Pemberton celebrates nine days of Canada Day celebrations Fireworks highlight Whistler Village on July 1 By Paul Andrew Both Pemberton and Whistler will be celebrating our country’s birthday, but in two very different ways. July 1 is Canada’s birthday and a statutory holiday for most of us, but Pemberton has already started to celebrate with a June 25 PJ Shopping Day, Legion barbecue and bed races along Frontier Street. Barb Streloff, who says she does "a little bit of everything" at the Village of Pemberton’s office, said as far as she knows, PJ Days have been a tradition in Pemberton for years. She’s lived just outside the Pemberton area for 26 years. "You get special discounts if you go shopping in you pyjamas, and the merchants stay open late I believe," Streloff said. "It’s a lot of fun." A Teddy Bear Picnic and Baby Crawl will highlight Pemberton’s second of nine consecutive days of Canada Day events in the village. The picnic will be at Signal Hill baseball field from 10:30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. The Woman’s Institute Strawberry Tea on June 29 will be held at the Pemberton Museum. Shirley Henry, who organizes almost two weeks of Canada Day celebrations in Pemberton, said the WI is much like a national rotary club, helping out with community events and raising money for worth causes. "Actually, the day’s not long enough for The Jail, on June 30," Henry laughed. "We have a pre-set list of people who will get arrested, and then bailed out for at least $20. But we have people calling us to have their bosses arrested. So it’s a lot of fun. We have real jail uniforms with black pin stripes and the police here help out by ‘arresting’ people." Henry has been helping to co-ordinate the June 25-July 4 Canada Day parties in Pemberton for 23 years, and said during her reign, the village has missed only a few years of celebrations. "We had a mayor at one time who wasn’t crazy about it," she said. Canada Day in Whistler will feature a schedule of events between noon and 6 p.m., including the seventh annual Canada Day Parade. The parade route will begin on Northlands Boulevard, turn onto Main Street then head into Whistler Village along Village Stroll. The parade then continues along Blackcomb Way and on to the Upper Village, which is the site of the Canada Day celebrations. A Canada Day Youth Award, a performance by the Whistler Children’s Choir and the cutting of the Canada Day Birthday Cake will all take place at about 3 p.m. at the base of Blackcomb. The first summer performance of A Little Night Music takes place at 7 p.m. in Village Square on July 1, followed by the fireworks display a the foot of the Whistler Village Gondola. Pemberton’s July 1 celebrations include a Pancake Breakfast at 7 a.m. at the Pemberton Hotel, a seven kilometre road race at 8 a.m. beginning at the community centre, parade at 11 a.m., Family Fun Day from 11:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Signal Hill baseball field, followed by entertainment and fireworks at the Pemberton Community Centre at 7:30 p.m. If your still hungry for action on July 2, the Cardinal Concrete Charity Golf Tournament at the Pemberton Valley Golf & Country Club begins at 1 p.m., followed by another Legion Barbecue at 6 p.m. in the Pemberton Legion building "We’ve got a Family Street Dance this year and that’s new," Streloff said of the July 3 event. "There’s an outdoor beer garden for adults and a Root Beer garden for kids, face painting and games. The band is called Millennium and the dance goes from 4 p.m.-11 p.m. It’s in the Legion parking lot." On July 4, Pemberton closes its nine consecutive days of Canada Day celebrations with a 4-H barrel race on the Lillooet River. The idea is to pick a regular sized barrel and try to guess how long it will take the barrel to navigate a pre-set route along the Lillooet River. All the money goes to charity except for $500 which is awarded to the person who guesses closest to the actual time the barrel take to float down the river.
