Fest

draws
big
entry

By LAEL McKEOWN

The Pacific Northwest Music
Festival to be held here in Ter-
race once again promises to be
an exciting event for young
musicians from across the
north, some from as far away as
Fort St. John,

Entries this year are up to
1,226 with a total of 4,870 par-

‘ticipants. The difference in the
numbers is because bands or

‘ choirs include a number of par-
ticipants but are counted as only
one entry).

There are 290 Speech Art en-
tries, 167 Instrumental, 442

“Piano, 121 Choral and Vocal,
141 Dance,. 58 bands and seven
Original Compositions.

: The festival takes place
“March 30 through April 11 with
the first week being devoted to

- Junior Piano, Speech Arts and
Choral Speaking.

Instrumental competitions

- will be held April 2-6 while the
battle of the Bands and Dance
competitions are set for the
weekend of April 3-5.

Week two. brings Senior

‘Piano, Voice, Music Theatre
and Choirs, culminating with
the traditional scholarship and
gala evenings.

The former will take place on
the final Thursday, April 9,
rather than Friday evening as in
past years, and will feature
those competitors who have ex-
celled during the course of the
festival, They will be competing
for -three‘major scholarships-as
well as invitations to coripete in
the provincial music festival.

The Gala Performance will be

held Saturday, April 11 when
award winners are honoured
and the audience gets to enjoy
fine entertainment from the ar-
tists in all the festival’s various
disciplines.
’ The festival cormmittee hopes
you. will join us in supporting
our young people and take the
opportunity to enjoy two weeks
of their wonderful talent.

Would anyone notice

Trailblazer

STILL spry at 88 years, Floyd Frank took advantage of last Friday's rare break in this winter’s seemingly
endless rain to take a short stroll on the trail that bears his family’s name. First cut in 1907, the trail
runs down the escarpment below the old pioneer cemetary, emerging near Skeena Sawmills. It was
the original access from the valley floor up to the benchlands. Frank recounts the experiences of his
and other pioneer families in his recently published bookbook, My Valley Yesteryears. ,

Young heroes sought

The Skeena Mall is asking local organizations if they know
of any youngsters who deserve recognition as a local hero.

Manager Lynda Bretfeld explained the awards will be given
out to children between the ages of four and 12 years whose
reaction and action helped avert tragedy. The awards are also
part of the mall’s participation in this year’s Kids Sense pro-
gram.

Now in its fourth year nationally, the program is sponsored
by the Internation Council of Shopping Centres and pro-
motes safety awareness among four to 12 year olds and their
parents. This year it has adopted the slogan ‘‘Kids Sense
Makes Sense’’.

Kids Sense Week runs April 29 to May 2 and the award
presentations will be one of the special events staged on the
last day of the week.

Bretfeld pointed out threats to children’s safety can appear
at any time, ‘‘especially when parents aren‘t around to guide
them.’ Therefore, it was important they know about every-
day safety so as to ensure their reaction in those sitautions
was both sensible and automatic. .

She said it was left to individual shopping centres to choose
which safety aspects to focus on based on which are the most
important locally.

The Skeena Mall promotion would therefore concentrate
on “‘street smarts’ and latch key kids.

Noting that by May the summer break from school will be
olny just around the corner, Bretfeld said it was a good time
to get the safety message across.

Invite for singles

If you're single and looking for an enjoyable night out,
Northern Singles has just the thing.

The group is holding a dinner Saturday, Feb, 29 at the Ter-
race Legion and is issuing an invitation to anyone who is
single ‘'for whatever reason’’ to come along.

That doesn’t mean you have to come on your own, says
club spokesman Bea. Everyone’s welcome to bring a friend.

Tickets are $9.50 per person and apart from the meal, those
attending also get to enjoy some entertainment. Just what
that will be is being kept a secret to give the evening an ele-
ment of surprise. The only hint Bea offers is it will be provid-
ed by local talent.

There are only 30 tickets available so those interested had
best phone her at 635-3238 quickly. If you live in Kitimat,
phone 632-3547,

Northern Singles is about to make-these evenings a regular:

event and plans to hold them on the third Saturday, every se-

cond month. . . ceo rr

If you cannot make it on Feb, 29, why not join ‘club
members for coffee any Tuesday evening at 7 p.m..in Mr.
Mike’s restaurant here. That, says Bea, is also when they
discuss and plan future activities. ;

Northern Singles has approximately 20 members at the
moment and that membership extends acrass the northwest to
include a few individuals living in Smithers.

Bea emphasizes it is always ready to welcome newcomers
and, again, anyone who wants more information can phone
her at the number given above.

if it broke?

es, Virginia, weathermen
really do rely on a crystal ball!

But lately it’s definitely the
most under-used piece of equip-
ment in their weather-watching
armoury.

Confirming the orb in ques-
tion is “just like you'd see ina
fortune teller’s’’, local weather
office head Adrian Van de
Mosselaer explained it is used to
record the amount of sunshine.

Describing it as ‘‘simple, bul
effective’, he said it worked on
the same principle as a magnify-
ing glass but has the advantage
of being multi-directional.

It’s located on the roof of the
air terminal, well clear of
anything that might cast a
shadow,

Rays of sunlight striking the
ball are refracted and focused

on a strip of paper beneath the
crystal, causing the paper to
burn — it doesn’t burst into
flames, only a burn mark is left.

As to how it records the
amount of sunshine, Van de
Mosselaer explained, ‘‘It
doesn’t matter what angle the
sun is hitting it at, it burns the
paper on the opposite side.”
Therefore, as the Earth revolves
and the position of the sun
changes, 50 does the position of
the burning on the paper.

Because the paper is marked
off to show the hours of the
day, ‘‘We can use it (the burn
mark) .to track the amount of
sunshine that happens and we
can tell exactly what time it oc-
curs too,’’ he added.

Van de Mosselaer also
pointed out that only bright,

direct sunshine is recorded.
Therefore, the crystal ball
doesn't start doing its stuff until
the sun clears the mountains in
the morning and quits as soon
as it slips behind them in the
evening. Nor wilt the paper
burn if there is any cloud at all
between the sun and the ball,

However, when there is
bright sunlight, he emphasized
the rule with the crystal ball is
“handle with care’’. That
meant covering it with a cloth
before lifting it out of its seat
and making sure it stayed
covered wherever it was put
down.

“You can’t lay it down on the
grass because it’ll burn the
grass. [t’ll burn your hand, It'll
burn. anything that comes
anywhere near if the sun’s out,”
he explained. a

ENVIRONMENT CANADA .
Information line: 635-4192°
Consullations: 635-3224

tia

| Weather Watch

LAST Max. Min.
WEEK Temp. Temp.

Snow Rain Sun
{cm) {mm) (hrs)

~ Jan. 25 4.8 -0.1
Jan. 26 5,2 1.8

Jan, 27 4.3 0
Jan. 28 4.5 1.0
Jan, 29 4,5 0.8
Jan. 30 4.9 0.9

Jan. 31 2.9 0.1

1.0 "2.6 0
0 20.8 0

0 13.0 0
Trace Trace 0
0 19.6 0
4.0 40.6 0.1

Trace 0.6 0.1

LAST Max. Min.
YEAR Temp. Temp.

Snow. Rain Sun
(cm) (mm) (hrs)

Jan, 25 -2,0 -6.4
Jan. 26 -3.4 -11.3
Jan. 27 +31 -13,5
Jan. 28 -2.9 -11,4

Jan, 29 1.5 -13.3
Jan, 30 1,9 0.4
Jan, 31 53°. -0.1°

0 0 - §.4
0 0 6.7
0 0 6.8
8.0 0 6.9
0 Trace 0.3
0.2 1.4

4.0 11.0 0.3

eA! 1,2 hours, January sun-
shine was just 2.5 per cent of .
the normal 52.1 hrs. It also
eclipsed the previous record
low of 14.5 hrs, set in 1976,
*Total precipitation for the
month was 254.3mm, made
up of 39.6cm of snow and
216.8 of rain. The latter *
broke ‘the 1958 record of .
IBROMM i be
Usually there’s only about.
155mm of precipitation in
January, two-thirds of which
comes in-the form af snow,
«Daytime high temperatures
averaged 2.3° and’ the
average low was -0.6°. Those
Sieures are 6° and 7.5° above
normal, respectively. i °..

smooull