• A Shuswap boy beat his NHL hero at rock, paper, scissors and had a video, and hockey stick, to prove it. On Feb. 19, Rick and Payton Koch caught the Minnesota Wild play Vancouver at Rogers Arena. A fan of the Wild’s Kevin Fiala, Payton held up a sign challenging Fiala to a game of “Rock Paper Scissors For a Stick? Fiala eventually took up the challenge and was eventually beat by Payton. Fiala then skated to the Wild bench, grabbed one of his sticks and paid up, giving it to Payton. “Payton was overjoyed and grateful to have gotten a stick and to interact with his favourite player on his favourite team,” said Rick.
• Confusion might have contributed to a collision near Chase in the early hours of Feb. 27. Sgt. Barry Kennedy, of Chase RCMP, said police were called to a collision involving an SUV and a transport truck about 2:30 a.m. The crash occurred just east of the Petro-Canada gas station on Highway 1 on the west side of Chase. “An eastbound Mercedes Benz had veered into the westbound lane and sideswiped a semi-truck that was travelling westbound on Highway 1,” said Kennedy, adding the impact caused significant damage to the Mercedes. The Mercedes’ occupants, a man and woman, were taken to hospital in Kamloops with minor injuries, and were both extremely disoriented. They both believed they were in Delta in the Lower Mainland on their way home from dinner, said Kennedy.
•Kayla and Tyrell Langdon and their son Jackson were invited to a private viewing of the Stanley Cup while it was in town for the Hometown Hockey celebrations on March 7 and 8. The Shuswap community rallied to assist the Langdon family after Jaxon was born with a range of serious health issues in 2018. Several fundraisers were held to assist the Langdons who had a long stay in Vancouver so Jaxon could receive treatment in the neo-natal intensive care unit.
• A 138-year-old painting of Shuswap Lake was for sale at a Vancouver art gallery for more than $30,000. Thunderstorm on Shuswap Lake was painted by Grafton Tyler Brown on Sept. 28, 1882. Brown, who relocated to Canada from the U.S., was hired to take part in a geological survey of the then nine-year-old province to map out the Shuswap and sketch the region’s landscapes.
•Salmon Arm’s population continued to grow, although it had yet to reach the 20,000 mark. This was according to recent population figures from B.C. Stats, which showed steady population growth in each of the municipalities within the Columbia Shuswap Regional District in 2019. Salmon Arm’s population rose by .8 per cent, from 18,805 to 18,959 between 2017 and 2018, to 19,115 in 2019.
• On March 17, B.C. Premier John Horgan announced the closing of all K-12 schools indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the announcement on Tuesday, Peter Jory, superintendent of schools for School District 83, said he does not expect layoffs for full-time employees but worried for teachers on call.
• Mayor Alan Harrison was recovering well after suffering a stroke on Monday, March 9, a fact that makes him deeply grateful for all the fundraising work the community has done for a CT scanner and upgrades.
He said it was just five minutes after he received the CT scan that he was given the medication. Within two hours he had recovered any “deficits,” as they’re called, produced by the stroke.
• Most of the Shuswap’s playgrounds were closed to combat the spread of COVID-19, though parks and walking trails remained open.
Minnesota Wild fans Payton and father Rick Koch pose with the hockey stick Payton won from his hockey hero Kevin Fiala in a game of rock, paper, scissors. (Contributed)
