Trisha Shanks
Arrow Lakes News
Springtime brings two main items of focus for the Nakusp and District Chamber of Commerce which held its monthly meeting on March 5. President Peter Welkering sat down with the Arrow Lakes News to discuss current events. The Chamber has recently hired Wanda Olsen-Saunders as its event coordinator after the departure of Craig Savage last year.
“She is very enthusiastic and has a lot of good ideas, and is planning on the first event to be Easter,” said Welkerling.
Olsen-Saunders brings more than 15 years of event experience and has plans to enhance some of the existing events as well as to create a new spring event focusing on Easter and working in conjunction with the Overwaitea egg hunt tradition. She hopes to garner merchant support for a golden ticket event and will be approaching businesses with the idea and a survey this week.
Easter Happenings
Olsen-Saunders explained the idea is that for a week before Easter, “Customers purchasing from a participating store would get an egg containing a chocolate, and a ticket. The ticket holders would then exchange their ticket for a prize at the gazebo on Easter Sunday during the annual egg hunt.”
Other activities to go along with the egg hunt will be best Easter basket divided into two age categories for kids up to 12. This basket would be used to collect their eggs during the hunt and must be made from recyclable objects. Olsen-Saunders also plans a contest for the best homemade Easter bonnet with the kids’ hats judged by the public in a secret ballot.
Trade show in Calgary
A delegation representing the new tourism venture “West Koot Route” is preparing to head to Calgary for the March 21-22 Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show to promote tourism in the area. Attending the event are Willie Janke and Barbara Ross from Nakusp, Kaslo’s John Addison, and Mike Koolen from the Slocan Valley.
Welkerling discussed the plan for the trade show table set-up. “There will be three tables (all in a row) — Revelstoke, West Koot Route, and then Nelson so if people go by (a table) they come into our region. If people are interested in Revelstoke, they can go along and discover us too.”
The booth will have a screen showing events and attractions from the region featuring the Nakusp Chamber of Commerce video, a slideshow from Kaslo and the new Slocan Valley video. They are taking a display rack with brochures from local businesses, will be handing out a postcard designed for the show and possibly having a door prize depending on the budget.