Top Stories – Feb 21 – Still In Use

The Mary Irwin Theatre will receive $45,500 from Community Gaming Grants for an LED Lighting Retrofit. It would include a new digital console as the old one uses floppy discs. There will also be light fixtures with a larger range, touchscreen control monitors, and the LED lights.

A record-breaking number of BC residents gave the gift of life last year. BC Transplant says a provincial record 159 people donated their organs after they died in 2022, which allowed 465 transplants to be performed. It’s encouraging more people to sign-up for donations, with more than 500 BC residents still waiting for their life-changing call.

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has written the anthem for King Charles III’s coronation, adapting a piece of church music that encourages singers to make a ‘joyful noise.’ It includes words adapted from Psalm 98 and is scored specifically for Westminster Abbey’s choir and organ.

Despite warnings that the back country is not safe right now, 5 skiers decided to head out and got lost near Big White. Central Okanagan Search and Rescue along with the mountain’s ski patrol found them on the Two John FSR and brought them out to Big White Rd where they were met by family and taken to the resort to warm up.

The avalanche deaths of two skiers in the central Interior this month have prompted an emotional plea about this season’s dangerous conditions from the head of a volunteer search and rescue group. The chief of the Central Cariboo team in Williams Lake says that one of the people killed in a slide southwest of the city was a member of his team. One guide said this year’s snowpack has been “scary” but not unmanageable, but he will stick to safe and familiar terrain.

As Canadians increasingly look to drink less or not at all, non-alcoholic beverage companies are working hard to meet the rising demand. During months like Dry January or February, demand has been a lot higher than expected, leading to short-term gaps in availability. According to payments company Square, sales of mocktails hit an all-time high in the first half of January with 123 per cent growth year over year.

It’s now up to the city as plans for a 6-storey, 124 unit apartment building at Leathead and Dougall in Rutland have been submitted. One of the challenges to overcome is that the Rutland Urban Centre has a 4 storey limit. The plan calls for 11 studios, 90 one-bedroom and 23 two-bedroom units.

A carved pole that embodies the history and culture of a BC First Nation is being welcomed back to its ancestral home in Bella Coola, more than 100 years after it was taken. Carved in the mid-1800s as an entrance pole to a long house, the Snow family pole was later used as a marker for a family grave but was taken without permission in 1913 and added to a collection of the Royal BC Museum.

The RCMP has ended its search for an unidentified aerial object shot down over central Yukon more than a week ago. The mounties say they searched the highest probability area but could not find the debris. The US military also ended its searches for debris from other objects shot down over northern Alaska and Lake Huron.

Sports

At Prospera Place yesterday, the Rockets picked up their 3rd straight win, 3-1 over Tri Cities as Adam Kydd was in on all the goals. On Saturday they beat Portland, also 3-1, in a game that saw Talyn Boyko stop 45 of 46 shots.

The Vancouver Canucks are on the road for 2 games beginning today in Nashville. Face off is at five. Injured goaltender Thatcher Demko is with the team.

As Major League Baseball gets ready for spring training games later this week, there are some rule changes to deal with. The bases are bigger, and the pickoff rules are different. The pitch clock has arrived, and infield shifts are gone.