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DARRION BUNCE and his Kelowna Owls teammates will be the team to beat at next week’s B.C. high school AAA boys’ basketball championship.
KELOWNA PEACE GROUP held a rally in downtown Kelowna on Saturday to voice its opposition to NATO involvement in the Syria civil war and military action to curtail Iran’s nuclear armament capability.
A NEW VIDEO initiative is helping educate people who have experienced a heart attack or are living with a bad heart to better understand and manage their own health.
TOM FLETCHER says the B.C. Teachers Federation is indoctrinating our kids in what’s wrong with our schools.
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TUESDAY March 6, 2012 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
▼ KRAFT HOCKEYVILLE
West Kelowna undertakes marathon vote Wade Paterson STAFF REPORTER
On Saturday evening, CBC announced that West Kelowna was one of 15 communities still in the running to become Kraft Hockeyville 2012. Immediately following the announcement, the voting window was opened and West Kelowna residents began placing votes online and via telephone. That voting window closes today (March 6) at 9 p.m. Until then, there is no limit on the number of times each individual can vote. As an incentive to vote, Hockeyville organizers set up a voting station at the Best Western Hotel on Carrington Road. Some dedicated voters have spent nearly every possible hour at that voting station, repeatedly typing in verification codes and then clicking on the vote button. One of those dedicated voters is April Williams. Williams arrived at the voting station as soon as it opened on Saturday night. She stayed until volunteers told everyone to call it a night—around 2 a.m. Sunday. She was back later Sunday morning at 11 a.m. and put in an 11-hour shift before packing it in just after 10 p.m. She returned Monday morning at 8 a.m. with plans to stay the entire day and all through the night. Most would assume that Williams is a lifelong hockey fan; however, she is very much a rookie to the sport. “I became a fan last year. I had never seen a hockey game or played hockey. My friend brought me to one of the Warriors games and then I was hooked,” said Williams. Williams was raised in Huntington Beach, California, where she grew up skateboarding and surfing. She moved to West Kelowna two years ago and has slowly been taken over by the sport of hockey. Averaging approximately six votes per minute, as of 11 a.m. Monday, Williams had placed over 6,000 votes. But that is just counting votes she submitted from the community voting location. Williams said that she has also been voting constantly at home. At one point, she even experimented with voting both by computer and via telephone at the same time. When asked what has been fueling her through the monotonous task of staring at a computer screen and clicking buttons, she quickly replied, “Coffee.” Andrew Deans, co-chair of West Kelowna’s Hockeyville bid, has also put in many hours at the voting station. He said that he’s been impressed with the level of See Vote A4
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Local teachers rally behind the cause Jennifer Smith STAFF REPORTER
WADE PATERSON/CAPITAL NEWS
CONTRIBUTED
APRIL WILLIAMS (above) submits one of the thousands of votes she has placed since Saturday for West Kelowna to reach the Kraft Hockeyville 2012 final five. Voters have been congregating at the Best Western Hotel voting station since West Kelowna was named Saturday as one of the 15 communities in the running for the Hockeyville title. Getting in the spirit of the competition, Westside-Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart and BoundarySimilkameen John Slater (left) square off on behalf of their communities, West Kelowna and Osoyoos respectively which, along with Campbell River, make up the Pacific region finalists.
How to fight, who to fight and what to fight for were big topics of discussion for Central Okanagan teachers as they gathered for a mass meeting at the Kelowna Community Theatre on the first day of the B.C. teachers’ strike Monday morning. “We are losing in the media because the government owns the media,” cried one teacher as open discussion got underway. Encouraging each other to get on Facebook and teach the public about what is happening within their profession and local schools, the main message of the day was to get teachers’ perspective heard, with many noting traditional media have not elected to do so. A handful pointed the finger at the B.C. Teachers’ Federation for this, saying the union isn’t getting the message out clearly. “Some days I feel like we don’t even have a dog in this fight,” said Ryan Holly, of George Elliott Secondary School, who noted he does not believe the BCTF is doing the greatest job. See Rally A3
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