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Who are those guys?
The idea of a Miata Club for the B.C. Interior began to percolate after the Sea to Sky Chapter Miata Club organized a run from the Lower Mainland to Kelowna back in 1999. The Sea To Sky group repeated the run in 2000, this time inviting other clubs to join them for a weekend in Kelowna.
Seeing the success of those events, Kelowna Motors, the local Mazda dealership, got involved and promoted the idea of a new local club for their Miata customers. The idea was very well received, and Okanagan Valley Miata Club was born.
The new group took over the organization of the annual Kelowna event in 2001 and christened it the Topless Sun Run. That first event drew 85 Miatas from B.C., Alberta, Washington, Oregon and beyond for a weekend of sunshine, fabulous roads and scenery, and the company of fellow Miataphiles. |
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The OVMC held Sun Runs annually from 2001 through 2008 and the events were regular sell-outs averaging 250 people and 150 cars.
Since the early days of the organization, the Okanagan Valley Miata Club members felt the need to adopt a charitable organization to give some purpose to their passion. The OVMC supported the British Columbia Transplant Society annually by helping to promote the B.C. Organ Donor Registry and donating proceeds from the Topless Sun Run and other fund raising efforts. In 2008 the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada was chosen as the recipient of Sun Run proceeds. To date the club has donated a total of $16,500.00 to charity.
Today the Okanagan Valley Miata Club consists of about 120 Miataphiles from Kelowna, Lake Country, Vernon, Lumby, Salmon Arm, Kamloops, Westbank, Peachland, Summerland, and Penticton and beyond.
The OVMC organizes numerous drives and social gatherings throughout the year, and holds monthly meetings to plan the coming events. A variety of events are planned each year; short day-trips, weekend getaways, picnics, and social events of all description. The membership has even been known to forage the countryside for hundreds of kilometres in the tireless pursuit of really good ice-cream. But whether it’s a drive through the countryside or a monthly meeting, the emphasis is always the same; fun, friendship and sharing the passion for their cars.
Okanagan Valley Miata Club excursions have taken its members throughout the Okanagan Valley and around the Pacific Northwest on some of the twistiest and most scenic stretches of blacktop available anywhere, which is of course, precisely where a Miata belongs. |
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