Duane Hicks
Due to a lack of volunteers, the Fun in the Sun committee has been forced to cut down July 1st activities this year to just fireworks.
They are, however, welcoming other groups to step forward and organize their own Canada Day festivities.
Committee chair Randy Thoms said the group put out a call for more helping hands, got minimal response, and decided at its meeting last Wednesday evening that they “can’t proceed any further.”
Besides fireworks, Thoms believes the mini-king and queen contest and volleyball tournament, neither of which are helmed by the Fun in the Sun committee, will go ahead on Canada Day.
However, Thoms is encouraging service clubs, or any other groups or individuals, to step up and organize the parade, put on kids’ activities, arrange food booths, or hold a Bingo—or come up with together something altogether new.
“The committee itself can’t do the job anymore so those that were at the table basically said, ‘Let’s turn to the community and see if any member of the community, organizations, groups, anyone, is interested in taking over the whole thing as is, or forming a new group, or just running things like the parade,” he noted.
Thoms added they’ll support them, and they can have access to any of the extra funds that currently are being requested through Fun in the Sun’s “Celebrate Canada” application.
Thoms said that application is still pending approval through the government. Fun in the Sun has asked for $12,000.
“Whatever’s available from that that’s been earmarked for specific things we were going to do, we can turn that over,” he explained.
“Say if a service group wants to the run the parade, we can assign the dollars associated with the parade over to [that] organization.”
The bulk of the potential funding is earmarked towards bolstering the fireworks display. For the past few years, the fireworks budget has been $10,000, which last year included a $5,000 contribution by the Town of Fort Frances.
The fireworks committee asked if that budget could be increased to $15,000.
If they get the full $12,000, the money that was earmarked for fireworks will go to fireworks, with the leftover funds to be used for whatever Canada Day activities other groups may want to put on.
While it’s possible groups may step forth, Thoms admitted not having a central body, like Fun in the Sun, to promote everything together could be a problem.
“That’s the big loss, the advertising,” he stressed. “If any group is going to do things, you’ve got to advertise, you’ve got to let people know.
“If you’ve got 10 groups doing 10 different things, then they’re going to have 10 different ads,” he noted.
“At least with the Fun in the Sun committee, we were able to bring everything together.”
Another matter is the Fun in the Sun committee must repay the town $5,000. Last year, council agreed to contribute an annual grant of $5,000 for fireworks, as well as a one-time loan of $5,000 to help pay for fireworks for that particular year.
Thoms said the committee has a commitment to repay that loan, and currently could cover almost 60 percent of it.
Fun in the Sun soon will launch a fundraising campaign, including collection boxes.
These will be distributed at various locations around town. Funds will go towards fireworks and help groups who may want to put on the event using their own volunteers.
Thoms clarified that Fun in the Sun has not folded, but it has no chairperson and he won’t be calling any more meetings.
While he will not commit to heading any events, Thoms said he will oversee the dispersal of funds this year and provide some guidance to those who want to organize their own Canada Day activities.
“Let’s hope some community groups step forward and see this is a hole that needs to be filled and take it over in smaller chunks, as opposed to one large organization,” he reasoned.
Thoms said maybe this year is an anomaly and if nothing gets going this Canada Day, someone will be motivated to “take up the ball again and take over.”
“I have no hard feelings to those that were on the committee last year, but couldn’t make meetings this year because they have young families and they’ve got other things to do in the wintertime,” he remarked.
“But you’ve got to plan, and if you don’t have people to plan, you can’t do it,” he stressed.
“I also felt disappointed for the new volunteer that actually showed up [last Wednesday], and the others that had expressed interest but couldn’t be there,” Thoms added.
He hopes they can help out other groups “because a lot of organizations need help.”
Anyone interested in organizing a Canada Day activity can e-mail Thoms at thoms.randy@radioabl.ca
