Photo: Contributed

The Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce and Kettle Valley Memorial are rolling out profiles on this year's Top 40 award recipients. Read about the winners every Friday morning.

It's Friday again, meaning another chance to showcase the Pentictonites chosen to be recognized for their phenomenal skills, talent, and contributions as local leaders.

The selection committee has completed their work evaluating each of the Top 40’s list of nominees. Two recipients will be named every week – a recipient that is under 40, and one who is 40 or older, until all 40 recipients have been revealed.

Kettle Valley Memorial and the Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce said that the nominees were independently scored by multiple judges on a number of criteria including their vision and leadership, innovations, achievements, positive influence, commitment to social responsibility and their involvement with the community.

Photo: Kassity Van Alphen

As a happily married Indigenous mother of two boys and one stepson, Kassity Van Alphen started her own fitness company, Femme Form Coaching, after years of professional mentorship. In two short years, she has already helped over 150 women change their lives, not just physically, but in mind, body, and soul. Given her impact and holistic approach to female fitness and wellbeing, Kettle Valley Memorial and the Penticton Chamber are proud to announce Kassity as a Top 40 recipient.

Kassity has dedicated herself to finding a way to help other women be less overwhelmed and thrive in everyday life, whether that be as a mother, spouse, worker, or all three. More often than not, women come to her wanting to lose weight, but Kassity looks at the other aspects of their lives that are out of alignment and begins working on the root causes. As she points out, it may be great losing 40, 50, even 70 pounds, but what is the point if your head is unwell?

After losing 70 pounds herself, Kassity pursued the education and mentorship for bodybuilding-styled fitness training, leading her to create a platform in fitness that addresses the imbalance of women and the relationships they have with themselves along with the healing tools to move forward with a happier and more fulfilling life. In two short years, she has worked with over 150 women and is extremely proud to say that not only did her clients lose weight, but have also learned to take care of themselves on every level including emotionally, physically, their nutrition and the way they view and think about themselves.

Kassity also created her Instagram channel to provide an authentic view on fitness and motherhood, with the goal of shaking the unrealistic expectations and body imaging often portrayed on social media and replace it with inspiration and truthful messaging.

Kassity often hosts a free four-day training program for the public aimed at whomever is open to changing their life. Within those 4 days, she will dive into new thought processes around fitness, energy, mindset, and provide free workout plans and guidance on nutrition.

Moving people away from instant gratification and into healthier ways of managing stress, viewing their self-image, and their relationship with food is a big part of what makes Femme Form Coaching more than a place to work out, it’s redefining the space of “fitness”.

Photo: Ana Magnusson

With a vision of bringing smiles to people of all ages, Kettle Valley Memorial and the Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce are pleased to name Ana Magnusson, the founder of Amuzing Fun Rentals, as a Top 40 recipient.

Originally from Veracruz, Mexico, Ana moved to Alberta with her family while in her early teens. Later as an adult, she looked at warmer climates and almost moved to Kelowna before discovering the small-town charm and feel of Penticton. With a career spent in sales and marketing, Ana hadn’t considered becoming an entrepreneur until she was unable to find child care after her maternity leave. At that point, she began researching what it would take to start her own business, and through WorkBC South Okanagan, Ana was connected with Community Futures Okanagan Similkameen to receive small-business training.

After that course, she spent the next 6 months researching and putting together rental inventory that would have something for every age group and event, from fundraisers and festivals to birthdays, weddings, corporate parties, and more. In the one year that Amuzing Fun Rentals has been in operation, it has provided fun to Action Fest, Fest of Ale, Safety Village, SOICS One World Festival, Okanagan College, along with a number of fundraisers, Christmas parties, and dry grads.

It was especially important to Ana that her company support the not-for-profit community, and to date has provided discounts and in-kind sponsorships worth over $25,000 to help them maximize attendance to their events while helping to keep their expenses as low as possible. Ana also made the decision to never charge per person, meaning that when people see one of Amuzing’s bounce houses or photo booths at an event, it will be free for them and everyone to enjoy.

One of the most memorable events that Amuzing put on so far was the Kiwanis end-of-summer Carnival that featured an epic foam party. The event raised over $4,000 with funds going to those affected by the McDougall Creek wildfire in West Kelowna, and over 100 kids along with quite a few parents got to enjoy an hour-long foam party in Gyro Park while dancing and bouncing giant beach balls in the air.

While an entrepreneur’s work never ends, Ana says that the ability to stay true to one’s values and seeing all of the smiles on people’s faces makes it all worth it.