There are a lot of people who are excited about the upcoming 50th Vernon Winter Carnival but Alvin Timm has a special reason to celebrate — he loves Carnival and he has attended every one.

His collection of Carnival hats, sweaters and most of all, the buttons, tell the story.

“All year round, I’m looking for something that fits the Carnival theme. I have Carnival pins and ribbons and pins and ribbons from other winter carnivals and festivals in communities around the province,” he said.

“When I’m in the parade and at other events, people will often give me the pins and I like to trade when I can. I have people come up to me and want to look at the pins and touch them.”

He also has a collection of Carnival brochures and posters and a lot of good memories.

For the first few years of Carnival he was working for Inland Ice, the company which supplied the ice blocks for the ice palace and ice carving.

“We got the ice from local lakes. I remember loading the trucks. The first ice palace was downtown across from Safeway and the second one was in Polson Park,” he said.

He and his wife, Betty, always attend as many events as they can and enjoy the dances like the Multicultural Dance and Ukrainian Night.

“I had a good time teaching the royalty old time dancing and I always like the enthusiasm at Coronation. The parade is wonderful, seeing all the floats and the people happy and cheering,” said Timm.

“I’m always on the go during Carnival and I like to get autographs from the royalty, the Good Citizens, the dignitaries and guests. In 1990 I got more than 500 autographs from everyone who had anything to do with Carnival, including the volunteers in the Carnival office. I even got the pieces of paper with Charlie Farquharson’s jokes one year.

“All I do is ask people and all they can do is say no. Carnival is never boring. There are always new people, new pins, new friends and old friends to meet. You never know who you’ll meet. It’s all fun for me.”

Timm gets out in the community year round as a member of several dance groups.

He is a long time Carnival volunteer and most recently he has been helping to identify the people and events in old photographs and going over old newspaper articles with a magnifying glass to collect every last piece of Carnival history for the records.