Evan Parliament’s losses are now Parkview Elementary’s gain.
On Friday, Oct. 20, the District of Sicamous town manager stopped by the school with district Coun. Jeff Mallmes for an unusual, apolitical presentation to principal Carla Schneider – a $500 donation for the school’s Food for Thought lunch program raised through friendly wagers.
Seated in the principal’s office, Parliament explained how he began working with the district two years ago. Since then, he said he has worked very closely with council to aggressively push the agenda of Sicamous – while having fun in the process. Part of that fun for Parliament has been making casual bets with Mallmes on a variety of things.
“We bet on basically everything,” said Parliament. “We’ll bet on the time of day, who is closest to the nearest second.”
“We bet on when a council meeting is going to end,” added Mallmes.
Parliament then recounted one of his and Mallmes’ first bets – the U.S. presidential election.
“I said to Jeff, I said, ‘Jeff, Hiliary is going to win.’ And Jeff said, ‘I don’t think so, I think Donald is going to win.’ I said, ‘OK, one-hundred bucks.’ So I’m down 100,” said Parliament.
A fan of both the Montreal Canadiens and Shea Weber, Parliament decided put money on the Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup in 2016.
“I predict they’re going to win the Stanley Cup because a year ago they started 10-0,” said Parliament. “So I said one-hundred bucks, Habs win the cup. (Mallmes) said I’ll give you 10-1 odds. Habs didn’t even get into the first round.”
The losses continued to rack up for Parliament who eventually decided he’d had enough.
“At $500, I decided I’ve got to shut this down,” said Parliament “I basically said to Jeff, ‘I can’t bet you anymore because I’m already in the hole.’ And he says, ‘buddy, I have an idea. I don’t want your $500, we’re going to make a donation to the Food for Thought program for $500 because I feel sorry for you.’ Those were his exact words.
“I said you know what, Jeff, that’s awesome.’”
Schneider agreed as she accepted the donation from Parliament, courtesy of Malles, for the school program that feeds up to about 10 kids daily.
@SalmonArm
lachlan@saobserver.net
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