More flights
For every vehicle sold at Kelowna Hyundai and Buy Direct Truck Centre this month, the Kot Auto Group will donate $100 to the Interior Heart and Surgical Centre at Kelowna General Hospital.
It’s all part of dealership group boss John Kot’s ongoing five-year commitment to raise a total of $100,000 for the surgical centre.
“After successfully donating $20,000 last year to the Interior Heart and Surgical Centre, we look forward to doing it again,” said Kot.
“Having the ability to help our community provide a higher level of health care for all families will help everyone through an already difficult time in their life.”
This is the fifth year of Kelowna Hyundai’s and Buy Direct’s campaign.
So, if the goal of selling 200 vehicles and donating $20,000 is met, it means the overall target of $100,000 will also be achieved.
Kot’s Maple Ridge Hyundai also runs a similar campaign for charities in the Lower Mainland.
Kot and his wife, Trina, also founded a Pay It Forward initiative at Kelowna Hyundai and Buy Direct in December.
Now every year, before Christmas, each of the 60 employees at the two dealerships are provided with $500 for them to forward to their charity of choice.
That means $30,000 every year goes to causes near and dear to employees’ hearts.
Kot also owns Penticton Nissan.
The Interior Heart and Surgical Centre opened in 2015 and can treat patients from the Interior who previously had to travel to Vancouver for care.
Top 100
For the seventh year in a row, Kelowna’s Wentworth Music has been named one of the top 100 music stores in the world by the National Association of Music Merchants.
The award recognizes stores who offer amazing customer service, commitment to their community and perpetuate the vision to create a more musical world through their work.
The top 100 will be recognized at the associations conference next month in Nashville.
“We’re just buzzing,” said vice-president Noel Wentworth.
“Such a huge honour to be amongst the top stores and schools from around the globe.”
At the conference, the association will also reveal best of winners in seven categories – customer service, rookie dealer of the year, store turnaround, Music Makes a Difference, marketing and sales promotion, store design and online engagement. Kelowna Hyundai and Buy Direct Truck Centre are all set to meet their goal of raising $100,000 for the Interior Heart and Surgical Centre. Pictured here are dealer principal John Kot with his daughter, Janessa, financial services manager, and son, Jordan, director of sales.
Pacific Coastal Airlines is bumping up service between Kelowna and Victoria and Kelowna and Cranbrook.
Beginning Sept. 4, the airline will increase flights between Kelowna and Cranbrook to seven weekly from the current six.
That means there will be a flight daily leaving Kelowna for Cranbrook at 1:50 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturdays.
Also starting Sept. 4, Pacific Coastal will add an early morning Monday through Friday flight to its Kelowna-Victoria roster at 7:20 a.m.
It is also adding a Friday night Kelowna-Victoria link leaving at 7:35 p.m.
This is in addition to the existing twice-a-day service Monday through Friday at 10:35 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Saturdays at 1 p.m. and Sundays at 4:30 p.m.
“Our fall schedule is completely focused towards the Kelowna traveller,” said Pacific Coastal manager Jenelle Hynes.
“With the early morning flights and up to four flights a day to Victoria on Friday, it really gives our passengers the opportunity to maximize their stay on the island or connect to the rest of B.C. It’s because of the consistent growth in this market that we’re able to add these flights and better serve the Okanagan region.” It was back in May 1978 the Central Okanagan Regional District had the foresight to form the Central Okanagan to help wineries to export to Washington state and California.
Washington and California have their own well-established wine industries, but there’s a niche market in both states for Okanagan wines.
The Okanagan also sees a healthy amount of Washington and California wine lovers come to the Valley to sip and eat.
The institute is also helping wineries export to Asia.
Valleywide