Page 12A The Castlegar Sun Wednesday, May 10, 1995 SALT WATER SPORT FISHING * Rivers Inlet « Goose Bay Fishing Lodge All inclusive fly-in fishing package from Vancouver “The fishing experience of a lifetime” 604-748-3033 . 604-365-0020 CASTLEGAR REBELS JUNIOR HOCKEY CLUB are looking for Head Coach, Assistant Coaches, General Manager, Trainers and Equipment Manager for the upcoming 95-96 season. Please send application BEFORE June 15th, 1995 to: SECRETARY Box 3451, Castlegar, B.C. V1iN 3N8 Crunch time for high school golfers SUN SPORTS STAFF I'sa Cc dt have no But don’t tell those Crazy Canucks. With wind, hail and rain beating down on high school players, the boys from north of the 49th paralle! prevailed to down their American counter- parts by 52 strokes in the Can-Am high school invitational golf tourna- ment last Wednesday afternoon at the Granite Pointe in Nelson. Four teams from Nakusp, L.V. Rogers of Nelson, Trail's J. Lioyd Crowe and Stanley Humphries outgunned U.S, schools from Mead in Spokane, Lake City and Coeur d’Alene highs in Idaho and Colville to regain the crown lost last ph beet at Sandpoint's Hidden Lake course. However, while the Ca were the over ing winners in team standings—1774 to 1826—Coeur d’Alene's Rick Haymond proved to be one better than LVR's Brian Boyes, edging the Nelson golfer by a single shot to win the individual title. Haymond finished the 18-hole tournament shooting a four over par, 76. Boyes, one stroke back, came in with a 77, It was a double bogey on the final hole that may have cost Boyes the shot at the overall crown. With a shot at the green staring him in the face, Boyes shanked a shot out of bounds. The mistake cost him a chance at par and the title. Despite registering a double-bogey on the final hole, Boyes claimed the individual title with a 77 over the 18 hols. Boyes and Haymond were the only two players to shoot i in the 70s. Three players finished in a tie for third. Joe Christensen of Coeur d’Alene, Griff Garske of Mead and Stanley Humphries’ Shawn Creighton all shot 80. Ben Holt and Dustin Daughin, both of Mead, were one shot back of the trio at 81. In the team race, Mead was first with a 411 score. LVR, two shots off the pace, finished at 413 while Coeur d'Alene was third at 437. Stanley Humphries was fourth and was clearly hurt by the absence of ace player Marty Carew. However, team captain Shawn Creighton picked up-the slack with a score of 80_in a bad winning. rain and hail storm. This was the second time in a row a Canadian team has captured top honors against their American counterparts. The LVR Bombers took home the overall title, edging Mead by one stroke during the 12-team Colville invitational golf tournament in the Washington State city. Third was North Central from Spokane at 331 with Pullman placing fourth with a 340, All the West Kootenay teams will be back on the course today when they travel to Nakusp for the West Kootenay zone finals. ‘The top two teams qualify to meet the best two from the East Kootenay to determine the two zone berths at the B.C. high school championships. Castlegar, as the host club for the event, gains an automatic berth in the May 29-31 tournament at the Castlegar Golf and Country Club. Castlegar’s final league match against Salmo saw them come in first thanks to a scorching performance by Carew with the overall low score of 75. The win leaves Castlegar tied for second place with LVR in the final league standings. Nakusp finished first. Coach Bill Lunn is still looking for a fifth stater on his five-person team. He hopes that player will become eveident tomorrow as Stanley Humphries hosts a three-team ‘B’ Tournament at the Castlegar Golf Club. Trafalgar and Rossland will join Castlegar in the tournament which will start at noon. @ Rookies SEN LN Sie RE GAO Faas GP Me ay Sys The Castlegar Sun VVEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995 Injuries to forwards Martin Gelinas and Gino Odjick, and defencemen Dana Murzyn and Namestnikov (hurt in Sunday's game) have forced Jackson and either Aucion or Wotton into the line-up for Game 2 against the Blues Tuesday. Head coach Rick Ley is hope- ful that their time is now. Best Buy Sale judged Neon See why experts j “Car of the Year’ and °° st New Economy Car’: to value only Chrysler can offer! Including freight and $650 factory rebate. GRADUATES! larg ina Soh hte over ond above of other discount offers - when you purchase Wal Gryio ue doe ae Aet now! Test drive one today at your B.C. Chrysler Team. Dealers you can believe in. 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Limited fie of Deoler order may be necessary 1 only on selected models exching Dodge Viper “It's not going to be easy It's a tough series to put green kids into those situations but that’s what they've been work- ing for all year and all of their careers: to get a chance to play in the National Hockey Laser said Ley, Monday. ‘m happy with the guys we've got. we ‘ve got some good young kids and, as I say, the enthusiasm from the kids always helps.” At 24, Jackson is the oldest of the bunch, having logged three seasons with the Canucks minor league teams, first in Hamilton and this year in Syracuse. It was never easy sitting thou- sands of miles away, hoping for a call to come when an opening came up in the Canucks line-up, only to have it filled by a trade or waiver acquisition. “That kind of hurt a little bit,” said Jackson, a Castlegar, B.C. native. “It always put a little bit of doubt in your mind; a little bit of confidence goes away.” Things are a little bit different now for him, after Sunday when he made his NHL post-season debut, including stints on the Canucks penalty-killing unit “It feels nice. It shows Ricky (coach Ley) has some belief in that you can do the job. It really helps confidence wise,” said Jackson. Peea has grown to feel like an NHLer. No longer does he entertain the doubts that one bad shift will earn him a ticket to Syracuse “That's one way to put it,” said Peca, who made his impact known - literally - when he crushed Winnipeg Jets star Teemu Selanne in an early-season con- test. “I feel really comfortable.” But not overconfident. “It’s still a case where I have to play hard or be bumped down a line or out of the line-up, but for the most part it's been really good,” Peca said. Cullimore makes the best point when asked if he's worried about being sent down. “They can’t realty send me anywhere,” he said laughing, noting that Syracuse's season is over. Yes, they are smart-mouthed and exuberant, fresh-faced and ambitious. They are the future of the Van- couver Canucks. Are we there yet? Soon. Real soon. Airy Mountain ppliance Service call ONLY *20 For friendly service anytime call ¢ 4 applications (full treatment) .. 3 applications * 1 application (Priee based on 8 4000 sq. ft. lawn) Ereen tech 10% DISCOUNT FOR SENIORS CASTLEGAR CERTIFIED 365-6178 APPLICATOR 352-2000 Bearing a striking resemblance to her half-sister Tracy whom she has never seen, Angie Vavra strikes a pose which is uncannily like that Tracy chose for her graduation photograph below. Above: This is the picture Angie carried in her heart for many years. Jim Vavra holds her brother Mark, now 25, as a younger Angie sits nearby. Left: Almost 22 years later Jim Vavra holds another son, Michael, 10. Right: Angie looks forward to forming a close sisterly bond with Tracy, 22 PHOTOGRAPHS Every March 27 for the last 22 years has been painful for Angie Vavra. But now, thanks to fate, luck and the support of good friends, fellow students and Selkirk Col- lege instructors, the 35-year-old Trail resident will be anticipating each March 27. hat’s the day her father, James Forbes, was born. But it wasn't until this year that Vavra was finally able to wish her father a happy birthday for the first time in over two decades. A child of divorced parents, Vavra last saw her father when she was_14-years-old while on a parental visit. Little did she expect that it would be 22 years before she would see him again. Born in Chicago, Vavra was an only child. But that changed with the subsequent divorce and remarriage of her father when she was five-years-old. A snapshot which Vavra holds dear shows her at about age 10 sitting on a couch next to her father. * Bearing a uncanny resemblance to James Dean, her father is holding her half-sibling, Mark. It's this picture of her father that she's carried in her heart for many years—a faded photograph of a girl, her father, and a half-brother she hafdly knew. A photograph of better times. After that comes with such a program that Vavra swallowed her fear of rejection and began yet another search for her father. “I feared the loss again. I didn't know if I could handle it.” Supportive classmates listened to Vavra's fears. With little money to begin a search and her father's birthday fast approaching, Vavra spoke with Gordon Turner, a Selkirk College English instructor. “I thought he could help me word the ad—he gave me a few ideas.” And so Vavra called the Chicago Tribune and placed the following ad. JAMES FORBES, BORN MARCH 27, 1936. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD.- ANGELA NEEDS TO FIND YOU. She enclosed ~s ex-husband's phone number and crossed her “Fthought he Could be a liaison. There's a lot of quacks.” The ad ran March 26-29. Then the most incredible and generous thing happened. John Appel, an adoption researcher, left-a message on her husband's answering machine saying that he had two phone numbers for her dad— no charge. moving with her mother to Ontario, her visits with her father became fewer and ‘Sometimes | wonder how my life would have been had he been in it.’ “It was father’s — ANGIE VAVRA paver si knowing fewer until at the age of 14 the visits stopped—the tenuous link to a happier time, when her life included two parents, finally broken. Time and miles succeeded in completing what the divorce had started—Vavra became like many other children who were being raised by only one parent. Through the years Vavra asked her mother about her father. Did she know where he was? “I asked, but mom didn't know. She didn't have any answers either.” As with many children of divorce, Vavra felt somehow responsible for her parents’ marital problems and eventual divorce, and wondered what it was about herself that had caused her father to leave. “Time passed; it was terrible. The older I got the worse it got.” She carried that burden through her teen years. And always wondering, but never knowing, took its toll on her young life. “I was feeling unloved and uncared for. Kids blame themselves.” Vavra believes that the lost years changed her life dramatically and irrevocably, and wonders what her life might have been like had her father been there for her. Her teen and young adult years brought rebellion, drug use, and a marriage which she believes was doomed to fail. “I don’t think I ever really worked through it. My marriage probably broke down because of that misfunction.” Her self-esteem was nonexistent and, ultimately, but not surprisingly, she quit school. “TI left home when I was 16 and quit school. I got into drugs. I guess I was searching for a place to belong. “Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been had he been in it.” It wasn’t until Vavra was in her 20s and she could gather enough emotional fortitude that she made More inquiries about her dad. “I had a cousin in the Motor Vehicle Branch who looked through their records and an aunt placed an ad in the Chicago paper.” But all those efforts were to no avail—it was almost as if her father had fallen off the face of the earth. “I never felt positive I would find him.” And so the years passed, and each March 27 brought renewed pain to Vavra. But she never forgot her father. What made it worse was that Vavra was an only child and knew that she had half-siblings She hungered for the closeness that only brothers and sisters can share She yearned for her own children, Karly and Brett, to know her side of the family as well as they know their father’s. “My son asked, ‘Where's your dad?’ J told him, ‘I don’t know." It was like a missing link. I knew I had a brother and sistct. They were imporant to me too.” After the crosion of her marriage, Vavra knew that she had to complete her-education for the sake of her children Leaving her children with her ex-husband while she completed school Vavra, now 35, travelled to Castlegar to take the Social Services program at Selkirk College It was through the inevitable self-examination what. sort of reception she would get, Vavra nervously dialed the number. And dialed and dialed and dialed. “There was no answer. I kept phoning and phoning. I kept pressing the redial for about two hours.” Vavra finally gave up only to try again the next evening. This time she was lucky. “He answered and I asked him if he was Jim Forbes. When he answered, ‘Yes’, I asked him if his middle name was Lewis. He hesitated and then said, ‘Yes’. “T said to him, ‘T think you're my father."” For the first time in over 22 years she heard her father speak her name. “He said, ‘Angela?’” What followed is the stuff of many dreams spun by single-parent children—but realized by few. Copious tears, laughter, and years of pent-up words all came tumbling out and combined to make a dizzying first journey of sorts for father and daughter. “We talked about everything. Our conversation was so disorganized we didn’t know where to start.” Two people, related by blood, found themselves locked in the past. It was hard for her father to imagine Vavra was 35- years-old with two just as it was hard for her to imagine that “James Dean” was now graying and wearing Since that first tentative phone call, Vavra and her father have spoken almost every night and have exchanged pictures as well. Now Vavra has many photographs. A picture of her half-sister Tracy, 22, one of her half-brother Mark, 25, and another of Michael, 10—a brother she never knew she had. The pictures show a smiling family blessed by the love of two parents. “I envy them in a way. They grew up kind of normal.” Vavra's life looks much different now than it did one short year ago. Her family has grown by four. She looks at their pictures longingly. “My sister is beautiful. I hope I can have the kind of relationship that everybody has with- their brothers and sisters.” Vavra reflects pensively on what the past few months have brought her. She knows that it could have turned out much differently. She says now is not the time to find out why, but rather a time for reunion and healing, although she recognizes that eventually “why” will have to be talked about “Maybe we'll be at that point in life where there will be things he needs to tell me and there are a lot of things I need to tell him.” Finances have prevented Vavra from flying to Chicago for that momentous meeting with her father and siblings. In the meantime, she contents herself with snapshots, lIctters, and long phone conversations. But Vavra looks forward to the day when she and her children can meet face to face with the family she never knew. “1995 is going to be a good year.” Story by Karen Kerkhoff