Reports

Summer summary

This summer season was fast paced and filled with fun and exciting events. Some of these were old, and some of them new with every one of them being a success! Every single weekend this summer (minus the first two when tourism still hasn’t picked up) KIC hosted a special event. These events kept both Reanne and I very busy with advertising, organizing, site preparations and site clean-up for them all. The following is a brief outline of the types of events that took place this year:

A fry rescue on Ashton Creek was a joint undertaking with the Lower Shuswap Stewardship Society and KICS and happened on July 18th. About 200-300 fish were rescued with about 40% rainbow trout, 50% Chinook, and 10% Coho. There were about 40 participants who helped empty the g-traps (that were set the day before) and tried to use seine nets and dip nets to catch fish. The event was a success for its first year. A list of recommendations was made to refer to for next year.

• Run-Away Moon theatre performed “Sawllkwa” on July 24th and 25th and saw over 200 people each night!! The preparations leading up to this event were exciting and brought in dozens of more people to the site. The theatre group themselves were surprised at the success of the event and may do something here again……in a few years.
• On August 7th we had our annual Salmon BBQ Fundraiser. We sold out (107 tickets) with 8 complimentaries and 24 volunteers for a total of 139 people. The event raised about $1500 which I think can go under the category of “another great success”.
• August 15th was one of the highlights of the summer for me! KIC had over 330 people attend one of our single most successful events, “Learn to Fish” that was put on through the Angling Ambassador Program. Les Robinson was one of the key organizers for this event with help from us in the form of advertising, site preparation, and supplying drinks. We have received much positive feedback about this event and hope that someone may take it on again next year!

Well, that’s all for events. Outside of our rigorous event schedule the hatchery itself brought in visitors from abroad. Although I think that there was a decline in tourism this summer, the people who did visit the site were very keen and eager to learn. It is hard to have an exact visitor count this year as there was nobody here to count on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. However, our count still adds up to 1,919 visitors this summer!! That is very close to last year’s number of 2,207. The other thing to consider is that we finished 9 days earlier and these counts do not include when the First Nation’s were doing their food fish the last week in August. So, I think that it is VERY safe to say that again, our numbers are up!!!

Submitted by Shona Bruce