Arjun Singh...

Last, more coherent post, about the Digital Carnival

Glen Morris, Mike Gilgan, Jason Wassing, Cherie Rensing, Troy McMillan, and the dynamic Ali Uddin. You folks really are amazing!

I musn't forget Ian Cameron, Mike Koehn, and Adele Yakemchuk who also played a really important role in the story I am about to relate.

I have described Digital Valley as a fledgling association of technology related and interested companies in Kamloops. We are still quite young and have had our fair share of hiccups.

A year ago, I proposed to the then Board of Digital Valley that we hold a large fundraising dinner, to raise some funds for the association. It 's a true accomplishment when you have raised funds you have put some real elbow grease into. Not that raising funds any other way is not an accomplishment, just that we found out a fundraising dinner is a huge amount of work.

This was our first time putting together a fundraising dinner and dance. We added some interactive tech demos and we called it the Digital Carnival (thanks Cherie Rensing for coming up with that).

Everybody mentioned above put their heart and soul into this effort, in whichever way they could, and brought such amazing individual strengths. There were so many details to take care of.

So what happened: 200 people, over $10000 in prizes, been getting lots of great feedback. And we raised probably $4000 - $5000 for our association.

There were certainly glitches, but the dinner committee is meeting in two days to discuss and, dare I say, start talking about the next one (bigger and better)....

...and I am not entirely sure you can say we are a fledgling association anymore.

The Blood, Sweat, and Tears of being Santa

I had a wonderful visit with my great friend Terry Rogers yestersday. I met Terry through the Rotary Club of Kamloops, of which we are both members. And he married Marsha and I last summer. Among the many worthwhile thing Terry does, he has been Santa at Aberdeen Mall for the past six years. I had no idea how much actually is involved in being a good Santa. And Terry is an exceedingly good Santa.

Little children, their parents, the young at heart - Terry never know what is going to happen when someone comes to see him as Santa. Some tell heart wrenching stories, some have very unique and interesting requests, and a few are somewhat troublesome. Terry's philosophy is that Santa must welcome everyone equally, and work with whatever happens. He tries to respond the most difficult wishes with the greatest care, acting sometime as diplomat, sometimes as listener, sometimes a combination. He is strict about not espousing any doctrine or philosophy.

Most often, people are great when they come to Santa. But, Terry also engender's happiness in people. Its not just Terry's natural full white beard, its also his love for people and his skill in managing situations.

Terry, thanks for what you do. In one short month. over 4000 people benefited from you and, in over six years, I know the figure must be into the tens of thousands.