While it seems that almost every event is being canceled these days, I want to assure people that the 110th Anniversary of Scouting in the South Okanagan will not be celebrated as the 111th next year. 2020 is the year. It will happen.

As a Wolf Cub I promised to Do My Best, and as a Scout I promised to Be Prepared. In Penticton and Oliver you likely have noticed some newspaper articles celebrating some of the adult volunteers from the past 110 years, and some other stories about local Scouting from the past. That will continue with the blessing and consent of our local newspapers. Happy news is sometimes hard to find these days.

The last time I checked, our five museums are still on board with seasonal display space for the summer and September. Oliver is in the final planning stages now, and will set up for both live and virtual visits. Their choice of exhibits is excellent due to the depth of their archives. And it is all about Scouting in Oliver.

I have not mentioned this before, but the Penticton Stamp Club is engaged in a project to produce a commemorative postage stamp, first day cover and envelop enclosure to celebrate this milestone. It has been informative and delightful watching this process and I am very grateful to the Club for recognizing the importance of the year. Thank you, Harv and Gordon for dropping in out of the blue a year ago.

The Covid19 lockdown has been a blessing in disguise for the ongoing research side of the entire project. I sometimes follow faded trails to find missing links. Connecting with new people is sometimes difficult. But lately people seem to be at home a lot. The past 6 weeks has filled in a lot of big gaps in our knowledge, with much more to follow. This research is not just for this year. It is ongoing, but has seen a lot of success lately.

We are contemplating some things over the summer, but they will be very much Covid19 determined. But the event of September 17 to 20 in Penticton will still go ahead. We just don’t know at this time what it will look like. Stay tuned. So many good ideas being tossed about.

I would like to recognize the key people in this project. Frank Smith is our resident expert on Scouting artifacts and has done some excellent work with Summerland archives. Jan Hanna is the biggest packrat I know, and for that I am eternally grateful. Things that people were considering tossing in the garbage ended up in his basement (boxes, boxes, and even more boxes, and have now become the core of our Scouting history timeline in the Penticton Museum. Tim Gladish has taken over planning of events this year, and has formed a small committee of mostly retired Scouters from the area. And, of course, Irwin Hobden has been involved right from the beginning.

The month of May has arrived, which means that June is just around the corner. The countdown has begun. Time to celebrate a special part of our history!

Not visited our web based data timeline yet? Google search with 3 words: Scout Penticton Laidlaw. Then follow the most common path. Perhaps you can fill in some of the gaps.

Gerry Lamb
Interim Chair
DYB DYB South Okanagan Historical Group