PANAMA CITY BEACH — Canadian snowbirds gathered Sunday to celebrate the annual local Canada Day event and the 50th anniversary of the maple leaf, the nation’s flag.
This year marked the 12th and final time Canadian winter residents celebrated Canada Day in Panama City Beach. The event, planned by a volunteer committee every year, features dinner, dancing, prizes and a Parade of Flags.
“The tourist development people, they have done such a magnificent job of putting on different events, both for the snowbirds and for other people in the summer and whatnot. We don’t know that we really need to do this anymore,” said Jack Elliott, a co-chairman of the Canada Day committee.
What better time to go out, they reasoned, than on the 50th anniversary of Canada’s flag?
“It’s a special year for us,” said Daniel Bazinet, chairman of the Canada Day committee.
The current Canadian flag was first officially flown at noon on Feb. 15, 1965. Before it was adopted, the country had no official flag and instead used the British flag or a Canadian version of the red ensign — a red field with the Union Jack in the top left and a Canadian coat of arms, according to Elliott.
“The story begins, ‘It was a dark and stormy night,’ ” said Joan O’Malley, “Canada’s Betsy Ross” who sewed the first modern Canadian flag.
O’Malley’s father worked for the Canadian Exhibition Commission, which fabricated flags for the consideration of then-Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. In need of a seamstress at short notice, O’Malley’s father called on her to help and she braved a snowstorm to get to him.
“At the time when I was doing it, I thought, ‘Get this job done.’ To me it wasn’t history at all; it was just doing a job for my dad,” O’Malleysaid. “The older you get, the more you appreciate what a historical thing you did.”
O’Malley and her husband have spent winters in Panama City Beach for the last 11 years. She called it their “second home.”
O’Malley carried the Canadian flag in Sunday afternoon’s parade, along with others carrying the American flag, the flag of Florida and flags from each of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories.
Panama City Beach mayor Gayle Oberst spoke at the event, recognizing the importance of the city’s northern visitors and proclaiming Sunday, Feb. 15, to be Canada Day in Panama City Beach.
“It is my pleasure to once again come and say ‘welcome’ to you guys, to tell you how much we appreciate you being here with us and to ensure that you always feel like Panama City Beach is your second home,” Oberst said.