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Prince George Citizen August 20, 2019

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Tuesday, August 20, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Hixon Fall Fair Lots of candy was given to onlookers during the parade that made its way through Hixon on Saturday morning as part of the Hixon Fall Fair.

Funeral Saturday for George the barber Police find missing boy, alive and well

Kathy NADALIN Citizen staff

George Blanis, better known locally as George the barber, died this weekend at the Hospice House after a short battle with cancer. He was 81. His funeral is scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Greek Orthodox Church, (511 Tabour Blvd. S.) In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Greek Orthodox Church. A viewing will be held on Friday at Assman’s Funeral Chapel at 7 p.m. In 2016, Citizen contributor Kathy Nadalin featured Blanis. That story appears below.

George Kostas Blanis, aka George the Barber, was born in 1937 in Diava Kalabaka, Greece. It was shortly after the war when a friend of his left for Canada to work as a barber and with the hope of finding a better life. Time went by and he wrote George a letter inviting him to come to Canada and work with him in his barber shop. George had already been entertaining the idea of immigrating to Australia, the United States or Canada; the letter from his friend helped him to make up his mind and he chose to go to Canada. George had a friend in Greece who had a sister named Eleni (Helen) Falas who was living in Prince George; in fact it turns out that George and Helen grew up in the same village. George promised to look her up when he arrived in Prince George. Helen had arrived in Prince George in 1961 and George got here in 1962. A prearranged meeting had been set up for them to meet in the lobby at the Simon Fraser Hotel mainly because Helen worked in the kitchen at the hotel. They spoke their own language to one another and they talked about their dreams and

Today’s Weather Hi +18° Low +15° See page 2 for more details and short-term forecasts

LOCAL HOROSCOPE OPINION SPORTS MONEY

Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca

CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

George ‘The Barber’ Blanis sits in his shop in the Days Inn in 2016. A funeral for Blanis is happening this Saturday. goals. George said he wanted to work a few years as a barber, get married and have children and then eventually go back to Greece. Helen’s goals were basically the same and to make a long story short they were married in 1962. They had hard times and good times, they worked hard together and they started their family. They had two children – a daughter Lisa (Fred) Sloyer who lives in Abbotsford and a son Dean (Irina) who lives in Prince George – and they have three grandchildren. Sadly, Helen passed away in 2010. George said, “We had two beautiful kids. They both graduated from high school

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here in Prince George and then furthered their education at the coast. Helen and I always worked for the kids. We knew that they were the future – we knew that we had great kids.” George reflected back and said, “There were about 12,500 people in Prince George when I arrived here. I immediately found work with the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. The work was physically hard and I didn’t speak English so it was really tough at first. I worked for the railway for two years; I thought this would be a great place to learn the English language but instead I learned to speak Italian.” — see ‘I WAS BORN, page 3

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After spending more than a day lost in the bush near Mackenzie over the weekend, four-year-old George Hazard-Benoit was reunited with his family late Sunday. “George has been found, safe and sound,” said RCMP Cpl. Madonna Saunderson. “It’s amazing, it’s a miracle. He was found walking around in the bush by and police dog and he’s been reunited with his mom and dad. It’s great news.” The police dog located the boy at about 7:30 p.m., nearly 31 hours after he went missing in a heavily-wooded area near Lions Lake, 11 kilometres south of Mackenzie off Highway 39. He was found wet and cold but otherwise uninjured. It’s believed he was found near a lake during a time when the rain stopped falling. Light rain which began Saturday persisted throughout the day Sunday hampering the search. Saunderson said an RCMP helicopter was called in for the search effort but was grounded due to poor visibility. A fixed wing aircraft was also on hand for the search. Mackenzie Search and Rescue set up a command post at Lions Lake Provincial Park and hundreds of volunteers joined the search, including 13 members of Prince George Search and Rescue and provincial conservation officers. Search and rescue teams from Fort St. James, Chetwynd and Fort St. John also participated in the search. George had been out with his mother and a friend picking berries near a railway track and was in their vehicle, about 10 metres from where they were picking, when he was last seen at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday. “He was asleep in the van, and when they went to go check on him he was gone,” George’s father Kristopher Benoit told Global News.

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