Submitted by:
Shirley Yaschyshy |
The Benito and District Recreation Centre was the site of the Benito Canada Day 150 celebration on July 1st, 2017. The Benito and District Fire Department made sure everyone got off to a good start at 8:00 am with their annual Pancake Breakfast.
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Many hungry patrons took in the fresh pancakes and sausages skillfully prepared by the local volunteer fire fighters.
Next up starting at 10:00am was a fun filled non competitive slow pitch tournament that saw 5 teams take part. Young and old were picked up by the participating teams and the laughs were not in short supply as these teams played throughout the day with the last game starting at 3:00 pm. The tales were long and comical in the beer gardens where some of the older slow pitch players nursed their aching joints and muscles.
To keep the young folks entertained there were bouncy castles, fire truck rides, a mini horseshoe tournament, kiddie pool fishing, Canada Day tattoo’s and a sand pit dig.
The participants were rewarded with a token that could be traded for a Jumbo Freezie that helped cool the kids down after all of the activities.
During the afternoon, the event organizers fired off some daytime fireworks to the delight of the kids as they chased after the parachuted prizes that were slowly floating back to earth.
At 1:00pm the Benito Recreation Centre arena was transformed into an indoor Gymkhana arena with 5 participants bringing their horses to compete in this time trial competition.
Also starting at 1:00pm was the 55 plus horseshoe tournament followed by an open age horseshoe tournament. The afternoon competition saw some very close games and some skilled horseshoe throws.
After the dust settled Lorne Mydynski and Mel Kereluk were victorious and claimed the “A” side bragging rights until next year and the “B” side victors were Barry Nelson and Karen Miller.
To keep everyone fed and watered, the concession in the Recreation Centre offered traditional “rink” food and some traditional Ukrainian food.
At 5:00pm the smell of the deep fryer heating filled the air as the ever popular curly fries were being prepared.
The entertainment continued into the evening with “Stick’s in the Mud” playing all of the tunes the crowd were hoping for. A special performance also included Marcel Nabess singing some Johnny Cash.
During the evening the winning tickets were pulled for the 50/50 draw that saw Bev Negrave take the first place prize $726.00, second place to Fred Lyons $363.00 and Violet Riehl took home the third place prize $121.00.
The band kept the crowd entertained and played until the fireworks that were held at the old Benito Race track at 11:15pm.
A big thank you goes out to the volunteers and the community of Benito for putting in many hours to make this event a success.
Without the volunteers this event and the previous Canada Day celebrations would not have the success in bringing our small community together each year to celebrate our country’s birthday.