OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story, titled 'Perch festival organizers reeling in 'obstacles' in rebuilding year', published April 27 and a letter from Paul Peden, published April 30.
Paul Peden sure said what most of us are thinking in his letter to the editor.
We moved to Orillia in 1990; my wife was a teacher and I was a RN. That year, Doug Bunker (of the Orillia District Chamber of Commerce and champion of the Orillia Perch Festival) told me 'You catch a perch and I will give you a ballot for a new boat.'
I was only able to fish for five days due to my schedule of working part-time at two hospitals in ICU and ER.
At that year’s closing ceremony, my wife told me to come. I had just got up from working a brutal night shift. We went.
They moved the closing ceremony to the Orillia Opera House, with its dark and comfy chairs. I got an elbow from my wife and she said, 'I think you won the boat!' She told me to check with Bunker.
I got up, went up and asked Doug if I was the winner and he replied: "We are going to call the winner." I told him my phone number and he announced to the room: "Here is our winner!"
I won a 14-foot boat with 10-horsepower motor and trailer. Wow!
I still have that boat with the decals on it and have been participating in the Orillia Perch Festival since then — except this year. Doug Bunker, who recently retired, was the backbone of that festival!
Thanks Doug for all you did for me and my family and the community.
Bill Brown
Orillia
