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Gyro Park was heaving with nearly 1,600 people for the last music in the park on Sept. 13 for the Eagle Eyes tribute band that had been rescheduled after the Okanagan-wide travel ban was imposed due to the wildfire situation.
A substantial boost to the crowd numbers came from the fact a “Firefighter and First Responder Community Appreciation” event was held at the same time.
“We thought we should add on a celebration/appreciation event prior to the concert for the firefighters and first responders since we’d be having a crowd at Gyro,” says Janis St. Louis, Coordinator of Music in the Park.
The intention, she says, was to get the community out to show their appreciation to all the first responders. “We invited the fire departments from Osoyoos, Oliver, Anarchist Mt. and Willowbrook as well as BC Forestry, Oliver/Osoyoos Search and Rescue, our RCMP and BC Ambulance. They were all pleased that we were doing this for them.”
The combination of the popular Eagles cover band and the first responder appreciation event helped bolster crowd numbers making it one of its busiest events held in Gyro for a very long time.
A total of 500 hot dogs and buns, condiments and water were donated by Buy-Low Foods and Nesters Food Market in Osoyoos, and Buy-Low Foods in Oliver. “They were all gobbled up!” St. Louis laughs. KFC also donated food for the band. She did not have a final tally of how much money was raised at the point at which the Times Chronicle spoke to her.
“In all, it was a wonderful grand finale to our concert season and our 76th concert since we started in 2015,” she says.
St. Louie said she and the other members of Music in the Park - Jocelyn Merit,
Jeri Falk, Clint Hawes - are now working on their proposal for the Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) grant for 2024 which is given by the province specifically for the enhancement of the town for tourism.
“We hope that we get a lot of support from the community to be able to convince the town grant committee to continue supporting our free concerts.”
She also encouraged those who wish to express their support to email the Town of Osoyoos senior staff and council at [email protected].
