Heather Latter
Despite another dismal turnout at a meeting last Thursday to plan an all-inclusive Town of Fort Frances reunion, the small group has decided to move ahead.
“Aside from the small number of people that were there, we had a really good session and a lot of positive ideas,” indicated Dave Ashworth, who has agreed to be co-chair of the committee along with Kimberly Emes-Nicholson.
“We’re just going to leave it up to the people,” he noted. “If they want to participate [in organizing] and make it bigger and bigger, then we need those volunteers.
“If not, we’ll just keep the event small with the small committee we have.”
He added the reunion will be for everyone who “lived, worked, played, attended school, or just drove through town and [has] a fond memory of this area.”
Ashworth is hoping the lack of interest by volunteers is due to the fact the reunion won’t be held until July 4-7, 2013, which is a considerable time away.
“We’ll be having our next meeting in January and we’re hoping that will give people a bit of time and see if they’d like to get involved,” he remarked, noting they’ll simply scale the event to the size of the committee.
“So if we don’t get any more volunteers and no more interest, we’ll just have a really, really small event,” he said.
“We’re hoping that by the time January rolls around, people realize planning is going to have to start coming together.
“So the bigger committee we get, the more events we can put on,” he reasoned.
And Ashworth is positive the committee will see more interest from people once the holidays are over.
In fact, he’s hopeful they will be able to get the Town of Fort Frances on board, as well as organizations such as the BIA and the Rainy River Future Development Corp., and make the reunion a whole summer of activities.
Ashworth noted the committee tentatively is looking at having a wine-and-cheese event coinciding with registration on the Thursday night, as well as possibly two nights of entertainment and an interdenominational church service on the Sunday.
“We also thought that instead of having a formal sit-down supper that has been done in the past, we would do something very informal and try to resurrect vintage downtown Fort Frances restaurants,” he explained, noting it would be like food booths similar to what was done at the local bass tournament in the summer.
“So, for instance, one food booth might be the Rainy Lake Hotel,” he said. “If possible at all, they could have past employees that might have access to recipes cooking their stuff.”
Ashworth said the idea for this event was a good one because it fits with the whole theme of the reunion.
“People always have memories based on music or food,” he noted. “And there was some pretty neat [food] back in the day around here.
“I think polonaise soup was a big one.”
He added the vintage food booth meal also would reduce the cost for those planning to attend, as well as the informal nature allowing for interaction between attendees.
“I think it would be a neat way to reconnect with everyone through food,” he reasoned.
While Ashworth said he expects to see plenty of participation from local residents, given the positive feedback from members of the Facebook group called “You grew up in Fort Frances . . . if you remember,” he feels there are many people living out-of-town who would return for the reunion.
In fact, talk of the reunion first began after the creation of the Facebook group by former resident Al Beeber.
He started the page for what he thought would be an opportunity to talk about old times with a few friends from his days as the sports reporter for the Fort Frances Times.
But the group has continued to grow and now sports 1,426 members.
The committee also hopes to get a Fort Frances reunion website up and running to keep people up-to-date with plans and activities.
Ashworth reminded people to watch in January for the date of the next committee meeting.
