Hey there Ocean Family,

It was a beautiful weekend, the sun peeked out and there was a whole lot going on in town. As summer comes to an end in Victoria, the events seem to really come alive. It’s almost as if event organizers realize that summer is on it’s last legs, and try to cram every bit of fun they can into the last few days before September hits and school is back in session. Luckily that makes my job a whole lot easier!

On Friday, Jen, Mandy and I spent all afternoon and evening up at the beautiful Bear Mountain Resort for the SportAssist Charity Golf Tournament. We set up at the 5th hole with our prize tornado and gave away some pretty excellent prizes. Any time we bust out the prize tornado, you know it’s going to be a wild time. Being sealed in the chamber, seeing bits of paper fly all around you, and desperately trying to grab any scraps of the flying paper that you can. It’s almost as fun to watch it as it is to be in it! Some people even wanted to hop in the prize tornado with their friends. At one point we had 4 dudes all huddled up in it! It was a beautiful day to be out on the course, and a pretty darn fun time for us out there.

Saturday saw Mandy and I head to Campus Nissan to hang out for their entry into The Big Squeeze, a citywide lemonade stand competition for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Canada. All over the city, businesses and individuals put the sugar to the lemons and set up stands to sell their creations. All proceeds from each went towards Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Canada, and it was a wonderful time. Campus Nissan had an excellent setup, with delicious lemonade, and a bbq pumping out tasty burgers all day. Any event where there’s delicious food is an event where I want to be, so this was ideal. We even had the excellent people of Bikers Against Child Abuse stop by and hang out with us for a while. They made it their mission that day to stop by every lemonade stand in the city and donate at each one. They do amazing work for kids in this town and we were happy to see them come out!

Sunday saw Mandy and I spend the afternoon at Greekfest. Now, Greekfest is one of my favourite events of the year. The cultural performances are incredible to watch, and the food is just unparalleled. Some of the best Greek food you will ever eat outside of Greece is at Greekfest. I was even lucky enough to act as the emcee for the afternoon, which was an honour. It is a celebration of Greek culture, but there were performances from all other cultures as well, which was a delight to see and to introduce. There was an irish dance group, a Punjabi dance group, a Hungarian dance group, a Salsa dance group, and many others. There was also a dance group called Elkelam who came all the way from Athens to perform for the Greekfest crowd, which was amazing to see. If you have time this weekend, I highly recommend stopping by to check out the cultural explosion that is Greekfest. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon, and the food is unbelievable. Spanikopita, Lamb, Souvlaki, Loukoumades. All so, so delicious.

 

This weekend was a whole lot of fun. I’ve been incredibly privileged and thankful to be out in this wonderful community, go to amazing events, and call it my job. This will be my final blog post for Ocean 98.5 as the Fun Finder. I’m moving on to bigger and better things, but I can’t say enough about how much I have truly loved being the Fun Finder for my time here, finding fun all over town and writing about it here. To all who read this blog, and who I’ve seen out in the community, thank you for listening, for being so wonderful, and for making my time here some of the most fun I’ve ever had. You’ll be in incredible hands with the next Fun Finder, she’s pretty amazing.

 

As always, a big thanks to Hillside Centre, Barbs Fish & Chips, Moxies Bar & Grill, Cupcakes at Uptown and Beacon Hill Children’s Farm for making the Fun Finder fun all summer long.

 

Thank you for everything,

-Fun Finder Sam.

 

Filed under: Community Cruiser