South Green Lake Community Day a great success

The Community Day event at the South Green Lake Volunteer Fire Department (SGLVFD) Fire Hall on Aug. 3 was a huge success.

It was estimated that 300 people came to the event put on by the SGLVFD Auxiliary led by co-conveners Jacqui Clearwater and Kathy Traynor who did a great job of organizing the events and finding property owners, friends, local firefighters and their significant others to help keep the numerous events going smoothly during the annual event.

Fire Chief Roger Graham did a great job as the master of ceremony and local firefighters were kept busy setting up tables and chairs and the sprinkler demonstration.

The firefighters organized the bucket brigade races and the tug of war held in the afternoon. Earlier in the week, they washed the fire trucks and cleaned the Fire Hall floor.

They also helped people get in and out of the trucks and helped adults and youngsters spray water at targets using the fire hoses on Community Day.

Cookie and Marie Smith were popular and busy at their face-painting table.

Local firefighter Dave Clearwater manned the fishpond. Unfortunately, the fish had gone missing, so he made the best of it and used the plastic balls that were found. Those who were fishing got prizes for the balls they netted and everyone was happy. Great job Dave and helpers.

A new fun event this year was the Cake Walk, which saw people walking around in a tent to win a box of cupcakes.

Ambur Mitchell, Lu Smith, Rita Dixon and Laila Michell ran the contest. Ambur Mitchell, Lu Smith, Rita Dixon, Kathy Traynor, Louise Burch, Jeri Rogers, Pat Graham, Linda Westfall and Kris Alexander provided the cupcakes.

Once again, Ember - the FireSmart mascot - showed up at the fire hall and immediately she was a hit with the youngsters and the young at heart.

The local FireSmart crew thanks Doug Yano of the 100 Mile House Forestry Office for sending Ember to the Fire Hall.

The crew also thank Rita Dixon, Lisa Carros, Lu Smith and Laila Michell for helping Ember during her visit on Community Day.

Sue Palmer and Diane Sullivan did a great job of helping the youngsters at the popular Children's Craft Table.

Sullivan did a great job of putting together the family-oriented door prize. Sue Olliffe and Linda Westfall gave everyone who entered the Fire Hall a free door prize ticket for the door.

Former Fire Chief Peter McKie won the draw. Later in the afternoon, he hosted a celebration of life for his very popular wife Susan McKie who recently passed away. Seventy friends and neighbours attended the event at the Green Lake Snowmobile Club clubhouse.

Firefighter Glen Smith looked after the Fire Boot, New Year fireworks and cattle fencing donation table.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) also had a table in the Fire Hall. Area E Director Jim Smith shared the table with Mikali Tweed who is the student hired to provide recycling information at various community gatherings.

Pat Graham and Maureen Bell sold the tickets at the Raffle Table. Diane Sullivan collected the Kid's basket, Tracey Connors filled the beer and wine basket, Ambur Mitchell filled the spa basket, Jacqui Clearwater filled the fishing basket, and Louise Burch filled the car basket.

John Sullivan and Doug Hughes barbequed the hotdogs for the always popular hotdog and beverage by donation fundraising team.

Tracey Connors and Zayne Langford were the hotdog helpers, and Kathy Traynor took care of making the coffee.

As she does every Community Day, Susan Smith donated, cut and cooked the onions for the hot dogs.

Bob Palmer, Dunham Craig and Kris Alexander served the ice cream, and they were busy throughout the event.

Dave Clearwater put up the traffic signage, while Rita Dixon supplied the float money.

Ruth Plenert took care of the cleaning station, and she cleaned a lot of tables during the event.

Del Westfall and Dave Plenert manned the sprinkler presentation table. Our local firefighters set up a sprinkler demonstration at the back of the Fire Hall. The demonstration gave visitors a good idea of how a sprinkler setup would give property owners' cabins and homes more resiliency from damage or loss during a wildfire.

Westfall said they got some orders for sprinklers.

Local FireSmart Representatives (LFRs) Bob Bell and the author of this column provided FireSmart information.

Bell showed people a map of the numerous wildfires that had burned near the South Green Lake community in the past 100 years. The map showed how lucky South Green Lake property owners have been by not losing their cabins and homes to wildfire devastation.

As Bell said, “It's not a matter of if our community has a wildfire, but rather a matter of when it will happen!”

For the past seven years, the two LFRs have been asking property owners to “FireSmart their properties and homes or cabins before we are hit by a wildfire.”

I had two tables - one with a lot of FireSmart information and another with gifts for people who visited the LFRs.

I also had copies of the self-assessment packages the local FireSmart crew had recently delivered to every lot property in the South Green Lake community.

I asked folks if they received their packages and gave copies to the property owners who had not received the self-assessment information, or had one missing.

I offered to answer any questions property owners had about doing a self-assessment of their properties and homes or cabins.

If local property owners have any questions, they can contact me at 250-456-7496 or at topdrawer1948@gmail.com.

Pie sales are always a big deal on Community Day and this year, the apple pies were sold out in one hour. Linda Westfall and Jeri Rogers looked after the pie sales table.

When the auxiliary members start making their delicious pies at the end of January, they always appreciate help from other community members.