It seems as if we have had our Silver City Days weather a week early, so the actual event should be under clear skies for a change.
Make an effort to get to some of the events - eat, drink, play bocce, dance, ride rides, do Mothers’ Day - in support of the city and region you call home.
A limited number of volunteers does an unlimited amount of work to bring Silver City Days to fruition, the least the rest of us should do in return is show a little support for their efforts. The fest benefits the area in myriad ways, not least affording an opportunity to bump into friends and even family we seldom see.
Support can include a little close-to-home volunteerism at minor inconvenience: offering rides to neighbours; offering to include neighbours’ children - particularly neighbours who, through work or other reasons (including volunteering at the events), can’t take them on their own - in your outings; you know, the basic helping people accross the street kind of thing.
And get out and enjoy the fireworks. It’s always enjoyable and after the tiff surrounding them this year the least organizers should expect is a big appreciative crowd for their extra efforts. That’s not a knock on council, which came through in the end, just a gesture to show I appreciate the Silver City Days group’s perserverance on our behalf.
• Nice that Brandon Clark, who played very well here through injury and other setbacks, is thriving at college (Iowa State, where he will be captain in his senior year). I haven’t heard a bad word of him, on or off the ice, and he had real physical talent to contribute to the Smokies.
• It is apparent Penticton Junior Hockey has very involved fans, and has for a while. The BCHL polled fans for input on each of the first five decades of the league about which were the league’s most popular players and Penticton players - from the Broncos, Panthers and Vees, topped the polls for each of the last four. In two of the votes, for the 70s and 2000s, the runnerup vote getter was also from Pentiction.
Watch out for the South Okanagan if they get involved in one of those Hockey Day or other on-line lotteries
• Brent Heaven couldn’t have picked a better season to come on board with the Smokies.
Trail is coming off a year in which they finished farther out of the playoffs than they achieved points - so up is the only direction available - but the Smoke Eaters do have some quality talent returning and may not be far as far away from competitive than it might look from a last-year perspective.
Season tickets are, of course, available right now.