MEDIA RELEASE - JUNE 19, 2008

At the heart of the community celebration on Sunday, June 22 to mark the reopening of the historic Myra Canyon trestles are three Okanagan College Business Administration graduates, whose involvement with the logistical challenge began as part of a course they were taking  on their way to their degrees.
Jillian Vieira, Byron Johnson and Daryl Dunstan all graduated on June 7 with Bachelor of Business Administration degrees from Okanagan College. Their credentials and education are  getting a real-world workout through their paid participation in the planning and execution of the official party on June 22.
The trio are working on the event marketing plan and the event itself under the direction of Blair Baldwin, a professor in the Okanagan College School of Business.
“Their work started last September and has been an eight-month experience which has helped them apply many of the skills they acquired while obtaining their degrees,” says Baldwin, who has been a dedicated volunteer in the Myra Canyon Trestle Restoration Society. The project started as part of their work in a sports and event marketing course, but when that wrapped up in December, 2007, the trio were hired by the society to carry forward the plan they had developed and recommended.
“It’s clear that it was the quality of the course project that resulted in them being hired,” says Baldwin.
“It’s been a great experience,” explains Vieira. “The best thing about the College’s Business Administration degree is it has been hands-on with a lot of practical and project experience. We’ve been able to put much of what we’ve learned to work on this initiative.”
Four years of work has gone into recreating the 18 trestles and the two tunnels that form the Myra Canyon portion of the old Kettle Valley Railway. The trestles and surrounding forest were ravaged by the Okanagan Mountain Park fire of 2003, which also destroyed 239 homes in Kelowna.
Myra Canyon is the jewel of the Kettle Valley Rail Trail – part of the Trans Canada Trail and also a key to the provincial Spirit of 2010 Trail network created by the Province of BC as a tool for community economic development and to promote adventure tourism for non-motorized users. It is also part of the Myra Bellevue Provincial Park managed by BC Parks. It spans a distance of roughly nine kilometers. The restoration of Myra Canyon was funded by 90 per cent through Canada’s Disaster Financial Assistance program and 10 per cent by the Province of B.C.
Full details for the community celebration can be found at www.myratrestles.com
“For all who were here for the fires in 2003, it has been an incredible journey that all associated with the reconstruction have traveled,” says Baldwin. “From the task of raising awareness and securing funding to the completion of the full reconstruction and restoration within five years of the fires that destroyed Myra Canyon, Sunday will mark a historic event for the Okanagan and I would encourage everyone to attend.”
Full details for the community celebration can be found at www.myratrestles.com