Fit for a Long Life
“I started exercising when I retired,” says 82-year old Christine Albert. After running a coffee shop in Penticton, she and her husband moved to Kelowna, where Christine hung up her apron and pulled on a pair of running shoes. “I had osteoporosis,” she explains. “I wanted to prevent further damage.” “Older adults want to stay active as long as they can and carry on their favourite activities,” says Bobbi Kittle, owner of Pursuit Fitness and a personal trainer at... Read More
Kia & Hannah Robertson
As international news headlines warn of childhood obesity and related diseases, an Okanagan nine-year-old and her mom are taking action to help kids achieve a healthy attitude toward eating, with their Today I Ate a Rainbow books and videos. Kia Robertson admits that it’s tough to get kids excited about eating fruit and vegetables. Even though daughter Hannah isn’t a picky eater (she was already choosing carrots over carrot cake at the age of two), Kia confesses to struggling... Read More
Construction: The Big Picture
The future looks stagnant if you base predictions for commercial and residential construction in the Kelowna area on one set of numbers alone. Recent Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) figures indicate only minor improvement in single family and townhouse construction numbers while condo development is flat. But that’s not the whole picture. Things are changing here in Kelowna,” says Jim Paterson, executive director for business development at Kelowna City... Read More
Driving the Tourism Biz
Okanagan Life Progress interviews Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) CEO Glenn Mandziuk For Glenn Mandziuk the possibility of any career outside of tourism and economic development was a non-starter. He was literally born into the profession and has used everything he’s learned to make a name for himself and, more importantly, the organizations he’s led. Glenn is the CEO of the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA). In the three years since he took on the... Read More
Tonsorial Wisdom
Wireless social networking gone retro … I’ve given up on the coffee shop. I don’t know how much more thumb-waggling I can take. Semaphore was easier to understand because the flag positions actually meant something. My younger friends only deign to talk to me audibly because I don’t have an iSomething to receive text messages. The other day a client nearly wet her knickers laughing because I told her I didn’t know how to text but that we could talk anyway. Feeling... Read More
Anya Mayoss-Hurd: Miss Teen Canada Contender
Anya Mayoss-Hurd’s sign should be fire. The 16-year-old redhead arrived in Canada from Birmingham, England, on the day lightning set Okanagan Mountain Park ablaze. She used the experience in a required speech for the Peachland Ambassador program that led to her coronation as Miss Teen Okanagan at the Miss Teen British Columbia competition. Now that speech is helping to carry her to the Miss Teen Canada finals in Toronto on July 9. “I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m happy... Read More
Go After Your Dreams
How do you determine the difference between a novel, a novella and a long short story? On some levels it makes no difference, but to Kelowna author, Celeste Catena, it may mean her place in the history books as the world’s youngest novelist. “I’ve always had a love for reading and writing. Once I got into Grade 1, my reading got really avid and I set myself a goal that I wanted to be the youngest, or one of the youngest, published authors. So when I got into Grade 4 I presented... Read More
The Little Company That Could
AEM President Dave Veitch Bucking the dour headlines, Anodyne Electronics Manufacturing Corp. (AEM) is a bright spot in the firmament. With little more than a year under its belt the new company has managed to keep 49 manufacturing jobs from going south of the border, actually increased employment to 60 and brought in sales higher than projections that would have been enviable during the fat years of a decade past. When you’ve got broken eggs, make an omelette Slightly more... Read More
