Duane Hicks
Planning is underway for the second-annual “Festival of Frost” in downtown Fort Frances.
It will be held Saturday, Nov. 29 and this year will include a traditional parade.
The Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce and BIA are teaming up to stage the festival while Boston Pizza and the Chamber will organize the parade.
Chamber manager Annely Armstrong-Thorstad said the idea of the “Festival of Frost” is to block off Scott Street that day, and have groups and businesses hold activities like they did last year.
Ideally, the day will be capped off with a parade in the late afternoon or early evening (the time still is being confirmed with the BIA).
Armstrong-Thorstad said organizers will contact all groups and businesses that participated in the “Festival of Frost” last year, but any new participants also are urged to get on board.
Last year’s activities and sights ranged from singing, dancing, and live animals to bake sales, hot chocolate, and bonfires.
“If anyone else wants to set up a booth or hold activities or something like that, they’re more than welcome,” Armstrong-Thorstad remarked.
She also said it’s not too early for people to register a float for the parade.
The Chamber also will have a Christmas tree auction
fundraiser, like the one it did last year with the local Kiwanis Club.
The idea is to get local groups and businesses to decorate and donate Christmas tree, which then will be up for bid via silent auction.
While details still are being finalized, Armstrong-Thorstad said one idea is to have decorated trees on display at various businesses downtown for a period of time prior to Nov. 29, when the public could go around and bid on them.
Then just before Nov. 29, the trees would be brought together at a central location for a final day or two of bidding.
“This would give people a chance to put their own tree on display, and take bids, before it comes to the central location and we select the winners of the bids,” Armstrong-Thorstad reasoned.
“We want people to walk around more and take a look at all the different trees,” she noted.
“We could always do a map and put it on the website—‘Here’s the location of all the trees’—and do something fun with it.
“But it’s just an idea on a piece of paper right now,” she stressed.
To get involved in the parade or tree auction, contact the Chamber at 274-5773 or via e-mail at thefort@fortfranceschamber.com
To reserve a spot downtown to participate in the “Festival of Frost,” call Richard Boileau at McTaggarts (274-5371).
