The Burns Lake Centennial celebration was a tremendous event that started from Aug. 17 and ended on Aug. 20. The four day event has finally came to an end.
Sheryl Worthing, Chief Administration Officer of Burns Lake said, “I think the event was a great success. All feedback has been very positive.”
Over the last 10 years, the village has been putting away money particularly for this event.
Worthing said, “We had approximately $45,000 in reserves.”
Other sources of grants and donations were also received for this celebration.
Worthing said, “We received approximately $77,000 in grants and donations.”
She said, it will be a few weeks before the final costs come out.
She said, “It will be a few weeks until we will know the final costs.”
Bryanne White and Candice Little are the Centennial project managers of the event.
Candice Little said, “You can spend a year or more planning an event of this magnitude, but if the community doesn’t step up, buy in, and participate then it is all for nothing.”
She is delighted by the response of all the guests who came to celebrate the 100 years.
Little said, “It was incredible. We saw people engaging with events and with each other all weekend long and having so much fun together as a community.”
She said, 30 to 40 per cent of the attendees were previous community members and people who have some historical connection to the area and the rest came from other places from around the Province to attend the celebration.
Her team of incredible volunteers worked together without any kind of mismanagement throughout the whole event.
Little said, “There have been so many people involved since the start of the Centennial working group over two years ago. Then all the events that have happened throughout the year tagging the Centennial and helping to gain momentum and energy heading towards this past weekend. I think it is safe to say we have had over a hundred volunteers involved, with a key group of about 15.”
This event wouldn’t have been possible without the support and commitment of community volunteers.
Little also said, “We wanted to have lots of variety of events so that there was something that appealed to everyone.”
“Every Centennial event was incredibly well attended. Everyone felt connected to several of the events throughout the weekend, and collectively the community had so much fun, laughing, sharing, caring, and connecting with old friends, family and making new friends,” she said.
She stated, “It was neat to see the different events highlight different moments in time.”
The Strawberry tea, Two Stepping Back in time, and raft races were a nice nod to the Tweedsmuir Days, while embracing the historical building St. John’s Heritage Church that has been newly renovated. Whereas, the Homecoming Music Festival was new to Burns Lake and hopefully something that continues.
She also said, “Overall, the Centennial celebrations went even better than we hoped.”
The village has not made any decision about planning for a 150th birthday of Burns Lake.
Worthing said, “We haven’t discussed the next event.”
Worthing, White and Little are delighted that the event was a complete success.