The newly-formed Osoyoos Snowbird Association meets weekly on Monday mornings at Bits & Bites cafe. Part-time Osoyoos resident Allan Warren started the group to give snowbirds a place to meet each other and “shoot the breeze.” From left are Wayne Bowes, Keith Lensen, Allan Warren and Bill Jewitt. (Vanessa Broadbent photo)

By Vanessa Broadbent

Osoyoos Times

When Allan Warren and his wife Eleanor first came to Osoyoos from Quebec last winter, he says it wasn’t easy to find a convenient way to connect with other snowbirds.

While some hotels have get-togethers for seasonal residents, the one the Warrens were at didn’t.

“We sometimes sat in our room and we’d go to McDonalds and we’d meet people up there,” Warren said.

So this year he started the Osoyoos Snowbirds Association, an effort to provide a space for all of the town’s winter seasonal residents to come together in one place.

Since mid-January, the group meets every Monday morning at 9 a.m. at Bits & Bites café on Main Street, and talks about things going on in the area.

“New people don’t know what’s happening and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Warren said.

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But other than to get together and talk, there’s no real schedule or agenda to follow.

“Just come on down here and shoot the breeze and meet people from other provinces, that’s the only goal we have,” Warren said.

Lauralee Kennedy from Pointe au Baril, Ontario has attended every meeting since they started.

“It’s nice to get together and meet new people and learn where everybody is from,” she said. “Everybody has ideas and things I didn’t know about.”

Kennedy originally came to Osoyoos because she was enticed after hearing it was the warmest spot in the country.

This year is her third and she’s planning for many more.

As for Warren, after spending two decades traveling to Florida every winter last year he decided to try somewhere in Canada and thought the desert capital sounded neat.

“We fell in love with it,” he said. “We wake up in the morning and walk down the street and everybody says good morning to us – everybody. We get it in our village because we know the people, but we don’t even know the people here and they say good morning.”

Warren plans to keep coming to Osoyoos every year “without question,” and he’s already planning for next year’s Osoyoos Snowbird Association meetings.

Instead of waiting until after the holidays the meetings will start in November, but like this year, the plan will still be to not have much of a plan.

The Osoyoos Snowbird Association meets every Monday at Bits & Bites cafe. (Vanessa Broadbent photo)