Kelowna News

Robyn Kosugi remembers the thrill and excitement of walking onto UBC's Okanagan campus for the first time.

The third year UBC and second year nursing student recalls the anticipation of officially becoming a UBC student and attending UBC's Okanagan campus.

On Tuesday, September 7, Robyn is hoping to help other new-to-UBC students feel welcome to the campus and comfortable transitioning to post-secondary education.

"My experience as a first year student during my first day on campus was one of excitement and fun. When I arrived on campus, a returning student volunteering their time for the day, helped me get my bearings on campus. The returning student showed me all the spots to study and socialize," says Robyn Kosugi.

Orientation leaders are the faces of UBC's Okanagan campus' Create: New Student Orientation.

Leading a small group of new students around to various sessions and workshops, the orientation leaders have a huge impact on new students during Create.

"Our student volunteers are the key of the day of Create," says Adam Goodwin, Create coordinator.

"We've spent months planning the first week of school for students. We can plan as much as we want but it's the returning students that volunteer on the day of Create that new students want to interact with and learn how to succeed during their time at UBC. Also, these students help the new students find their workshops and various sessions."

Local Kelowna organizations are as enthusiastic as the student volunteers.

This year local non-profit organizations will be exhibiting during the afternoon of Create.

There are over 80 tables, the most ever, at Create 2010.

Students will have the opportunity to connect with both on-campus and local resources and services during the afternoon career-fair-like event.

"Some charities and non-profits use the opportunity to recruit volunteers. Others just want to educate students about many different and wide-ranging issues affecting Kelowna citizens. The afternoon part of Create is the first opportunity students have to see what Kelowna offers, to both them as students and to the community as a whole."

Local businesses and companies have also signed on to help cover the large costs of organizing such a robust and comprehensive program.

"The Create organizing team is very enthusiastic about allowing Kelowna charities a great environment to recruit new volunteers and educate students about all the needs of Kelowna citizens. In addition, Interior Savings, Poweconcepts, Precisely Moving, and Valley First Credit Union are helping cover the large costs of putting on a week of events for nearly 2000 individuals."

Kelowna will host it's first Parkinson SuperWalk next weekend.

The Parkinson SuperWalk will raise funds to find a cure and provide support services for people living with Parkinson's in the province.

The walk will start in Waterfront Park on Saturday, September 11 at 10 a.m.

Local honorary SuperWalk chair, Reverend Albert Baldeo, has been coping with Parkinson's disease for 21 years.

"I am grateful for what I can still do and I try not to grieve over my limitations," says Baldeo.

"Parkinson's disease affects people in different ways. My first symptom came when I was doing a graveside service and I felt like I was going to fall into that hole. It was the shortest graveside I ever did!"

"There are 11,000 of us living with Parkinson's disease in B.C. alone, and more funds are needed for research so that a cure can be found soon," says Baldeo.

The Parkinson SuperWalk is the largest and most important national fundraising event of the year for the Parkinson Society British Columbia and the 12 Parkinson partners across Canada.

The goal is to raise $255,000 in B.C. and $3 million nationally.

Parkinson's is a debilitating disease that not only affects people over 60, but many in their 30's and up.

As Canada's population ages, the incidences of Parkinson's are on the rise.

Next to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's is the second most common chronic neurological disorder.

To register, sponsor a walker, or to make a donation to Parkinson SuperWalk, call 1-800-668-3330.

Link: Parkinson SuperWalk

A young man with a toy pistol found himself surrounded by police Saturday afternoon.

At approximately 1:03 p.m. the Kelowna RCMP received a report of a young man in the front yard of a residence near the corner of Wilkinson Street and McBride Road with what appeared to be a black handgun.

RCMP members blocked off streets in the immediate area to contain the situation and ensure public safety.

Contact was eventually made with a 15-year-old man and his mother who were not aware police had been called.

The seized firearm was an Airsoft pistol, which the youth had started to blacken out to make it look less like a toy.

He had been discharging the pistol in his yard.

The Kelowna RCMP would like to remind everyone that it is a by-law offence to discharge a firearm within the Municipality of Kelowna.

The definition of firearm according to the by-law to regulate the discharge of firearms within the city of Kelowna is as follows: rifle, pistol, shotgun, airgun, air rifle, air pistol or spring gun.

"This means that even though you may be in your own backyard, within the City of Kelowna, you cannot discharge any firearm," says Kelowna RCMP Staff Sergeant Terry McLachlan.

The RCMP have had to deal with a number of these types of calls, says McLachlan.

"It not only ties up essential resources, it puts the public at risk as well."

Kelowna’s Suicide Prevention Committee is hosting a brief walk followed by an evening of music and memories on September 10.

The walk to mark World Suicide Prevention Day will start at the sails on Bernard Avenue and make it's way to the Unitarian Church on the corner of St. Paul Street Cawston Avenue.

There will be an hour of shared music and remembrances from survivors of suicide at the Unitarian Church.

Nearly 4000 Canadians died by suicide in 2005 and numbers continue to rise each year.

The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) was founded in Vienna as a fellowship of researchers, clinicians, practitioners, volunteers and national and local organizations.

IASP president, professor Brian Mishara says, “suicide is preventable. Suicide deaths exact a tremendous and tragic psychological, social and economic cost every year, but the primary message we want to convey on World Suicide Prevention Day is that we can prevent suicide."

"More than a million people worldwide die by suicide each year. More people kill themselves than die in all wars, terrorist activities and homicides," says Mishara.

A three car rear end collision will be sending one Kelowna resident to court to face charges of impaired driving.

The collision occurred on August 31st just before midnight when a Grey Hyundai SUV was stopped at a stop light at the intersection of highways 33 and 97.

A Black Jeep stopped behind the Hyundai, but an Orange Volkswagen Van did not stop, and struck the Jeep which then struck the Hyundai. When all three drivers got out of their respective vehicles, two of them walked around to check the damage.

The third, the Volkswagen driver, was reportedly staggering, showing obvious signs of alcohol impairment. This driver was investigated for driving while impaired and was taken to the Kelowna Detachment where he provided samples of breath that were almost 3 times the legal limit.

No one was injured in the collision but the Jeep sustained sufficient damage that it had to be towed away.

The Volkswagen driver will appear in court on October 18th to answer to charges of impaired driving and over .08.

Former mayor, Jim Stuart joined a handful of dignitaries Friday for the official opening of the park which bears his name.

After several delays, the $4.4 million Stuart Park opened to the public back in June.

The official opening was delayed until Friday to coincide with the arrival of the park's signature feature, 'The Bear' sculpture.

The artwork stands nearly 19 feet. The bear itself is 10 feet tall and nearly 18 feet long.

The vision for the park itself was hatched in 1995. Originally designed to be Kelowna's 2006 Centennial project, the park suffered through a series of changes and delays until construction finally began a year ago.

Stuart says he knew this day would eventually come.

"There were a lot of complications in putting it all together. The city was trying to work through a couple of rezonings that was affecting some of it," says Stuart.

"They were working with the yacht club and eventually we will see this park extended to the north and add some more green space. It will be very special."

Stuart got a chance to see the artwork for the first time when it was unveiled Friday. He says he is impressed with what the artist accomplished.

"It looks very nice. I think when we see it at night it will be a spectacular piece of artwork."

Brower Hatcher, an artist from Rhode Island, was awarded the contract for The Bear.

He was on hand Friday.

"This started with a curio I picked up in a gift shop and I digitized it and from those computer files we worked this out," says Hatcher.

He says the inspiration came from the myth of the white hunter who emerged from a cave and was all grizzly and dirty because he had been in there all winter.

"The First Nation people said 'Kelowna, Kelowna' meaning mother grizzly bear, so I immediately took that myth and constructed it around that."

Hatcher says the objects inside the bear represent the inner landscape of Kelowna including other bear images, blossoms, fruit trees and images of the lake.

Meantime, while the park bears his name, Stuart says he hopes everyone in Kelowna will enjoy it.

"I really want the citizens to get the credit because they are paying for it and they are the ones we want to enjoy it," says Stuart.

"If the park is well used then the councils and politicians will have been very successful."

Larger image of the bear sculpture

School District 23 continues to be one of just a handful of districts to buck the provincial trend when it comes to enrolment.

While most districts across B.C. are projecting 'significant' decreases in enrolment for the 2010-2011 school year, SD23 Superintendent Hugh Gloster, says his district should be on par with last year.

Gloster says the district is projecting to enrol about 21,777 students district wide.

That compares to slightly more than 21,900 a year ago.

According to figures released by SD23, 1,432 are registered for kindergarten, 10,560 for grades 1 to 7, 5,491 in grades 8 to 10, 4,206 in grades 11 and 12 and 88 in adult education programs.

"Our kindergarten number are up from last year (1,386) but it's significantly below what our number of graduates was last year. We graduated in the neighbourhood of 2,000 students last year and are only bringing in 1,432 this year," says Gloster.

"You would assume we would be dropping like a stone as a school district in terms of enrolment. But, we do see significant in-migration literally K to 12 so that's offsetting that difference because of families moving into our community."

That in-migration Gloster refers to is the reason SD23 is not suffering the significant drop in enrolment being felt across the province.

Gloster says they are projected to drop by about 140 students across the board, which he says is a number the district can easily manage.

He says they had the same sort of projection last year but once the district sent it's final numbers to the province for per student funding on September 30, the numbers had reversed.

Gloster says that has a lot to do with a change in the way high school students are classified.

"We now count our high school students based on what we call FTE (Full Time Equivalent) and it's based on the number of courses they take. We get funded per course for them. What we found, believe it or not, is they are actually declaring more than a full time course load."

The final enrolment figures will not be released to the province until the end of the month and, while Gloster says the projections are fairly accurate, they don't reflect last minute movement both in and out of the district.

The Kelowna Rockets are a third of the way toward meeting a pledge the club made to the Kelowna General Hospital Foundation.

Back in June, the Western Hockey League team pledged to raise $200,000 for the KGH Orthopaedic Unit over the next five years.

Funds are being raised through the team's annual alumni weekend which includes a golf tournament and alumni hockey game.

On Thursday, Rockets Marketing Manager, Anne-Marie Hamilton announced the club was handing over a record $65,000 to the KGH Foundation.

"The Daily Courier-Scotiabank annual Rockets alumni golf tournament, which brings back many Kelowna Rockets, now NHL superstars, raised a record-breaking $55,000 this summer," says Hamilton.

Along with the money raised through the golf tournament, former Rockets defenceman Shea Weber made a second donation of $10,000 through the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation, bringing the total amount raised to $65,000.

“Our ongoing partnership with the Kelowna Rockets organization and alumni, like Shea Weber, inspires our whole community and most of all our kids – the Rockets are truly our hometown heroes," says KGH Foundation Executive Director, Sarah Nelems.

Money raised over the next five years will be used to purchase specialized equipment for the orthopaedic unit.

A new twist on an old scam has hit the streets of Kelowna.

It has been reported that two men have been attempting to sell spa packages for a new spa which is supposed to be opening on Enterprise Way October 1.

According to one woman caught up in the scam who wished to remain anonymous, no such spa is opening in the location described.

She says the men are selling spa packages reportedly worth $400 for $40 each.

"They had pamphlets and a hand-held merchant terminal that could accept credit cards or debit cards," she says.

"I don't know how many people got taken in except I know five people from my office did."

The pamphlets are promoting a company called Spa Serenity. The website mentioned on the pamphlet does not exist. The phone number for the marketing company conducting the promotion also does not exist.

She says the two men, both in their early 20's and claiming to be college students, were peddling the product in 'Richter Place' building Wednesday.

It wasn't until they returned Thursday morning when it was discovered the whole thing was a scam.

"Someone in the building contacted the Property Manager of the building this business was supposed to open in and was told there was no such business moving in. So, I went to my bank and the debit transaction had not been removed from my account."

RCMP have been contacted.

"I feel so foolish. I've never had this happen to me before."

Meantime, Castanet has learned of a second scam in which individuals with the same type of portable pinpad machine were in the Cooper Centre selling discounted packages for a spa that was opening in downtown Kelowna near the foot of Bernard Avenue.

After a two year investigation, police have arrested 2 individuals in connection to the murder of Timothy Niven Tyler.

On September 2, 2008 Timothy Tyler was shot to death on his acreage near Beaverdell, BC. He was involved in outdoor marijuana grow operations on his property and it is believed he was killed while trying to protect his crop from being robbed by armed individuals.

The investigation was led by the RCMP South East District Major Crime Unit and assisted by members of the Midway RCMP Detachment.

Gerlinde Klumpp, 49, of Rock Creek is being charged with robbery and obstructing justice and Geoffrey Moore, 53, formerly of Greenwood is being charged with murder and robbery.

They were scheduled to appear in Kelowna Court this week.

Both suspects are known to police and Gerlinde Klumpp was known to the victim.