aircraft will be flown from China to Calgary where they will undergo extensive refurbishing. They are scheduled to enter service by early June and July. Horizon has not yet finalized plans for where these newest additions to its fleet will be deployed. Horizon Air locally operates several flights to and from Seattle daily.
If you own a horse, love horses or are just interested in seeing them you might be interested in attending a live demonstration of “horse whispering” taking place at Ralph Livingston’s Applegate Equestrian Center at 4030 Spiers Road on Saturday, February 18 starting at 9am . Bill Roy from Enderby will be coming to town to show how to start young mustangs on the road to a safe, trusting relationship that will last for the lifetime of the horse and rider. Bill will have his hands full as he will be working with a bona fide mustang; range bred and raised, with no human contact until last fall. The demonstration will prove to be interesting and informative both for horse owners and those who want to see a master trainer at work in a live setting. The cost is only $10 per person or $20 for the whole family. For more info call 764-4483
The 4th Annual Valentines Masked Ball, sponsored by Ballet Kelowna and David LaHay as Artistic Director was a huge success. The ball was sold out and the entertainment by International Tenor Tony Serka, the students from the Canadian School of Ballet and a Swan Lake excerpt by Tiffany Bilodeau and Rocky L. Gagne were phenomenal. There was a silent and live auction and dancing to The Michael Garding Big Band. The evening certainly was lively and well received with Dan Skrlac as MC. The event raised over $30,000. Laura Doncom is the present of Ballet Kelowna.
Toyota Canada handed over the keys of a Lexus 400GS to Okanagan College ’s Trades and Apprenticeship programs to give students the opportunity to work on the latest automotive technology. “We have a good variety of cars available for our students to work on, but very few in the high-end technology that is available in this type of car,” relates Alan Cohoe, chair of the Motor Vehicle Trades Department. This vehicle will allow students to gain experience working on many of the technological features available in higher-end automobiles.
Heritage week is February 20th to 26th. You can explore local history at Kelowna Museums with a linked exhibition during the week. This year’s theme is dedicated to galleries, museums and bandstands - historic places that inspire, inform and entertain. Promoting this history is the Kelowna Museum , Okanagan Military Museum and BC Orchard Industry Museum , who will guide visitors through each of these exhibition sites in a one hour public walking tour. The tours will be daily starting at 1:30pm at the Kelowna Museum . Admission if by donation. For more info call Stephanie Loo de Nevers 763-2417 ex.28
There’s only a few tables and tickets available for the event of the year, being The Cops for Kids RCMP Regimental Ball on March 9th at Prospera Place . Call Thom and Associates at 712-3050.
David Chilton, best selling author of the book The Wealthy Barber will be the featured speaker at the 27th Annual Okanagan Business Students Association’s Business Banquet on March 9th. The association helps bring business students together with professional members of the community and event proceeds are donated to the Okanagan Business Students’ Association for future financial awards to business students. Tickets are available by email at tickets@obsabanquet.com or by phone at 762-5445, ext. 4745.
This is good news. The Downtown Kelowna Association installed the 50th back alley light as part of a 2005 Back Alley Lighting initiative. The initiative was put in place to address safety and security concerns by illuminating dark alleys with a cost-sharing partnership with downtown property owners. Through the partnership, property owners have applied to the DKA for a rebate valued up to $300 per installed light, to a maximum number of three lights per building. Improved lighting is cited by the City of Kelowna ’s Crime Prevention through Environmental Design Guidelines as an effective method in improving the public’s sense of safety and security in a given area. By utilizing numerous installations in each block, casting shadows where people can hide are minimized.
You won’t see the column next week as I’ll be away. I’m attending the Vancouver Golf Show promoting golf, the Okanagan and The Ramada Lodge Hotel and Conference Centre. It’s always a good show with tons of attendees. See you on March 1.
Quote of the week – You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Birthdays of the week:
- Jean Barr, Ramada Hotel (Feb.20)
- Rod Warnock (my brother-in-law), Monashee Consulting Feb.17
- Mike Culos, Culos Development (Feb.14)
- Marie Vendruck, Vickie’s Cut Above (Feb.14)
- Tal Jandali (Feb.18)
Maxine DeHart is a Kelowna hotelier. Phone her at 979-4546, fax 860-3173, E-mail maxdehart@telus.net and web-site www.welcometokelowna.com (click on Business) |
