Bringing the FREE Creston Valley together. September 2011 Fall fair hits 100 Community spirit keeps alive East Shore agricultural showcase Creston Museum KIJHL Rec Centre Apple production at the Thunder Cats in hockey Arena retrofit caps core of valley’s growth “Heaven” with new rink, coach community complex upgrade COLLEGE OF THE ROCKIES Looking for new opportunities for your farm or acreage? Please Join us for our Farm Diversication Conference October 28 & 29 Grow your Farm: Keynote Speakers Featuring: learn how to thrive o a small Heloise Dixon-Warren and Ted Traer of Moose Meadows Farm, farm; explore new and exciting Quesnel, BC. opportunities to grow your Our hands-on specialists for farm diversication and value added current operation. products. Gary Morton, Morton Horticultural Associates, Coldbrook, Nova Scotia Grow your Gary takes pride in using common sense approaches that result in Community: common sense solutions in the quest to help his clients nd new and local trade fair network with more added value from what the already do. farmers, producers, businesses Plus, here from some of the Kootenays most successful local and consumers. producers, and recent regional food and agricultural initiatives. October 28-29: two full days of speakers, presentations, and a local trade fair conference held at the United Church, Feed your Body: 128 10th Ave. N. daily local lunch included $129 both days or $69 one day, registration deadline October 14th conference additional in October 28: Local food networking dinner catered by Renee’s networking dinner with speakers. $25 per person For more information or to register please contact the College of the Rockies, Creston Campus at 250-428-5332, toll free 1866-740-2687 or email [email protected] Contact the Creston campus today: 250.428.5332 www.cotr.bc.ca/Creston contents what’s inside Fall Fair 10 Creston fair closing in on its centennial. Mayor’s Desk 12 Coming full circle with Rotary club. Lifestyles 14 Young filmmakers have an eye for valley. Agriculture 18 Don’t let the bounty go to waste. History 20 Apples once ruled the orchards. Recreation 22 Complex source of civic pride. Health 23 Manipulation demystified. Sports 24 Optimism reigns in T-Cats Centennial celebration camp. 5 Crawford Bay marks 100 years of fall fairs this month. Martial Arts 25 It’s element-ary, my dear. The Magazine I Love Creston Magazine is produced monthly and distributed free of charge by I Love Wellness Creston Marketing Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohib- 26 Path to fulfilment begins in ited. Any advertisements or graphics designed in-house are property of I Love Creston Marketing Ltd. and may not be used in any other medium without permission. Views the mirror. expressed in the magazine does not necessarily reflect those of the company. Letters to the Editor Letters to I Love Creston Magazine may be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to Box 143, Creston, BC, V0B 1G0. Letters may be edited for clarity and space. I Love Creston Marketing Ltd. www.ilovecreston.com Wendy Franz - Sales/Graphic Design email: [email protected] Justin Ziola - Sales/Financials emai: [email protected] Box 143, Creston, BC V0B 1G0 • Ph/Fx 250.428.2631 www.ilovecreston.com September 2011 3 this issue One year removed from a three-year shares billing in this month’s edition Guest stint at the helm of the Castlegar with the Kootenay Lake Agricultural From the editor Rebels, Heaven is credited with Fall Fair – and with good reason. t doesn’t have to be autumn on compiling much of the talent that Anything in a country as relatively Ithe calendar – the first official day reached the 2011 KIJHL final before young as Canada that’s been around isn’t until Sept. 23 – for summer falling to the Osoyoos Coyotes. for a century is a big deal, and in this case it’s the latter event in to essentially be over. The first of Who knows? Between Heaven’s Crawford Bay turning 100. September typically brings with it an presence and the good fortune of the unmistakable change in the weather, arena’s namesake, maybe some good A special slate of events is planned and even if the temperatures don’t vibes will rub off on the Thunder to mark the occasion Sept. 10, cool off right away, the daylight Cats. Bucyk, after all, a Hockey making a late-summer trip “up the hours get noticeably shorter and Hall of Famer and former National lake” well worthwhile. And why school is in session, all of which Hockey League champion with the not make it a doubleheader, as the hammer home the fact that we can’t Boston Bruins, brought none other Creston fall fair – in its 93rd year – live in denial much longer: another than the Stanley Cup to the Rec is a two-day affair running Sept. 9 winter is on its way. Centre in August. Bucyk, whose and 10, making it possible to check But the end of summer brings the summer home is on the shores of out both of them. onset of other seasonal pleasures, Kootenay Lake, got a day with the A couple of other September stories including the optimism that only coveted mug because the Bruins (for follow an agricultural theme. the start of a new hockey season whom he still works as their road services co-ordinator) ended a 39- Creston Museum manager Tammy can bring, when every team is tied Hardwick chronicles the history year drought by defeating a certain for first place and the schedule is a of fruit growing in the Creston British Columbia team in the NHL blank page waiting to be filled in Valley in her regular column, while final in June. with results that surely, this year, will special contributor Alexandra lead to post-season glory – or so all Stay tuned to find out if the Dansereau writes about the Harvest fans can hold out hope of, at least Thunder Cats have a prayer of going Share program she co-ordinates for until the puck drops. deep in the 2012 playoffs, but in the Creston Valley Food Action In the case of the Creston Valley the meantime, learn a little bit more Coalition. about the new boss and the team’s Thunder Cats, they’re really starting Take a bite out of those and many outlook in a story featured in this fresh in 2011-12 with a new coach more articles in the pages to follow September issue of I Love Creston. and general manager and new-look while savouring these precious final digs at the Creston and District Another sign of the times is the days of what’s been another great Community Complex. Renovations Creston Valley Fall Fair, which summer in the Creston Valley. affecting the Johnny Bucyk Arena (for details, see the update from Neil Ostafichuk inside these pages) ran a little long, not only bumping the T-Cats’ training camp back in time but right out of town – to the Cominco Arena in Trail. It’s an extra challenge for Brent Heaven on top of recruiting to offset the high roster turnover typical at the junior B level. Though entering his first season as the Creston Valley head coach and GM, Heaven is no stranger to the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. 4 September 2011 www.ilovecreston.com feature Kootenay Lake event stands the test of time erhaps the most startling aspect of the Kootenay Lake PAgricultural Fall Fair’s centennial, to be celebrated Sept. 10 in Crawford Bay, is how perilously close it came to missing the mark. Organizers actually announced the demise of the annual event after its 95th edition in 2006 when no one volunteered to keep it going. It wasn’t until the following year, with the clock ticking, that Lorna Robin stepped into the president’s shoes with a skeleton board of four directors and cobbled together a scaled-back version consisting of some judged exhibits and Photos courtesy of John Smith Photography a bake sale, raffle and tea. www.ilovecreston.com September 2011 5 feature The rest, as they say, is history – and number of volunteers over the past “For many years the fair consisted lots of it. With Robin and Karen 100 years would be impressive.” of an annual sports day (and) Gilbert as directors, Isabel Snelgrove Among them is a living link to the 4-H competitions which involved as treasurer and Jeanne Lahnemann past, noted East Shore historian livestock judging and public as secretary, transplanted Albertans Tom Lymbery, who served in speaking competitions,” she says. Mike and Ivy Jeffery took on the Jeffery’s capacity six decades ago and “Apple packing competitions were roles of president and vice-president, is in charge of a vintage chainsaw a big part of the fair in the fruit respectively, and vowed to see the display this year. growing era between the wars.” fair through to its 100th anniversary. The Lymbery clan of Gray Creek The First World War caused the only The results are on display this goes back nearly as far as the fall interruption in the fair’s continuity, month at the Crawford Bay Hall, fair itself; Lymbery’s father, Arthur, a one-year hiatus. In 1938 the where past meets present in a feel- moved to the area to grow fruit in fair moved into the newly built good gathering that dates back to 1913 and opened the Gray Creek Crawford Bay Hall. Subsequent Sept. 22, 1911. That’s when the Store the same year. upgrades to roads and transportation local Farmer’s Institute sponsored enabled fair entries from Riondel, a humble affair featuring 33 classes The elder Lymbery and wife Gray Creek, Kootenay Bay, Boswell of fruit, vegetables and flowers, a Kathleen – who married in 1921, and beyond, according to the sporting competition and a dance.