Treasures In The Sand 2018
Our 10th annual Treasures in the Sand was held on Sept 7 & 8, 2018.
For the 10th anniversary (our “tin” anniversary), we were transported to the Land of Oz with Dorothy and her friends. With a little imagination, our usual hunting grounds at Sudbury Beach on Skaha Lake in Penticton was transformed into a (sandy) Yellow Brick Road. We had a crowd of about 125 people at our tenth year, some of whom have been attending since the first year!
Debbie Smikoski, the Business Development Director at Minelab, was a special guest at the event and gave our attendees helpful advice on using their equipment. We are grateful to all of the Detector manufacturers for their contribution to our hunt: Garrett, White’s, Tesoro, Fisher, and Minelab.
Detectorists began hunting in the dark on Friday night. They detected valiantly through a drizzle of rain and a haze of smoke. The rain, fortunately, was just what we needed to clear away the remaining smoke from the summer’s fires. Saturday turned out to have the perfect weather for metal detecting. Detectorists participated in three hunts throughout the day: The Scare Crow, Tin Man, and Lion hunts. Waiting to be found were many clad coins and prize tokens. The Wicked Witch of the West hid the coins so well that many were still left over at the end of the day!
Aside from the hunts, entrants had many other fun opportunities to explore. The Vernon Placer Miners Club offered gold panning; the Sand Dollar Hunt ran all day, and the sand dollars collected could be used to purchase prizes and even be used like real money for the silent auction and other events! We also had a “Wheel of Fortune” and a silent auction with over 40 items. We conducted more raffles for silver coins and bars this year. Once more, WestJet graciously donated two tickets to anywhere they fly, with 100% of the net proceeds from raffle ticket sales donated to the Penticton Regional Hospital. The lucky winner of the tickets was Rick Ponich of West Kelowna. To date, we have donated $37,300 to the Penticton Regional Hospital!
The major prize winners from the Saturday hunt were:
Eric Somerville – Fisher F44
Keli Graves – White’s Treasure Pro
Bob Omand -Tesoro Cibola
James Friedt – Minelab 705 Dual pack
Alecia Jamrichko – Garrett AT Pro
Maggie St-Hilaire – Garrett Pro Pointer
A special Draw for a Minelab Go Find was also held for all registered contestants and was won by Raylene Bremner.
During closing ceremonies, attendees were treated to a special performance by Dorothy and the munchkin: a special rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow with lyrics all about the hobby we love: metal detecting! The whimsy of the Wizard of Oz theme made this year especially memorable. We cannot wait to see you all again next year!