After four years of combing through garage sales and dropping in on second-hand stores, Cory Maksymchuk completed his collection of Vernon Winter Carnival pins.
It started with Cory, a Grade 4 student at Beairsto Elementary, looking for his birth year pin and that of his parents, Terry and Kelly Maksymchuk, and it took off from there.
“It became a mission for him to see how many he could get,” said Kelly.
Every year the Vernon Winter Carnival comes out with a new pin design that goes with that year’s Carnival theme.
Cory scoured for the pins that were first made in 1961, until he was left with eight of the elusive buttons he couldn’t track down.
“The 1961 was the hardest to find,” said Cory. “They didn’t make that many and they made a duplicate.”
Thanks to the help of the Vernon Winter Carnival office, Cory was able to purchase the eight remaining pins from their old inventory.
The Maksymchuk family’s love of the carnival, and garage saleing, made the project a fun bonding experience.
Terry grew up in Vernon and has lots of fond Carnival memories and he continues the tradition of attending the parade and watching the hot air balloons with his family.
“Carnival brings with it a sense of community,” said Kelly. “In winter it’s something to look forward to and it doesn’t matter how cold it is – everyone still goes out to the events.”
While Cory collected the pins he learned about the Vernon Winter Carnival history as people shared their Carnival stories.
Terry and Kelly are proud of their son’s dedication to collecting the Carnival pins and all the effort he put in to learning the history behind them. He hunted and collected one of every pin produced, even the years a duplication was made.
Cory thinks the 2016 pin is pretty cool.
“It’s the first year they are having a metal one.”
Events today at the Vernon Winter Carnival include the 24th annual Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, Balloon Glow (Kin Race Track) and B.C. Championship Snow Sculpture Competition (Silver Star). The parade begins at noon Saturday (27th Street). For all the events visit vernonwintercarnival.com