Chris Parker, who has spent more than eight years as a volunteer firefighter with the Osoyoos Volunteer Fire Department, said there will another full house when the 2016 Osoyoos Oyster Feed Dinner and Dance is held on Saturday, April 16 at the Osoyoos International Curling Club. Close to 500 people are expected to attend the event, which has raised more than $200,000 over the past 12 years. (File photo)
It takes a lot of time and effort to organize feeding and entertaining 475 people in a small town like Osoyoos, but all the hard work continues to pay off for the members of the Osoyoos Volunteer Fire Department.
For the 13th consecutive year, more than two-dozen volunteer members have put in long hours to organize the annual Osoyoos Oyster Feed Dinner and Dance, which will take place on Saturday, April 16 at the Osoyoos International Curling Club.
Almost all of the 475 tickets for the popular event were sold as of last Friday and Chris Parker, who heads up the committee to organize the Oyster Feed Dinner and Dance, said he expects another sold out event next weekend.
“I think we’re pretty close to being sold out once again,” he said. “Some of the people who buy tickets early find out they can’t make it, so we sell those tickets again and make sure we sell them to people who really want to go to the event at the last minute.”
The event has now raised more than $200,000 for regional hospitals and other worthy causes over the past dozen years, said Parker.
Once again, proceeds from the dinner and dance – which also features a very profitable silent auction – will be directed towards the burn unit at Vancouver General Hospital, the Penticton Regional Hospital and South Okanagan General Hospital (SOGH) in Oliver, said Parker.
The money forwarded to SOGH usually goes towards helping the hospital purchase new medical equipment.
For the past several years, a donation to Ronald McDonald House in Kelowna has been made by the local firefighters with proceeds from this event.
For the past three years, a $2,000 scholarship from proceeds of the dinner and dance have been donated to a graduating student from Osoyoos Secondary School, said Parker.
The event has come a long way from 15 years ago when it was an internal event arranged by volunteer firefighters for members only, said Parker.
The firefighters used to also invite local RCMP officers and other emergency response personnel for a fun evening that raised a few hundred dollars.
When the idea to expand the event to include the entire community was talked about, many volunteer firefighters thought it was a great idea and the event has been a huge success ever since, said Parker.
The event was held at the old Elks Hall – which is currently the site of the Osoyoos Baptist Church – the first few years and it then moved to the Sonora Community Centre to accommodate more people, he said.
This will be the sixth year the event is held at the local curling rink.
Every single volunteer with the local fire department does his or her share in helping organize the event, said Parker.
“Everybody chips in,” he said. “It takes a lot of time to put this together, but it makes things a lot easier when everyone with the department helps out in one way or the other.”
Organizers will start decorating the main floor of the curling club starting next Wednesday and it takes several days to get ready to host 475 visitors, he said.
On the day of the event, volunteers start showing up around 9 a.m. to prepare to cook and serve the oysters and other food as well as the tables and silent auction items.
The doors will open at 5:50 p.m. and dinner will start being served at 7 p.m.
Staff from Codfathers in Kelowna will once again make the visit to Osoyoos to prepare and serve raw oysters as appetizers before dinner, he said.
Literally hundreds of Osoyoos and area businesses contribute silent auction items, said Parker.
“We go to virtually every single business in town to donate something and I can’t remember ever being turned down,” he said. “We get everything from $50 gift certificates to prizes worth more than $500.
“The silent auction is a big part of what we do in raising the money, so we always have to thank the local business owners who go out of their way to help support our event.”
After the silent auction, the evening will wrap up with a night of dancing as The Blue Collar Band from Kelowna will play modern and classic rock, said Parker.
Last year’s event raised more than $40,000 and organizers are hoping to break that record this year, he said.
Parker, who has been a volunteer firefighter in Osoyoos for more than eight years, wanted to thank all of his fellow firefighters for making the oyster feed dinner and dance such a great success for more than a decade.
“We had our first meeting back in the middle of January and it takes three months of hard work to pull this all together,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s for some very worthy causes, so it’s obviously all worth it.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
