This group of smiling bowlers were part of a 41-member contingent from Red Deer and area that made the long trek to Osoyoos last week to participate in the 38th annual Osoyoos Golden Age Jamboree bowling event at Kobau Lanes. Team members, from left, include Gerry Keown, Jerry Tennant, Susan Tennant, Jean Reinhart and Helen Jorgensen. (Keith Lacey photo)
The Golden Age Jamboree is about so much more than strikes and spares for the hundreds of senior bowlers who come to Osoyoos every spring to compete in the event.
“We turn it into a real holiday,” said Jerry Tennant, who has returned to Osoyoos and Kobau Lanes for the second time in three years to compete in the 38th annual Golden Age Jamboree, which is the longest-running bowling event of its kind for an eight-lane bowling centre in Canada.
“We came up with a group of more than 40 and when we’re not bowling, we’re out playing golf or going on a few wine tours and just outside enjoying the beautiful weather.”
Tennant and his wife Susan are from Red Deer as are the majority of the group of 41 who made the long journey to Osoyoos to participate in the Golden Age Jamboree. Others are from Olds and Innisfail in Alberta as well as a couple from Kindersley, Sask.
The large group drove to Jasper and took a train to Kamloops, before jumping on a bus to come to Osoyoos and spent five days in town at the same local hotel.
While bowling in Golden Age Jamboree is always one of the highlights of their visit, being able to get out of Alberta and visit a warmer climate is always a bonus this time of year, said Tennant.
“Osoyoos is such a beautiful little town and it’s great to come to this tournament and meet people from all over Alberta and all across B.C.,” he said. “We turn it into a real nice spring vacation with a really good bunch of people and it’s a lot of fun.”
Tennant runs a bowling program for 130 Special Olympians in Red Deer and bowls in several leagues, so a lot of his spare time during his retirement years is taken up inside a bowling alley.
“It keeps you in shape, you get to meet a lot of great people and you can bowl well into your senior years, so there’s not much to not like,” he said smiling.
The local residents in Osoyoos are always extremely welcoming and friendly and he plans on coming back for many more Golden Age Jamborees in the future, said Tennant.
“As long as my health stays good, I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t come back,” he said. “The town is great and the tournament is very well run, so I’m sure we’ll be back many more times down the road.”
Sandra Clark, the Golden Age bowling program co-ordinator at Heritage Lanes in Red Deer, said it takes two months of hard work to organize the trip to Osoyoos, but it’s time well spent.
“We all stay at the same hotel and we get out together to see the sights and play cards when we’re not at the bowling alley,” she said. “We have a lot of fun.”
There were bowlers ranging in age from 62 to 86 on this trip and every one of them had a good time, she said.
Bonnie Sarazin, the longtime manager at Kobau Lanes, said she expects close to 2,000 participants will compete in this year’s Golden Age Jamboree, which started April 23 and wraps up on May 5.
About 60 per cent of the bowlers are from Alberta, with most of the rest from across B.C., she said.
The tournament founders, Richie and Jean Schneider, deserve a lot of the credit for making this event such a success over the years, she said.
“They were the founders and they were the ones who put in all the hard work in making this one of the biggest bowling tournaments in the country,” she said.
The Golden Age Jamboree has brought millions of dollars into the local economy over the past 37 years, said Sarazin.
“The hotels and restaurants are busy when you bring in the amount of people this tournament brings in,” she said. “It has definitely had a very good impact on the local economy for all of these years.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
