It’ll be an Australia Day celebration at Sun Peaks Resort with a twist, as staff and residents will be raising money to support wildfire relief efforts Down Under.

Both Masa’s Bar and Grill and Mantles Restaurant and Lounge will be hosting a ‘classic sausage sizzle’ this Saturday, with all proceeds going to organizations directly involved in the Australian wildfire relief efforts.

“We have a lot of staff that are from Australia and then we also have a lot of guests from Australia, especially at this time of year in January, which is summer holidays down in Australia,” said Chief Marketing Officer Aidan Kelly.

“We know in this part of the world all about forest fires, and we kind of saw bit of an opportunity to return the favour now.”

That same evening there will be an Australia Day party with all proceeds also going to relief efforts. Admission is by donation, and all donations will be matched by Sun Peaks Resort and the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel.

“We expect the donations are going to reach into the thousands for sure and how far into that we get, will depend on how it all goes up here this weekend I think with the various fundraising activities,” Kelly added.

“We see that there is an opportunity to raise a significant amount of money but we also kind of wanted to contribute financially ourselves which is where the matching donation component came up.”

He says with Australia Day on the 26th, it was the best weekend to host these fundraisers for a country that is well connected to Sun Peaks.

“A couple of specific fire firefighter organizations to help out all those folks that are on front lines fighting the fires. And then there is also a wildlife organization that we are looking at for the donation as well,” Kelly noted.

“Those two different angles is what we are going to go with, with all of these donations.”