On March 29th, Chief Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry and, BC Premier, John Horgan announced new COVID parameters restricting diners from eating indoors at restaurants. For most restaurants in BC this meant a serious loss in business but one Penticton restaurant has continued to remain successful due to extensive patio dining areas available for customers. 

“The day-to-day hasn’t actually changed too much within the last month, the only thing we’ve really had to adapt to is the increased sales of to-go food and getting larger pushes on weekdays and weekends that have sunny weather due to only patio seating.”

Sous chef, Jaden Malek, has been the main leader for the Salty’s kitchen during these difficult times for the majority of BC restaurants.

Salty’s Beach House is very fortunate to have extensive outdoor patio seating available overlooking Okanagan Lake during the months heading into summer, where, in Penticton, the weather has mainly stayed nice and warm.

Penticton Vees captain, Finlay Williams has been having a dominant ‘pod’ season with 5 goals, 12 assists and 17 totals points in 14 games. The NHL draft hopeful, Williams says he doesn’t feel any added pressure to his game despite the draft being less than 3 months away.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play in the National Hockey League and get drafted. It just happens that this is the year that it’s all hopefully going to play out. I just go out there and play for my team, do whatever I can to win. I think with that, hopefully, scouts will see what my is all about.”

Despite this only being his first season with the Penticton Vees and him being one of the younger players on the team, Finlay Williams has already been named team captain, an honor that means a lot to him.

“Leadership is something that I take really seriously, I take pride in being a good leader and making people around me better.”

Williams’ leadership has helped lead the Penticton Vees to 13 wins from 15 games on the season, good enough for 27 points, first place in their pod and most points in the entire BCHL.

The Penticton Vees have been a dominant force in the BCHL’s ‘pod’ season through 14 games. The Vees, coached by Fred Harbinson, have won 12 of their 14 games with one regulation loss and 1 shootout loss as well on the season. Harbinson says his team’s depth and defense has been a driving force in his team’s success.

“You’ve got scoring throughout all our lines up front. It seems like any given night it’s a different line that takes the bull by the horns and produces. The other glaring stat that sticks out is our goals against average and that’s a team commitment and attitude to our defensive game”

The Vees have given up a league best 17 goals through 14 games and have also stayed out of the penalty box more than any other team in the League.

Fred Harbinson has been coaching the Penticton Vees for 14 years now and year after year he continues to get great results and this season is no different. Although, in the BCHL’s ‘pod’ set up, the Vees are only playing against 2 other teams, the Vees have dealt with the team’s put in front of them. The Vees will play one more game against both the Cranbrook Bucks and Trail Smoke Eaters before ending the ‘pod’ season once and for all.

The Thompson-Okanagan Region has received a brand new $35 000 grant for the province’s new ‘Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network’. One local minority says he has had to deal with racism all around him in the area ever since he moved to the Thompson-Okanagan in Middle School.

“When I was a kid on the school bus, this older kid called me the n-word and that was my first exposure to racism because I came from a place where pretty much everybody was black”

The North Okanagan Social Planning Council, which will serve as the region’s “spoke”, received the most funding out of all BC communities.

In total, 36 communities received some funding from the ‘Multiculturalism Grants’ under BC’s new banner: the ‘Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network’ that was launched back in 2020. Like most people by now, anti-racism awareness facilitators are equipped for virtual communication, something that, leaders say, the COVID-19 pandemic has actually helped with.

The Penticton Vees have a total of 10 rookies on their team this season despite sitting at the top of the standings with two games left. The jump to the BCHL has been challenging for the first years but the team has been getting the job done. One of the rookies is, local forward, Levi Carter.

“It’s been a bit difficult, just with the speed and how skillful all the guys are but I think the coaches have really helped me, just teaching me little things here and there.”

From 10 games this season Carter has 4 assists and is looking for more as the Vees will be finishing their ‘pod’ season on the 30th of April.

The Vees will look to improve upon their BCHL best, 12-1-1 record and 3 game win streak in the final two games of the season being played Thursday and Friday night.

“We out work the other team every night, we don’t lose many puck battles, we fight for each other I think is the main part. I think all the guys have come together and gelled faster than all the rest of the teams” says Carter.

The Vees’ final two games will be against, pod rivals, Trail and Cranbrook. Other than not having a playoffs to compete in this season, there is not a lot to complain about for the Vees in 2021.