Sun volleys back as HOPE Summerfest shrugs off puddles
The sun came out, the clothes came off.
Thus did HOPE Volleyball Summerfest celebrate its 35th anniversary Saturday as Mooney’s Bay was overtaken by 10,000 players enjoying a gloriously rare sunny summer day in an event that has become a fundraising juggernaut in the capital.
An estimated $150,000 was expected to be raised for six charities: the Sexual Assault Support Centre, Children at Risk, Dress for Success (NCR), the Shepherds of Good Hope, Ottawa Community Housing Foundation and the Waupoos Foundation.
The event began small in 1983, with a handful of teams and the best intentions. It is now a major festival on the city’s calendar, with year-round staff, 800 volunteers and an estimated total attendance of 25,000, including 1,000 registered teams in four divisions.
Executive director Holly Tarrison said an overnight dump of 43 millimetres of rain presented some “challenges” for organizers. The mainstage had to be repositioned as the planned backstage area was flooded. A handful of courts, too, had sizable mud puddles, but players didn’t seem to mind too much.
“The last three months I’ve been nervous,” she said, of her professional weather-watching. “It was like today was the only day with sun, surrounded by rain and everything else.”
Given the summer we’re having, it was a magnificent day, and so the crowd was often shirtless, everywhere in shorts or bathing suits, with a tad of the outlandish thrown in. Hope sprang infernal: The music blared, the dancing was abundant and spontaneous, and the bar lineups were healthy.
There was a team of high school grads from Garneau called Spike the Punch. They were playing on a court that had a giant mud puddle near the net.
“We play rock, paper, scissors to see who gets to play on this side,” said Brendan Paquette. “But it’s a good time with your friends and it’s for a good cause.”
Will Fesky, 30, an operations manager for a grocery company, travelled to Ottawa from Toronto — where the HOPE model has been copied — to play with six friends on a team called Inappropriate Balls. (We were afraid to ask.)
“I am a big volleyball player and I like to hang out on the beach in the sun with my friends, so an outdoor volleyball tournament is a perfect mix of all those things,” he said around the lunch hour.
“Look at all the people out there. It’s just a fantastic atmosphere. Nobody cares too much about the quality of the game. It’s just for coming out and having a good time.”
There is, too, a strong corporate component to the event, as those teams — at $905 each — are a sizable block of the fundraising total. Costco, for instance, had six teams, EllisDon had three and longtime supporter Gilmore Reproductions had two.
There were three teams from a tech firm called Survey Monkey, based in the By Ward Market. About a quarter of the entire staff of 100 was taking part. “There are two main things,” said Justine Nesbitt-Brown. “One is the charity aspect and it’s also a great team-building activity.”
Tarrison, meanwhile, attempted to explain HOPE’s ongoing appeal this way: It’s a daytime beach event, it involves a sport played at any level, prominent bands are booked (The Strumbellas), and the demographic leans to the young and beautiful.
“It’s very interesting to peoplewatch here.”
Nobody cares too much about the quality of the game. It’s just for coming out and having a good time.