Get ready for lots of family fun at this year’s Canada Day celebrations in Keremeos on July 1.
It all kicks off early in the morning with the annual Canada Day breakfast starting at 8 a.m. The official Canada Day ceremony begins at 9 a.m. The Similkameen Singers will be serenading visitors throughout.
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After the ceremony, which will feature the Legion’s traditional colour guard, there will be rock painting, followed by lunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Don’t forget to watch the Star Choice Award presentation at 12:30 p.m. followed by cake cutting and the pool opening, both happening at 1 p.m.
The Star Choice Award is presented to a member of the village’s business community, recognizing them for their excellence. In 2018, Joan Bauman, vice-president of Similkameen Country, the Keremeos and Area Chamber of Commerce presented Jeff and Pat Rowe with the first ever Similkameen Country Business Star Award on Canada Day.
There will be kids activities throughout the day, including free pony rides.
Event organizer Colleen Christensen said roughly 250 people attended the celebrations each year.
“It’s just a day for the community to together to recognize that Canada Day is here and it’s a day to celebrate and be proud of Canada,” she said. “If we didn’t have this event on, it would just be another day in the day of the life of the valley. It’s important that our residents have a place to go to celebrate.”
To see fireworks at night, residents usually head to Osoyoos for what organizers are calling the largest Canada Day fireworks display in Western Canada. Around 10 p.m., the skies above Gyro Beach will light up with a fireworks display, choreographed to music.
The Osoyoos fireworks are funded by individual and business donations.