Vernon Stake History- Kamloops Wards

The Latter-day Saints in Kamloops came up with several different ways to earn money for their building! Some of the examples are:

CHINESE FOOD

Sister Yaeko Brooks headed a project to cook and sell Chinese-Japanese food, with a large number of members participating. Sister Brooks was also able to involve a number of her non-member friends to help with the cooking. The project was well advertised on radio and in the newspaper. On the day of the sale Sister Brooks and her helpers were swamped with calls. People kept coming to purchase the food and members wondered if the supply would hold out. The food, fried rice, chow mein and almond chicken, was packaged in styrofoam containers which purchasers took away with them. It was a very successful project but there were some pretty tired workers afterwards.

CHRISTMAS CARDS AND NOVELTIES

Sister Marianne Appleton sold items from the Regal catalogue to members and non-members for many years. Members would make out an order and gave it to Sister Appleton, who compiled the individual orders into a large order for sending to the company. Items ordered were collected at a future Relief Society meeting. A considerable sum of money was collected for the building fund by this means. The project began in the early 1960's and continued until Sister Appleton left Kamloops.

CATERING

Church members catered to a number of weddings, office parties, Christmas functions, etc. The events catered to involved anywhere from 40 to 200 people. A smorgasbord style dinner would be served, with jellied salads, green salads,

potato salads, cabbage rolls and one or two kinds of meat - beef, turkey, etc. The food was always attractive and delicious and members received many compliments on their catering services. On two occasions members catered to air-shows held at the Kamloops Airport. Considerable profit was given to the building fund through the catering effort.

SAWMILL CLEANUP

In the historical note for June 1, 1972 the following statement is written: "A work project at the Savona Sawmill was implemented. This will involve a crew of eight brethren each Saturday. At the current rate of $3.58 per hour it should be possible to raise $1,000 per month. These proceeds are planned to go into the building fund. Hope was expressed that the $7,000 debt on the new Kamloops Chapel could be paid off during the current fiscal year." The project was carried on for a number of weeks and a good deal of money was raised, but the difficulty of getting a large enough crew to participate each week led to cancellation of the pro-

BOOK SALES

This was a project initiated by Sister Marianne Appleton. Noting members from Kamloops were among the best patrons of book sales at meetings held in Vernon, she decided the money might as well stay at home and began ordering LDS books which she made available for sale, with the profit going to the building fund. After completion of the first phase building a glass-fronted cupboard was built and books displayed there. The project was later taken over by the Seventies group.

WOODWARD'S FLYERS

Woodward's flyers were delivered by church members in 1964-65 when John Bennee and Tom Gregson were Branch Presidents. The Kamloops area was divided into sections and families would be given certain areas to cover. The flyers had to be delivered within a day and had to be done regardless of weather conditions, so church members often found themselves tramping about from house to house in rain, snow, sleet and ice. Many areas of the city such as Valleyview and Mission Flats, were sparsely settled and it was difficult to cover every house because many areas didn't have streetlights. Children were involved in delivery and some sustained dog bites. Other hazards in the night were broken wooden walks. Some families were more diligent in their determination to cover their area than were others.

When one family didn't feel they could do their section another family would have to take over and cover two areas. In spite of problems a good job was done in covering the Kamloops area. Flyer delivery paid about one cent per flyer delivered.

TELEPHONE BOOKS

B.C. Telephone directories for the Kamloops area were delivered for several years. The company in charge of deliveries would contact the church to see if members wished to deliver books in a particular location. Those members interested in taking part would attend a meeting set up by the distributors, and they then selected the districts they felt they could cover. The average district paid $40.00 to $50.00, some a little more, depending on the difficulty involved. Telephone books had to be delivered within a couple of days regardless of weather. The individual member received a cheque from the distribution company, with the che-ques being donated to the building fund in the name of the member. Initial deliveries took place in late October or early November, when there was a fair chance for decent weather. The delivery date was later moved to January and few members continued to attempt delivery of books at that time of year.

AIR SHOWS .. SLOPPY JOES

Derry Appleton was a member of Kamloops Flying Club and he realized that a booth at the local airshows might be profitable. Church members obtained permission to set up a booth at the airport for airshows in July of 1975 and 1976. "Sloppy Joes", cloeslaw and homemade root beer went on sale. Members needed dry ice for the root beer but no one in town kept it on hand. Finally the wholesale company Slade and Stewart was persuaded to bring in a supply from Vancouver with the rest of their supplies. The root beer was excellent and sold very well. Bro. Ken Hartnell built a wooden shell for a booth which helped considerably.

Written in the Branchflower journal for July 16, 1975 is the following: "At 2:45 p.m. we went out to the airport to get things set up. We served Sloppy Joes, coleslaw and root beer for $1.50 per adult and $1.00 for a child. After the show was over we counted the proceeds and found we had made enough to pay the expenses, amounting to $390 and had a $46.00 profit. We were happy to have done that well and received permission to serve at the Saturday airshow. Any money made then would be clear profit." On Saturday, July 19 the following is written: "At 3:30 p.m. we went to the airport for the Air Show. We took the remainder of our Sloppy Joe sauce and buns to feed the crowd. At 7:30 p.m. Sister Cunningham and I went to the Brock Rec Centre to feed some people at the swimming competition in progress there, and made $35.00. Altogether we made around $400.00 for the building fund."