A great day it was for Barwick’s July 1 Canada Day celebration.
The weather was just what the doctor ordered–cool, calm with a little breeze flowing through. Organizers and committee members were actually thrilledby this.
The canteen was working overtime to cool your system off.
“The Mini-Parade had 27 kiddies involved,” said Heather Oltsher.
It also had thirty entries in the floats, cars, one-half-ton trucks, construction equipment, fire trucks and tractor, noted Glen Jackson.
“In our days, volunteers were just that,” exclaimed Percy Champagne in conversation about volunteers.
“We did it for fun and to better the community, today you scrape the bottom of the barrel and if you come up with volunteers, they ask how much are we getting paid,” he added. “Not saying there are still people out there willing to give of their time, but it’s the same individuals. And it is getting smaller in size.”
According to Heather Oltsher, the numbers were down, people are just losing interest, there are just too many things going on in the district at the same time. People have to choose what they are going to attend, which in some instances was expensive.
Heather was anywhere and everywhere, even manning the canteen with her sister. But they were doing shift work, so it was not bad.
On the ball diamond, only six fast-pitch teams participated–Pinewood Bears, Stratton Sight and Sound, Big Island, Dryden, Barwick, Rainy River and Rainy Lake. They could have had seven with one team from the district fastball league, but this would have offset the schedule, so George Oltsher stuck to a balanced schedule.
Awards given out included: Best Use of Canada Day–1. Shirley Brown, who always comes up with some new creation; 2. Cole Hyatt; 3. Chantelle Vogt. No entries qualified for Canada Day Bikes.
Bicycles Group–1. Mark Barron; 2. Tyler Brusven: Motorized Vehicle–1. Ryan Borger; 2. Jalena Strom; 3. Jason Strom: Younger Bike Category–1. Mykenzie Borger; 2. Tillian Armstrong; 3. Terrell Hyatt: Tricycles & Wagons–1. Jessi Armstrong; 2. B. Ann and Brealyn Richards; 3. Wyah Richards and Garrett Hyatt: Best dressed singles group one–1. Susan Stewart; 2. Kayla Stang and Chandler Borger; 3. Alex Stewart: Best dressed singles group two–1. Melissa LaBelle; 2. Samantha LaBelle; 3. Miranda LaBelle.
Jessi Armstrong (age 1) won the Tot’s prize of “Blow-Up Crawl” toy donated by Barwick Village Restaurant. Winner of a bike donated by Voyageur Panel was Jalena Strom.
First prize in Farm Tractors was Andy Brigham with his 1928 John Deere Model D tractor and plow. Tractor was purchased by Milford Brigham in early 1950’s, restored in 1991 by Andy. He said, “it took four months steady at it to get it in working condition.”
Commercial float prize was taken by John Gavel Family Racing: Cars–Wayne Salchert with his 1969 Camaro Z28; Half-ton truck–Paul Olsen with 1955 Chev: Fire trucks–Steve Both 1953 F.W.D. Construction Equipment: Dump truck–Gary Judson with his 1932 Diamond T: Stock Cars–#47 Howard Teeple.
Results of the fastpitch tournament of six teams. First round: Pinewood-5, Stratton-1; Big Island-5, Sight & Sound-6; Dryden-3, Rainy Lake-0; Final: Dryden-4, Pinewood-1. B-side Semi-finals: Sight & Sound-4, Stratton-1; Barwick-9, Rainy River-1: Final game–Barwick-9, Sight & Sound-4.
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