If you’ve ever heard anyone say there is nothing to do in and around Nakusp, point them to the Nakusp Community Calendar.
This summer’s jam-packed weekends bear witness to there being plenty to do in the Arrow Lakes District. The Whatshan Jam was one of the many events held this past weekend.
“We are not just the noisy neighbour,” Nona Kucher said.
Nona is one of the four Verigin siblings in charge of the Whatshan Lake Retreat music festival held the second weekend in July for over a decade and a half, despite a brief hiatus for re-focusing and energy renewal.
She stressed Whatshan Jam’s fundraising efforts for Freedom Quest Regional Youth Services, an organization that supports “youth in difficulty at home and in the community and those struggling with addictions.”
Her sister Tammy Verigin-Burk is the Chief Executive Officer of the retreat and the media liaison. Verigin-Burk pointed to their website and “The Miracle at Whatshan Lake” as the definitive story that tells how her father enabled the acquisition and development of the site, on behalf of the Dhoukobor Heritage Retreat Society No. 1999, to celebrate 100 years of Dhoukobor presence in Canada.
The event was an alcohol-and-drug-free, family-friendly music festival. It featured cabins that include kitchenettes to unserviced campsites. Along with camping and swimming, music, and concession stands, they had a silent auction and various activities free of charge. This year they did belly dancing lessons, paddle-boarding and kayaking, as well as family games, such as watermelon eating and kids races. Next year they are adding art lessons to their palette of offerings.
“All the funds raised are used to subsidize children, youth, and families that come to the site for health and wellness purposes,” Tammy said. “We have alternative school programs that come, a group that have all lost their children, we have church groups, and some of them can’t afford the fees, so the funds raised help to subsidize some of that.”
The sisters spoke of their desire to strengthen the local business network for the festival and beyond.
“Our wish is to use as much local business as possible. They’re local [businesses] from Edgewood and they buy everything local,” stated Kuchen. Local jewellery maker Christine Meyer was on site, as were “the couple who sell cinnamon buns by the ferry, they’re bringing in buns for the concession,” Kucher stated. “What we do is, promote everyone in our program. We want the community to be part of our festival in any way we can, anything we can rent or have on site that helps us,” she adds.
“The event is not really meant to get really big,” added Verigin-Burk, who, along with her siblings holds a regular full-time job in Castlegar but works on the festival on a volunteer-basis. They start in September, so give themselves ten months to get it all together. “People come from all over, Revelstoke, Vancouver, Kelowna, Alberta because we try to mix it up, so there’s something for everybody. No matter if you’re old or young, we make sure we have mixed genres.”
So Whatshan Lake Retreat is definitely not just a noisy neighbour. If anything, it is an “underutilized resource in our community,” as one of the 300 festival attendees stated.
