The Sechelt Downtown Business Association (SDBA) is working to bring the iconic West Coast Lumberjacks to town for three shows on Canada Day, SDBA president Katharine Trueman told Sechelt’s public works committee last week.
“We decided we needed something new and fresh, and we decided that we were going to do a proposed logging sport show,” Trueman said. “We’re very excited by this. We’ve been working on it for two months already.”
Trail Bay Centre has offered to provide its back lot for the show, and Sechelt Fire Department agreed to provide water for the log rolling event, she said. There will also be light security because of the expected high attendance.
“Being a logging community per se, everybody will come out in droves to see it.”
Besides log rolling, the four-person show includes axe throwing, the demanding and dangerous springboard chop, crosscut sawing races and the underhand chop competition.
The SDBA does not want to charge for the event, Trueman said, and is hoping to cover the cost through sponsorships and a grant from the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation.
Without that support, “there’ll be no logging sport show this year.”
As the SDBA is not a federally registered charity or qualified donor, the group is asking the District to act as the sponsoring organization for the grant application. With the four councillors on the committee all supporting the request, a special council meeting was held Wednesday to approve it in time for a final April 30 deadline.
The West Coast Lumberjack Show started in Squamish in 1982 and has been a mainstay at the fair at the Pacific National Exhibition and featured on TV programs in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. Comedian Martin Short described it as “quintessentially British Columbian.”
“They’re very reliable and put on a really exciting, compacted show for everybody to enjoy,” Trueman said.
The West Coast Lum-berjacks have appeared in Gibsons during Sea Cavalcade in late July, and Trueman said the SDBA don’t believe their appearance in Sechelt on the first of the month will compete with the Gibsons event.
“We’re hoping it will bring people out of their homes who won’t come to a little fair or craft fair, but they’ll come to this.”
Another new attraction at this year’s Sechelt Canada Day celebration will be a wine garden in Hackett Park.
“It should be an overwhelming event,” Trueman said.
