Yes, Hawker there is a Santa Claus, even in the middle of July.
Okotoks Dawgs fans’ favourite vendor, Darcy “Hawker” Fairbourn received a pair of skis from St. Nick and the fans in Section 100 at Seaman Stadium earlier this month.
“We have a heck of a lot of fun with him,” said Alan Gehrke, spokesman for the 100 Club. “He had told us that when he was growing up at Christmas he begged his mom and dad for skis, skates and sleds. All he got was the sleds and the skates.
“So we bought him the skis.”
The 100 Club members dressed up as Santa and elves for the presentation on July 17 at Seaman Stadium.
“He has personality,” Gehrke said. “We love him in section 100.”
Fairbourn has been a hawker since selling beers, candies, popcorns and other goodies with the Calgary Cannons at Foothills Stadium in 1992.
“My dad used to take me to ballgames as a kid and I found I was always looking back at the crowd – I was always more interested in the crowd than I was the game,” Fairbourn said. “This job lets me deal with the crowd.”
He then began working at the Saddledome and the Stampeder football games in 1999.
He fell in love with the Okotoks Dawgs fans in 2009 when he began walking up and down the aisles at Seaman Stadium. He was working the Dawgs’ Saturday tilt against the Mavericks –opting for the Dawgs’ game over the Stamps-Eskies game.
“If there is a conflict, this is always number one,” Fairbourn said after the Dawgs’ victory over the Edmonton Prospects on Thursday. “The Dawgs as employers are great and the customers, I enjoy these people the most.”
He is now an Okotokian.
“I always loved Okotoks,” Fairbourn said. “My parents lived here when I was a kid and I went to Percy Pegler (School). So I decided to move here in April.”
He is willing to go the extra mile for his friends and new neighbours.
“There’s not a strategy to being a hawker – your job is to give the customers what they want,” he said. “It also means you have to have fun. My guidance counselor told me in high school that if you can find a job that you love, you will never work a day in your life.
“If you are reading this Mr. Roussell, I have never worked a day in my life.”
Sometimes what the fans want goes beyond a bag of peanuts or cracker jacks.
He has been known to sell some off-the-wall stuff as well.
“It started out as a gag with the Cannons, I would buy stuff at the grocery store and sell them at the game,” Fairbourn said. “So far this year at the Dawgs games, I have sold cans of cream of mushroom soup, Spam and cans of ham. All three items have sold fairly fast.” He has also sold single fingers of Kit Kat or licorice to youngsters.
“Sometime little kids might not have any money and I want to do whatever is possible so that they can get something,” Fairbourn said.
He was stunned when he received something from Santa at Seaman Stadium.
“I never expected to meet the real Santa that day and that was the real Santa,” he said. “It wasn’t just some-shopping store Santa… It took him 30 years for Santa to get me skis, so I know longer have a grudge against Santa.
Meanwhile the 100 Club is willing to shell out some dough to get The Hawker in the record books.
“He is going to attempt a record of total number of packets of peanuts sold at one game,” Gehrke said. “It’s 800 and we will get him 801 somehow.”
The Club 100 members don’t have to rush.
The Hawker isn’t going anywhere.
“I will be here as long as I can climb up and down the stairs,” Fairbourn said.
