Coming from Dutch heritage, where racing pigeons are highly regarded as a very popular sport in Holland, I still vividly remembered their humble beginnings when the DeVries family immigrated to Canada in the late 1970s. The DeVries family settled on a farm over 400 acres outside of South Mountain, which is about 45 minutes south of Ottawa, Canada’s national capital. “I always had an interest in pigeons and it was a big sport in Holland at that time and even now. I got started when my father gave me a couple of pigeons when I was 10 years old. When I was 12, I joined a club and raced my pigeons although it was short-lived, as my favorite pastime of pigeon racing came to an end a few years later when we immigrated to Canada for good. Soon after arriving here in Canada on South Mountain, I caught an AU banded bird in one of our silos. I had seen what looked like a pigeon loft in the area and contacted the owner, returned the pigeon and found out there was a pigeon racing club in the area. In 1995, I made a trip back to Holland. While visiting an old-school friend and handling some of his pigeons, my enthusiasm for racing pigeons was rekindled again. As I came back to Canada, I soon had a loft with some pigeons and raced my very first young birds in 1996. Racing of course is not all there is to the sport, there are sales, award nights, conventions and I met Linda at one of these functions. Linda raced together with her late father, Jack Hicks, who was a Champion and an active pigeon flyer in their area. Neither of her brother or sister were interested in the pigeons, so she and her dad had a great time and fond memories racing together. As Linda grew older, she took over the main responsibility of caring for and training the pigeons. One thing led to another and in 1998 we were married. From this, the Oscar and Linda DeVries Loft was born.” Know as O&L DeVries