SIGHTLINES
Newsletter of the Peachland Sportsmen's Association
October, 2000
Treasurer's Report
The winner of last year's Grand Prize in the Peachland
Sportsman's Association's Annual Ticket Raffle had such a great
time he's promised to buy up all of the tickets this year!
Paul Case, winner of the Douglas Lake Fishing Trip for two
couldn't say enough about the hospitality, great meals,
fishing, horseback riding and relaxation. "Those trout look
like giant loaves of bread," he claimed after a day of fishing
at Stoney Lake. When I asked what the meals were like, Paul
looked up to heaven and said: "Gord, there are no words that
can explain how good the dinner we were served was. All I can
say is, the food and service go way beyond excellent."
Paul and his wife also enjoyed an entire day of horseback
riding out of the Salmon Lake Lodge. "My advice to anyone
thinking of purchasing a ticket in this year's raffle is, if
you don't like fishing in lakes with huge trout, five-star
meals, hiking, horseback riding or just plain old relaxin',
then don't buy a ticket. That'll just be one more ticket I'll
buy!"
Tickets for this year's raffle will be available to our
members to sell this month. With any luck, we may have the
tickets available at the October meeting, which is Oct. 18 at
Fourth Street Place, Peachland, 7:30 p.m.
Also, because of the demand for tickets last year, we have
decided to increase the number of tickets this year to 2,500.
We challenge all of our members to support the raffle and pick
up one or two books of tickets and sell them to your
neighbours, friends, co-workers etc. It would be great if we
could sell-out before the New Year! The prizes this year
are:
First Prize: Douglas Lake Fishing Trip Value: $1,000
Second Prize: Trophy Float Tube & Waders Value: $380
Third Prize: Magellan 310 GPS Value: $275
The draw date for this year's raffle will be during
the PSA's Annual Game Banquet, February 10, 2001.
Gordon Wilson
Treasurer
Peachland Sportsman's Association
Membership Information
The club's mailing address has changed, along with everyone
else's in Peachland, so make sure you change your records. The
Post Office eliminated many of the PO Boxes with the transition
to the community mail box system. Many of the three-digit PO
Box numbers were deleted. Ours was one of them.
The new address is:
P.O. Box 1277
Peachland, BC
V0H 1X0
What's yours?
Our new membership chairman is Gordie Schimpf of Valley Glass
in Westbank. He'd like to make sure all the information on
existing members is up to date, and to include a bit more
information on all members for the coming year. If you have an
E-mail address, we'd like to share it with members if you'd
like.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation offers a break on membership cost
for those over 65 years of age, but we don't know which of our
members are...so we pay the higher price for all of you. If
you're over 65, let us know.
We also need the names of other members of the family when you
purchase a family membership, so they're included without
question in the insurance provided to all members by the BCWF.
Your membership in the Peachland Sportsman's Association
includes membership in the BCWF.
A single membership for one year is $25. A family
membership is $30. It's due by the end of December. Give
your cheques to Gordie at the October meeting, which is on the
18th, beginning at 7:30, in Fourth Street Place, Peachland.
Letters:
Hello, fellow PSA members!
I have been meaning to do this for some time now (i.e.
years!), but the advent of the PSA website and E-mail contact
route leaves me few options to procrastinate any longer.
By the way, the website is great and I love the photo albums.
In November 1988, I left the active ranks of the PSA to move
to California and begin a new chapter in our family's
lives. At that time, I was presented a Life Membership by
the executive for past efforts, which I have always held in
high regard. Over the years, I have continued to receive
and archive the newsletters. I have almost every issue
published since the club began and I was its editor, in case
anyone ever wants to look into the background of the
club.
Perhaps some PSA newcomers might enjoy some ancient history,
so to speak. To refresh fuzzy memories, the club was
chartered in February 1981 under the B.C. Societies Act.
This culminating moment was the result of several public
meetings some of us held in Peachland to try to determine the
interest in a family-oriented outdoor recreation club in the
Westside area. The five original charter members (and first
executive) were: Bob Chicalo (Pres.), Bernice Von Aschwege (V.
Pres.), Fraser Sime (Sec./Treas.), Jim Nearing (Member at
Large), and Victoria Sime (Alternate). I still have one
of the five original copies of the Charter.
During those early years, we focused on family events such as
fishing days, shooting events, C.O.R.E. instruction (several of
us were certified instructors), the infamous annual game
banquet, the Kokanee incubation boxes on Deep Creek, the deer
fence along the highway to Summerland, the Deep Creek spawning
habitat restoration projects, the Range Patrol, and several
other such activities.
Some of us were more active than others, as is often the case
in these organizations. In addition to those named above, Paul
Araki, Murray Johnston (I still have my life membership
certificate in the frame Murray made me), Earl Boose, Vern
Cousins, Ted Topham, Gord Brown, Gord Wilson, Gord Patterson,
Al Larson, Bob Sime, Larry Sundstrom, Frank Gilfillan, Jerry
Kneller, and others I have unintentionally omitted were active
in all phases of the club's activities.
Over the years, I have read the newsletters with great
interest and noted the ebb and flow of the club membership and
activity over time. Names I remember from years back
continue to crop up from time to time. These are the folks who
will carry the club forward in difficult times. We too
had periods where the 'core group' felt like we couldn't handle
the entire load anymore, but someone always came through and we
carried on and grew again. The mid-eighties were a time
when we had far more members from outside Peachland and we felt
the club was loosing its identity.
That passed and the club continued to grow up to the time I
left in 1988. I don't know where the membership stands
today, but I hope the general long-term trend continued.
For those friends who I have lost track of over the years and
might be interested, I continue my career as a watershed
biologist with the California Department of Water
Resources. Most of my work is related to watershed
restoration projects improving stream habitat, primarily for
salmon and steelhead. I have been active in several local clubs
here in Northern California since I left BC, but nothing has
ever come close to my years with the PSA. I have a huge
stockpile of great memories and good stories to tell from those
years I spent with you all!
I continue to fish as often as I can and have attached a
recent photo of a 10 lb. bass I caught locally last summer,
accompanied by my Dad (Bob Sime of Summerland) and my son
Jamieson. I no longer hunt for several reasons, but primarily
because most of the good hunting land here is privately held
and you have to pay to access it. On what little public
land there is available, there are so many crazies in the woods
with everything from automatic weapons to slingshots that it is
not worth the effort. You guys don't know how lucky you
are to still be able to hunt without such complications!
I have read in the news about the efforts to register/restrict
your hunting weapons, etc. in Canada and I have mixed emotions
on this issue. I would hate for my son not be able to own
hunting weapons if he chooses to. Down here, everyone is
paranoid about being able to own any type of gun they feel they
need and this issue gets very complicated. The
distinction between hunting guns and handguns/assault weapons,
etc. needs to be very clear. We see evidence here every
day in the news and even in our local schools of kids and
adults accessing guns (primarily handguns) and using them
inappropriately.
Don't mean to be too philosophic here, I just hope clear heads
prevail when the decisions are made for Canadians' hunting
rights. Someday, when I move back to BC to retire, I will
hopefully still have the right to own a rifle and be able to
take up hunting again.
This has rambled on longer than I anticipated. I'd love
to hear from any old pals who care to write either via E-mail
(frs@snowcrest.net) or
snail-mail (145 Mary Lane, Red Bluff, CA 96080). So long
from sunny California and keep up the good work. It is
incredibly fulfilling to see the club going strong after almost
20 years. Please continue to keep me posted on what's
going on.
Cheers,
Fraser Sime
New Stuff
INDOOR ARCHERY
The archery range at the old bowling alley in Peachland, now
renovated and called Fourth Street Place, has been set aside
for the club's Archery Group to shoot targets on Thursday and
Sunday evenings beginning at 7 p.m. All members welcome.
There is a $2 charge for use of the facility.
OUTDOOR RIFLE RANGE
There'll be a family shoot at the Summerland Rifle Range, on
the Garnet Lake Road out of Summerland, on Sat., Oct. 21 . Get
details at the October meeting. This will be an orientation for
Peachland Club members as well as an opportunity to do some
target shooting.
The Summerland club holds a shoot every Wednesday evening from
5:30 until dark, and have facilities for the use of rifles,
pistols, air guns etc., but we wouldn't be limited to using it
just Wednesday evenings. Mark the date on your calendar and
plan to join the other club members, even if you don't want to
shoot.
CHRISTMAS POTLUCK
This year, it's set for Dec. 13, which is early, so everyone's
not too busy with Christmas stuff to come to it. It'll be at
the Peachland Community Centre beginning at 6 p.m. Bring the
whole family along with your favorite potluck dish. Coffee will
be provided and we'll have a short, end-of-year meeting. There
may even be some door prizes/presents...
Electronic Communications
We're online. There's a club Website complete with photos which
you can contribute to, and access at: www.geocities.com/kletos/PSA115.html
and: community.webshots.com/album/687628
The BCWF Region Website is at: www.geocities.com/kletos/bcwf50.html
If you have an e-mail address you'd like to share with club
members, let us know at: springer@cablelan.net
Newsletters
Anyone interested in putting out regular newsletters for the
club is asked to contact the president, Ray Pike, at 768-2861.