The inaugural Parkland Outdoor Show and Expo has to be the biggest event to hit the city in some time. Both local and visiting outdoors men and women, fishermen and hunters converged on the Gallagher Centre to take in an impressive set of exhibits, presentations, demonstrations and competitions the like of which has never been seen in the city before.
The Flexihall offered visitors everything from a world record fish, to a world record deer, shed antlers competition, presentations by several top outdoors show personalities, firearms, archery equipment, hunting and fishing equipment, and even a motorized ice fishing shack in addition to a host of other displays.
Outdoor Show and Expo president Darren Wandy was pleased with the early turnout and interest expressed by patrons coming through the gates. Wandy says the event was hoping to draw about 5,000 to 6,000 people. At 10 a.m. Saturday some 1,500 people came through the door, Wandy reports which promised to exceed the committee's projections.
In addition to two days of exhibits and competition in the Flexihall, the event saw a two day 3-D Archery shoot hosted by the Broken Arrow Archery Club in the Agripavilion.
A banquet featuring prominent outdoors men and women was also held at St. Mary's Cultural Centre Satur-day evening. Originally the organizers planned to limit banquet tickets to 300 persons. The problem with that number, says Wandy was that it was far too small. Once people learned that one of the guest speakers was to be Eva Schockey, ticket sales went crazy, he reports. "We sold out 532 tickets at St. Mary's and could have easily sold another 500."
Guest speakers at the expo and banquet included Eva Shockey who attracted so many outdoors persons. She is the daughter of legendary hunter, promoter, outfitter Jim Shockey.
Cody Robbins and Kelsey Claypool from the television series Live to Hunt were on hand.
Dean Partridge from Canadian Whitetail Television as well as Jason Peterson from Hunting Canada and Beyond were also on hand.
Chad Morris from Men Outdoors, an online forum for hunters met and chatted with show patrons.
Local area speakers included Riley Ottenbreit from Grayson who talked about shed hunting. Nolan Johnson, an international archer from the Yorkton-Melville area talked about his sport and where archery can talk youth throughout the world. Phil Pajkow-ski from Roblin has fished the Lake of the Prairies for over 30 years and is currently an ice fishing guide at the lake. He had over 300 people listen to him speak. The local speakers also did an awesome job with their presentations, Wandy states.
Commercial exhibits included everything from folks selling spices and Tupperware to all the commercial hunting and fishing supplies. Commercial exhibitors included local businesses as well as several visiting product salespeople from out of town, Wandy reports.
The show and exposition were organized as a major fund raiser to support youth archery programs in Yorkton and area, Wandy explains. Additionally, as an avid outdoorsman, outdoor activities are also his passion. The idea was to take his affinity for the outdoors and wed it with the youth archery program he essentially initiated in the area and the province to the mutual benefit of both activities. The money raised will help to ensure such programs are available in the area.
Wandy says the success of the event this year has encouraged the committee to stage a bigger and better show and expo next year.
He acknowledges the support of Doug Arnett at Yorkton Dodge and Home Hardware. "These are their people. These are the people they sell products to,"Wandy notes.
He also thanks all the supporters, both businesses and individuals, of the event.
Many of the exhibitors on hand this year have expressed a strong interest in returning. "We're hoping it explodes and is even bigger next year," Wandy closes.
