Kin 1 arena lighting well-suited to the Home and Garden Show. Photos -250News

Prince George, B.C. – The 38^th annual Northern BC Home and Garden Show is on this weekend in Prince George and by many accounts organizer Terri McConnachie and her crew have put together a top rate exhibition.   As well the re-vamped Kin 1 arena, with daylight streaming in through its eastern face glass, seems the perfect venue for such an event.

The show is spread throughout the Kin 1, 2 and 3 arenas and features a wide array of products for the public’s indoor and outdoor needs.  There is everything from roofing to decking to flooring materials, door, window and insulation products, health and beauty aids, hot tubs and Jacuzzis, small machinery and amphibious vehicles.  There are a number of exhibitors dealing in vacation spots and lakeside property purchases, realtors with show homes to show you, lawn and patio furniture as well as other recreational items.  And, along with a food court there are several food vendors both inside and outside the Kin arenas, including a candy apple display that quickly grabs the attention of anyone with a sweet tooth!

And an interesting and popular part of the Home Show this year is the Rona Kutthroat Construction Competition in the outdoor vendor area.  There are three teams, from MRC Contracting (with 6 members), Belledune Homes/HG Bliss Projects (6 members) and Crimson Projects (4 team members).  They are all raising money for charity in this competition.

Each team had to design a single-storey kid’s playhouse, with Rona donating all of the materials the teams needed for their design.  They had a one-day build covering an eight hour period, start to finish.

Three teams had eight hours to get their playhouse built on Saturday.

Al Jones, the Assistant Manager at Rona, says there were four auctions throughout the day Saturday, each tied to a specific charity.  “The first one that was done was loss of power (where they had to work for one hour without a power supply) in benefit of BC Children’s Hospital.  The second one was no measuring instruments for one hour in support of BC Cancer.  Third one was tied to the SPCA and the last one for the YMCA.”

The teams were given an opportunity to sabotage the other teams’ work.  So in each of the four auctions the winner of that item, like loss of power for example, can slap that on another team, sabotaging their work.  Jones says there’s plenty of professional pride on the line in this event.  “It’s a challenge, these guys are professionals and they have to make do with what they’ve got and they make progress.”

Jones says “the big thing is it’s all for charity.  We’re looking to raise some money for some great causes, cause that we all have something to do with.  Everybody knows a family that’s had a child at BC Children’s, cancer strikes everybody at some point through family, friends.  All of these groups mean a lot to us and Rona is proud to support them.”

Another person with Rona says it’s hoped competitions of this type will become a regular part of the Home and Garden Show as the public, participants and sponsors all found the event popular and worthwhile for its support of several charities.

The judging and free raffles for the playhouses will be held at 11:15 this morning at the Home Show.  Thousands of dollars in door prizes will be drawn at 3 this afternoon.