Let the painting begin. Presented by the Uptown Rutland Business Association (URBA), phase two of the Uptown Mural Project is underway.
READ MORE: More murals coming to Uptown Rutland
The first mural painting has started on the building located at 170 Rutland Road North with tenants that include Rutland Vapes, Kinara Mortgages, Kim’s Hair Studio and Living Faith Centre. The artist is Ali T. Bruce, a visual artist, muralist and tattoo artist living and working in Vancouver. After completing seven murals in 2019, URBA is set to secure four to six buildings this summer. Along with URBA, support for the project also comes from the City of Kelowna and the Central Okanagan Foundation. Jamie Needham is the president of URBA.
Now that more people are working from home these days. Wayne Cooney, president of Heritage Office Furnishings at 100-395 Penno Rd., has been receiving a lot of requests for ergonomic seating. The Leap (I have The Leap at my office at Ramada) and Gesture Chair are very popular. CNN has announced Steelcase’s new Series 1 Chair as the top office chair of 2020, standing out as one of the most customizable, high-quality, comfortable office chairs on the market. Heritage Office Furnishings is the authorized Steelcase dealer for all of B.C. except for Vancouver Island. Heritage just celebrated its 30th anniversary in business in Kelowna earlier this year.
Each year, Mary Kay Cosmetics has an annual seminar and awards in July in Toronto. This year was different because of Covid. Well-known local Independent Mary Kay consultant Carol Heath has been recognized as #8 in the Director Court of Personal Sales for all of Canada. Carol has shared Mary Kay products for 26 years. Contact Carol at www.marykay.ca/cheath.
Smitty’s Family Restaurant in The Ramada Hotel & Conference Centre has new temporary hours of operation– 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
A modern new playground will be installed in the 13.5 hectare waterfront park at Traders Cove Regional Park on Westside Road. The work will take two weeks to complete and once installed, children between the age of 18 months and 12 years will be able to enjoy a new dual-bay swing set (four swings), two slides, climbing apparatus and a play fort structure with a safety approved wooded fibre surface below. The cost was just over $71,000 and later this fall, the park picnic shelter is slated to be replaced. Visit www.rdco.com/pickapark for your next adventure but remember to follow physical distancing and good hygiene whenever using playground equipment.
Kudos to lounge manager Pooya Ebrahim and the dockhands team at the Kelowna Yacht Club for coming to the rescue to extinguish a boat fire on the public boat launch prior to the arrival of firefighters.
Personal congratulations
To the 45th annual Kelowna Civic & Community Award winners: Randy Benson (Anita Tozer Memorial Award – bestowed by Kelowna city council); Darcy Rysz (Bob Giordano Memorial – Coach/Sport Administrator of the Year); KSS Owls AAA Girls Volleyball Team (Bryan Couling Memorial Award – Athletic Team of the Year); Madelyn Hettinga (Female Athlete of the Year); Trevor Brigden (Male Athlete of the Year); Madelyn Hettinga (Female Augie Ciancone Memorial Award – High School Female Athlete of the Year); Roan McCarthy (Male Augie Ciancone Memorial Award – High School Make Athlete of the Year); Operation Take Two (Champion for the Environment); Sarah McIntyre (Teen Honour in the Arts); Erin Scott (Honour in the Arts); Abby Kiehlbauch (Young Citizen of the Year); Al Hildebrandt (Citizen of the Year ); Avalon Event Rentals (Corporate Community of the Year Award); Project Literacy (Central Okanagan Foundation’s Volunteer Organization of the Year).
Summerhill Pyramid Winery has been moving toward a complete redesign of their labels and brand. Their new logo, with the silhouette of their pyramid in relief against a dash of soil, or cosmic dust, or however you interpret the design, has now made its way onto their labels for the first time. The winery is proud to continue to use natural cork, which is the most sustainable closure by far. Every cork actually has a carbon negative effect on the overall emissions of a bottle of wine. That’s because the cork is a renewable resource and it is the bark of a cork oak, harvested from a mature forest ecosystem. The winery has replaced the metal capsules with a simple paper tamper-proof seal, made from 100 per cent post-consumer water. Summerhill has also introduced the 2019 Organic Pinot Gris and 2018 Merlot along with their new 2019 Alive Organic Rose and 2019 Syrah Malbec Rose.
Kudos to all the Telus Community Ambassadors who continue to volunteer where and when they can during this pandemic. The volunteers are busy doing various good deeds including sewing cancer hats, sewing masks, knitting toques and gloves, helping other organizations, knitting and sewing baby jackets with matching bonnets, afghans and pug walking. Telus will reward a volunteer with $1 for every volunteer hour recorded up to a maximum of $500 for donation to the charity of their choice.
Thanks to the coordination of Frequent Pour Wine Merchant and four of their generous community-spirited winery partners, $10,000 was donated to the United Way’s Covid Relief Fund last week. The promotion ran for three months in local liquor stores with $1 from every wine purchase going towards the program. Kudos to 50th Parallel Estate Winery, Vibrant Vine, River Stone Estate Winery and Oliver Twist Winery for this collaborative initiative.
Although presented in a different way, the Greater Westside Board of Trade is calling for 2020 nominations for the annual Key Business Awards. The board of trade has added a couple of new awards plus making a few changes to their previous award categories. The categories this year include: Tourism & Hospitality, Technology and Innovation, Arts and Entertainment, Home Based Business of the Year, Community and Public Service, Indigenous Business, New Business, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Small business – Service or Retail (under 15 employees), Large Business – Service or Retail (16+ employees), Platinum Service Provider, Environmentally Sustainable Business and Citizen of the Year. Submit nomination forms online at www.gwboardoftrade.com/nominations-form/.
Birthdays of the week
Maxine DeHart (Aug. 6); Mike Zimmerman (Aug. 4); Elizabeth Bologna (Aug. 4); Ross Grimmer (Aug. 5); Ron Eberle (Aug. 5); Mohini Singh (Aug. 6); Roger Sellick (Aug. 7); Marje Engelhart (Aug. 7); Gary Johnston (Aug. 7); Val Pelechaty (Aug. 7); Peter Schultz (Aug. 8); Rose-Anne Turner (Aug. 9); Kathleen Stang (Aug. 9); Stuart Broughton (Aug. 10).
Maxine DeHart is a Kelowna city councillor and local hotelier. Phone her at 250-979-4546 or 250-862-7662; email max@maxinedehart.ca; website www.maxinedehart.ca.
