The second annual Spring Fling of Homemade Things was held over the weekend at the Lac La Hache Community Hall.
The event featured a “wonderfully diverse selection of Cariboo handcrafted items to please the palate and delight the eye” - and free face paintings by Carmen Dykstra, a local of Lone Butte, as well as free books for kids. The event was meant to raise money for the Cariboo Pioneers Centre, another gathering place for Lac La Hache locals. The centre relies on fundraising events like this one to keep operating.
Heather Balaam, who is a member of the Old Age Pensioners Organization is the organizer behind Spring Fling. She says everything was being sold at the event.
“We have food, we have sewing, we have metalwork, we have woodworking, we have jewelry.”
Alongside the sellers was Ron Boehm, a local of the area - selling frames with pieces of landscape artwork at Spring Fling. Boehm recently retired and went to Spring Fling to sell the remainder of his framed painting collection.
“I’ll see if I can sell what I got left.”
Boehm, a retiree from Lac: La Hache, did framings for pieces of artwork - and got into it from a previous hobby of his.
“I got into framing because I used to do needlework for ladies that were coming and have it stretched and framed and matted.”
After taking a few years of training to learn how to properly frame in Calgary, Boehm moved to Lac La Hache in 1997. According to Boehm, framing is not as easy of a job as one would expect.
“I thought it was going to be easy, but it was pretty deep.”
Retirees were not the only ones who were at Spring Fling: families also took the time to sell items. Corey Kiewitz, alongside his son Joseph Kiewitz and his daughter April Kiewitz, resident of 108 Mile Ranch, sold everything from plasma-cut metalworks to comics and postcards.
Corey designed the metalworks using special equipment.
“I have a CNC plasma table, so it uses a torch flame to cut through the metal.”
The metalworks that were sold included replicas of Sitka trees with a wooden base. Corey says that he considers going to markets to be like making a living for himself.
“I try to get to as many markets as I can.”
Balaam is overjoyed to see so many people attend Spring Fling and see what it has to offer.
“It’s wonderful, seeing what everyone can create and it’s fun watching the people walk around and enjoy what they’re seeing.”
Balaam says she plans on having outdoor events, but said that they will occur later in the summer.