Maxine Dehart

Straight from DeHart

Date: May 23/2007

OK Excavating is celebrating 40 years in business. Owned and operated by Al and Pam Horak, who lived on DeHart Road as our neighbours for many years, the company was started by Al with one hand-held rototiller as OK Landscaping. Over the years, OK Landscaping became OK Excavating and Al went from one little rototiller to a company that does multi-million dollar jobs with up to 40+ employees at a time and 45 pieces of equipment including excavators, dump trucks, graders, bobcats, packers, loaders and screening plants to name a few. Pam ran the office by herself for the first 30 years. The City of Kelowna bought their property on the corner of DeHart and Gordon, where they lived and ran the business from in 2004 to widen the road. They then moved the business to 355 Neave Road, in the brand new industrial section at Reid’s Corner off Sexsmith Road. Al and Pam are considering retiring soon and the business will be in the care of son Todd and daughter Trixie Florence. What a great run! Call 765-4902.

Will Gow, well-known businessman and owner of CBD Network Inc. is the new executive director of the Okanagan Science and Technology Council (OSTEC). OSTEC has 250 members and a staff of three and is located at #320-1632 Dickson Avenue. Call 712-3344

After 15-1/2 years, Kurt Phillips has sold Kelowna GuitarWorks at 1294 Ellis Street. The new owner is Drew Graham of Bering Music in Westbank. Kurt is playing in his metal band, doing seminars and is now available for corporate events. Call Kurt at 317-0621 or GuitarWorks at 862-5171.

Shawn Wightman and Carlyle Mazankowski, owners of Breadeaux Pizza at the corner of Burtch and Hwy. 97 (next to Blockbuster) have opened a second location in Quail Ridge at the Borgata Lodge, next to Beyond Rapture. They opened their original location at Burtch in October, 2005. Call 861-4477 at Burtch and 491-3837 at the new location. Pizza delivery is available at both locations.

After 50 years as a highway driver, George Green has retired. He has driven for Kindersley Transport for the past 10 years. In speaking to his wife Frankie, she says he is going to putter around and loves woodworking and building things. They are also moving to Salmon Arm in about one month. It’s going to be quite a change for Frankie as she mentioned that in all his 50 years of driving he has only been home a total of about two years.

The Kelowna Farmers & Crafters Market is now also open Thursday evenings from June thru September from 4-8pm on the corner of Springfield and Dilworth. There are now 100 vendors selling farm fresh produce, homemade ethnic foods, crafts and much more. Call Bob Callioux at 878-5029.

The RCMP Southeast District Awards Presentation Ceremony was held May 16. Long service awards were presented. Congratulations to local 30 year recipients; Civilian Member Lori McNish and Sue Wickert. 25 year recipients were; Constable Bob Irwin, Civilian Member Colleen Quinlan, Sergeant Ross van den Brink and Inspector Steve McVarnock who is now in Vernon. 20 year recipients were Public Service Employee Maureen Gallup and Sergeant Terry McLachlan.

Alex and Gai Michie of RE/MAX Kelowna, along with their advertising agency have won an award. The agency, Wave Productions received a Craft Award for their creative use of sound and music and an honourable mention in the Agency Single Category for the Michie’s radio ad. The “Crystal Awards” are the gold standard for achievement in the Canadian radio advertising industry. You can hear the ad on CKOV/63. Call 718-8182.

Scott Fitzgerald is the newest full time physiotherapist on staff at “iQuest Health Center” located at #3-1745 Spall Road, joining Lorne Friesen and Ryan Bachmeier. iQuest provides one-on-one physiotherapy service for sports injury, work related injury and health promotion programs including Sport Body Science assessment and treatment. The Sport Body Science is unique to iQuest with a comprehensive biomechanical examination lading into a treatment program specific to the individual’s pain, flexibility, performance and injury prevention needs. Call 860-3413.

You really have to try this new unique product to understand the look and taste of it. “Mini Melts” The Ice Cream Dream, distributed by Licensee Bart Dilschneider is a new ice cream, with a Kiosk in the Capri Mall next to the Extra Foods Entrance. This exciting and delicious new product has been in the U.S. for 10 years, in Canada for 4 years and in Kelowna for only a couple of weeks. The World’s Coldest Ice Cream was first shown at the Kelowna Boat Show and had such good response they chose to open a permanent location. The ice cream actually look like little coloured “ dry pellets” and is flash frozen at -187 degrees Celsius and served at -40 degrees Celsius in a dish. When you put them into your mouth they melt instantly and taste delicious. I tried the chocolate and the mango. They presently serve nine flavours, which are all natural with no preservatives, except the “cotton candy”. A small dish is only 220 calories. They will also be featuring a diabetic ice cream of vanilla and chocolate in a couple of weeks. Call 808-4121

Gorman Bros. has stepped forward and donated new hardwood flooring to the BC Wine Museum and VQA Wine Shop in support of their recent on-going renovations. The Wine Museum, located at 1304 Ellis Street, inside the historical Packinghouse was in need of some renovations, especially a new floor and Gorman’s provided them with the wood planks they needed. The floors were installed by John Liman. In addition to the new flooring the Wine Museum has a fresh coat of paint and additional shelving to allow the wine shop to carry an even larger selection of VQA wines.

Happy 10^th Anniversary Mort and Susan Downey, TAC Mobility on May 17.

Aquariums are a hot item these days and are definitely back in style. “Aqua-Optics” Aquarium Install & Servicing Co. is a new company started by Ryan Gagnon, which is a complete aquarium servicing business. Ryan certainly offers something new in the “fish” industry. If you do not have the time, knowledge or confidence to set up an aquarium, Ryan will do it for you. He will set one up in any office or retail outlet, whether it is your own or you can purchase a custom built one from him. He will buy the fish and set up the whole unit with the proper décor and then service it once per week. He can install and build any type of aquarium from 55 gallons to 200 gallons, whether they are custom, bow front cylinder, built-in the wall or complete circle aquariums. If you presently have one in your office or home he will also service it. He’s got a fun motto being “slime is a crime.” So, if you have an aquarium or if you would like one, call Ryan at 864-9910.

Congratulations to Amanda Moodie (Dragonfly Gallery & A&W Capri) and Eric Biggs (A&W Cooper) on their upcoming marriage on June 15 in Nanaimo.

This is really neat! The “Spirit of Kelowna” Community Public Art Project is made possible by contributions from the City of Kelowna’s Public Art Reserve Fund and the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire Recovery Society. 102 citizens of Kelowna, 11 years of age and up (of which I am honoured to be a part of) can register to design and make 102 bronze medallions, expressing their own individual interpretations of community spirit over the next five months during ten free workshops supervised by well-respected Kelowna sculptor Geert Maas. No artistic experience is required (thank goodness for that) for this hands-on opportunity. All that is needed is an idea and a bit of pride and passion for the community you live in. I’m very excited to be a part of this project. Once completed, the 102 bronze medallions (one for each year of Kelowna's history since incorporation in 1905) will be permanently installed as a special feature in the City Hall entrance foyer, leaving a lasting legacy for future generations. If you are a Kelowna resident and are interested in this prestigious unique project, you can obtain an information package including a registration form by visiting www.geertmaas.org.

More than 25,000 Canadians die each year of sudden cardiac arrest. Canada Safety Equipment at 1139 Ellis Street has donated a Zoll AED Plus defibrillator to the Okanagan Sun Football team. It was donated in the hopes that it will save a life one day, perhaps an athlete with sudden cardiac arrest, a support volunteer or a fan. The Zoll AED Plus is the only AED that guides rescuers through the entire resuscitation process. Brent Chapman is the sales manager of Canada Safety Equipment Ltd.

Safeway Dilworth winds up its “We Care” promotion for the year with I Love Lucerne Day in support of local not for profit organization Brain Trust Canada. The event is this Saturday, May 26 at the Dilworth location from 10am-2pm. Customers will be treated to ice cream, courtesy of Lucerne when they make a minimum $2 donation with proceeds going to support brain injury awareness and education in the Valley. There will also be a brain design and Helmut draw, courtesy of Brain Trust Canada. Call Magda Kapp at 762-3233 for more info.

High Tea for Hospice will be on Sunday, May 27 at the Minstrel Café from 2-5pm. Honorary Fire Chief Rene Blanleil and his “men in uniform” will be guest servers. Call 763-5511 for tickets.

P.S. to Kent Chappell – Just wondering if University professors ever fail exams?

TaylorMade Golf Tip of the Week – by Jon Kadin - I thought I would begin the “Tip of the Week” series with some helpful reminders focusing around the basic fundamentals of the golf swing. I know…the term “basic fundamentals” certainly makes it sound much easier than it is! For starters, let’s remember we need to have proper posture. After a long winter it is easy to get in a less than desirable position as we address the ball. We want to have our bodies in an athletic stance with our knees “unlocked” and “rear end” stuck out. This ensures our weight is on the balls of our feet and will help us stay in balance throughout the swing. Secondly, it is easy to forget the correct ball position for the club we are using. Very often, miss-directed shots are a result of something as simple as ball position. Use your sternum to determine the position of your ball in your stance and adjust accordingly with the club you are using. Lastly, our alignment. If we are aiming our body in the wrong direction, it doesn’t matter how good a swing we make. The shot will never reach our intended target. We want our bodies to be aligned “parallel” to our target line. Have a great year! (Jon Kadin is the Head Professional at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf Club and Greg Murtland is the Territory Manager for TaylorMade.

Birthday of the week – Happy 60^th Don Shafer, general manager Standard Radio; Sun FM, Oldies 1150 and SILK FM (May 25); Happy 59^th Rob Gibson, Van Houtte Coffee (May 29); Rae Stewart, Regional District Waste Reduction Office (May 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)