Published in The BANAR August 1996
What a wonderful 25th anniversary of the Fun Fair. The first nice weekend this spring and it happened to be Fun Fair weekend. My, we do lead a charmed life in the Hamlet!
From the opening of the Fair with the parade, to the closing, with the dance on Saturday evening, the fair was truly a community event.
Our goals this year were to reach out to the community and to have activities for people of all ages and interests. Prices for most activities were lowered and we added many features and brought back many favourites. Our main emphasis was to make this a FUN Fair and the spin off was to raise money for the more than 30 leisure and community groups that worked at the fair and received shares.
We have received tremendous positive feedback and I believe we accomplished what we set out to do.
There are three essential elements necessary for a successful fair, a group of dedicated volunteers willing to work together as a team, participation at the fair and good weather. We certainly had all three components this year.
Many people from Blackburn and the surrounding areas donated their time without share value, to work at the Fair. Businesses generously contributed cash donations, gifts, gift certificates and many also participated in the parade. They were certainly welcome additions to the fair and the time, effort and support were appreciated. We urge the residents of Blackburn to thank them by supporting these businesses.
This year the Fun Fair had four corporate sponsors, Lafarge Construction Materials, Loeb Blackburn, TD Bank Blackburn, and Builders Warehouse.
Tony Rubino, manager of Lafarge, once again covered the cost of the
fireworks display, which is always a popular event.
Marc Provost and Luc Monfils, the managers of Loeb, supplied food donations, the use of the Loeb reefer truck, the hamburger wagon and also donated a BBQ which was auctioned at the dance.
Mike Lee, manager of the TD Bank, not only was a keen worker on the fair committee as a director, but the TD Bank also sponsored the Lap Band for the Fun Fair Saturday night dance and the School Poster Contest.
Builders Warehouse was a new corporate sponsor this year with Joel Lapalme at the controls. We appreciated their participation, their donations and contributions to the afternoon auction particularly the lovely patio set.
As Coordinator of this year’s Fair, I was proud to have worked alongside many dedicated and hard working individuals. It was very reassuring to have the experience of many former volunteers on our team, but it was refreshing to have many new people from our community wanting to become involved. Many of them have indicated they want to participate next year which we feel is a very positive sign. Blackburn is very fortunate to have such enthusiastic residents.
I urge each and every one of you to consider participating in the community activities, meet your neighbours and make new friendships and to think about how we can continue to make Blackburn a great community to live in.
As a volunteer, I have learned that more often than not, you get back more than you put out and it is rewarding to know that one’s efforts have somehow made a difference.
To all of you who came out to celebrate our 25th Fun Fair and to all of the volunteers, THANK YOU from all the Fun Fair Committees.
