Celebrating a history dating to 1897, the annual Greenwood Founder’s Day festivities got off to a great start on Friday night with a good turnout of musicians for a jam session in the park.
Bernice Tetreault, who organizes music in the park in Grand Forks every Wednesday throughout July and August, helps organize live music at Founder’s Day every year too.
Saturday kicked off with a parade at 11 a.m., leading everyone who wasn’t already at the park down for a day of fun and entertainment.
Many were saddened to hear that long-time Founder’s Day organizer Les Williams was taken to the hospital on Saturday morning before the parade began. This was the 15th year that Les and Nora Williams had organized the event. According to Nora, Les hadn’t suffered a heart attack as had been rumoured, but that an ongoing health problem had taken advantage of his being overworked lately.
This year Councillor Barry Noll joined Williams in organizing the day by working with the Boundary Mining Association and the Association for Mineral Exploration BC to bring in professional gold panner Yukon Dan to give people a chance to pan for gold.
Rock and gem merchants had set up displays and there was a gold panning competition where you had to find two nuggets in a pan as fast as you could. In the professional class the winner was Willy Sherstobitoff with a time of 13.78 seconds using a flat pan.
The youngest contestant and winner in the beginner class was eight-year-old Alexander Hurd from Penticton with a time of 36.4.
His father Dan took the intermediate class with a time of 20.877 seconds, closely followed by Alexander’s grandfather Doug, who clocked 22.02 seconds.
“If you had a nugget for every smile in the park on Saturday, we could have filled a dump truck,” said Councillor Barry Noll.
Bake sales and craft tables were in abundance.
John and Leda Fair were selling freeze-dried food, which can be used for camping or emergency preparation kits.
The Order of the Eastern Star Chapter, Evangeline #31, was on hand with a bake sale and information table. Other information tables were in evidence too as many saw the day as an opportunity to spread their message.
News of the upcoming Kettle River Festival of the Arts (July 26 to Aug.11) was available at another table.
FortisBC representatives Shelley Hastie and Emily Musse came to tell people about the Kootenay Energy Diet – a way to save money through lower electricity bills in the future, and rebate and low-interest loan programs for energy upgrades to your home today.
Andy Shelton Fire and Electrical Services had an information table explaining how they could help with the energy diet as well as offering a special promotion on 200-amp panel upgrades for homeowners.
Ciel Sander and Chantel Banman were behind a table displaying a banner from the Boundary Women’s Transition House that proclaimed, “There is help to be free of violence and abuse.” They were doing outreach work for the Stopping the Violence Program, which offers free, confidential and non-judgmental services for women and supportive individual and group counseling in the West Boundary.
No one went hungry through the day. The Greenwood Volunteer Fire Department pancake breakfast was a success. They started setting up at 7 a.m. for an 8:30 opening, but the crowd started lining up at 7:30. They also sold burgers for lunch. The Legion had a concession, the Order of the Eastern Star put out beef on a bun and there was a Greek food vendor onsite too.