City of Kelowna providing travel assistance for Okanagan Sun

Photo: Eric Stansfield

Sun hoist Intergold Cup after winning CJFL semi-final game in Regina.

The Okanagan Sun got an assist from Kelowna city council Monday morning.

Council agreed to take $10,000 from its contingency fund to help the junior football team offset travel expenses to fly to this weekend’s Canadian Bowl in Windsor, Ont.

This will be the second trip the Sun have had to make in the last three weeks after also travelling to Regina for the national semi-final 10 days ago.

The Sun, who won the Canadian Bowl in 2022 also made lengthy trips to Windsor and Regina on their way to winning the national title.

“We were obviously being very supportive of the football team and what they have done for our community,” said Mayor Tom Dyas pointing out how much awareness the team has brought to the city the past three years.

“It’s not something we make a regular practice of, but they had forwarded a letter to the clerk’s office stating their cost to get to the Canadian Bowl was just slightly under $60,000 and asked whether the city would give some consideration to assisting with some of their cost to get to the game and back.”

Council unanimously agreed to provide the funds.

The monies, Dyas pointed out, comes from the council contingency fund which council dips into from time to time when the need arises.

Dyas says the contingency fund had about $30,000 remaining.

The Sun will leave for the championship game Thursday evening.

The game itself between the Sun and St. Clair College Saints is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Pacific time Saturday.