Be ordinary heroically

This is your look at the ordinary heroes, big and small, famous and not so famous who make a difference in our Okanagan.  

Keep your eyes out for someone you recognize.

Hitting the High Notes

A deep baritone shout out to Alexandra Babbel and the entire team at Opera Kelowna for their continued hard work in shaping Kelowna’s four-year-old baby arts institution into a best in class opera.

Coming off a highly successful 2017 season, they have lofty plans for 2018 that include spreading their wings into new areas of the community and raising the bar for Kelowna’s arts and culture scene.

We recently attend a fabulous evening at Quails' Gate where soprano Krista de Silva from Calgary had the crowd melting the recent snowfall with her renditions from the infamous Carmen, which will be performed during the 2018 season.

Spotted in the crowd where generous patrons of the arts Camille and David Saltman, along with Opera Kelowna Director Richard Takai and June Nicolay, who tirelessly support this pillar not for profit institution.

Where are all the PAC Men?

A huge show of gratitude to all the amazing members of our local schools Parent Advisory Committees.

These amazing volunteer groups help build strong school community, raise much needed funds to help augment the school’s budget and are always a fun bunch of parents who just want their kids to have the best school experience possible.

At our school, we have movie nights, hot lunch, dances, a carnival and even a recent purchase of 30 Chrome Book computers for the students all lead by the PAC.

My question is, why aren’t there more dads on the PAC? At our school, I am always the only guy in the room and would love to have more dads come out, voice their opinions and roll up the sleeves to make the PAC even stronger.

Maybe the problem is that the PAC meetings are on Monday night during football season. Come on PAC Men.

100 is the New Normal in Kelowna

That’s right, the power of 100 is just too strong to ignore. We attended both the launch of 100 Kids Who Care Kelowna and the 10th meeting of 100 Men Who Give a Damn Kelowna and the numbers certainly add up.

In late October, over 70 kids aged 5-17 turned out at the innovation Centre on Ellis and, in partnership with the I Can App, chose three charities to donate their $10 each to.

In total, $1,400 was raised by the kids and a matching donor. With $405 going to the Red Cross Hurricane Harvey Appeal, $506 to the BCSPCA’s Animal Love Campaign and $495 to the Kelowna Women’s Shelter.

The 100 Men who met just this week to an electric crowd at the Laurel Packing House recapped their donations from the summer to the local chapter of the Canucks Autism Network and their Learn to Swim Program and announced the fall winner, Courage For Youth and their very important SCREAM program.

So it seems that strength does come in numbers.

To share your Ordinary Hero story please contact: [email protected].

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.