Lawn bowling is boss
When corporations pick high-profile sports to sponsor they usually go for the big five – hockey, baseball, basketball, football and soccer.
For the Kelowna branch of global accounting and consulting firm BDO, sponsorship is being thrown behind lawn bowling.
Yes, lawn bowling, which is about as far from the big five as you can get and even below regular bowling. Yet, BDO finds value in the sponsorship. So much so, it has extended its support of On the Lawn for another two years.
On the Lawn started in 2015 as a way to make lawn bowling hip.
On three summer evenings, 26 teams of young professionals dress up in bowls shorts and skirts, knee socks, trilby hats and bow ties to roll balls at a jack, have some drinks, socialize and network.
“We started On The Lawn because we wanted to use our skills for good and create an event that was different and popular with a younger demographic in other countries,” said On the Law director Daylin Mantyka.
“BDO has been incredibly supportive right from the start. They signed on in 2015 as presenting sponsor, even though the event was unproven in Kelowna.”
Over the past two years, the tournament has raised $29,000 for Elevation Outdoors, the local charity that helps underprivileged kids get into skiing, sailing and climbing.
On the Lawn’s first night of play is Thursday and continues the next two Thursdays with the finale party on the last night.
“I found the program really helped me gain confidence heading into interviews.”
Cleo landed a job she loves at Rosebuds, a Kelowna designer consignment store, before the Y course even ended.
The Y’s four-and-15-week programs, called Youth Works and Jumpstart, respectively, help eligible youth under 30 set career goals; gain certifications like first aid, FoodSafe and WorldHost; create polished resumes and cover letters; search for work; and do well in job interviews.
The programs are free for eligible millennials and youth can even qualify for a training allowance while take the course.
“These youth are driven and talented, but often lack the tools and confidence to determine what it is they want and how to go after it,” said Y youth employment supervisor Jen Pont.
The next programs start next month and September.
Check out YMCAOkanagan.ca for more information. agents to book flights and packages, which can include hotel, tours and car rental.
From 1996 as a discount airline with a handful of planes and only five destinations in Western Canada, including Kelowna, WestJet has grown its fleet and now flies to more than 100 cities in North and Central America, the Caribbean and Europe.
The next fleet expansion will be twenty 300-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
WestJet flies from Kelowna to Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun and from Penticton to Calgary.
Kelowna hoped for a WestJet flight to London’s Gatwick when the airline started to fly to Europe, but it didn’t get it. including 138 from the Okanagan.
“Those jobs are now at risk as a result of the NDP-Greens, who seem to be grasping for any excuse to kill Site C, a clean energy project that will provide hydroelectricity for B.C. for the next hundred years and more.”
The association is fighting for Site C with its pink slip campaign to raise awareness, hiring a plane to tow a pro-Site C banner over Victoria while the Throne Speech was being read and generating more than 2,400 emails in support of Site C.