MINI-SIZE; MAXIMUM IMPACT
Stephanie Prpick-Boss (at back) and her son Joe Boss look at the display at the Swift Current Museum's Festival of Minis, Dec. 1.
The Swift Current Museum is sharing the spirit of the festive season with a new event that will benefit local non-profit organizations.
The Festival of Minis started on Dec. 1 and will take place at the museum until Dec. 16. It is a colourful display of decorated mini Christmas trees, wreaths and gingerbread houses.
Corla Rokochy, the visitor services attendant and Main Street Swift Current coordinator at the museum, said they decided to host an event over a two-week period to allow enough time for people to enjoy the displays in a safe manner in compliance with current COVID-19 public health guidelines.
“We wanted to do something to give back to the community and have a way that kids were able to come inside and still celebrate the season, and give back some funds to some of the organizations that I know were not able to run a lot of their fundraisers,” she explained. “So this way we can take care of selling the tickets for them and they just had to put together some creative display and then sit back and wait for people to come and vote on them.”
Visitors can buy $1 ballots to vote for their favourite decorated tree, wreath or gingerbread house. The designated charity for each item will receive the money from the votes. Voters have a chance to win one of the creations from the draw to be held on the final day of the event.
“We reached out to a number of community members and organizations,” she said. “So different groups created the trees and wreaths and gingerbread houses. … Any money that goes towards the display is donated towards the charity of the makers choice. It's kind of a win-win for everybody.”
There are 15 decorated items on display at the Festival of Minis. The charities that will benefit from the event include CiBC Run for the Cure, Maverick Art Program, The Meadows Art Program, Swift Current SPCA, Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre, Success Day Care, and the Family Resource Centre.
The museum is also collecting food for the Swift Current Salvation Army food bank, and there is a donation bin for anyone who wants to bring along non-perishable food donations.
The City of Swift Current’s annual Christmas tree lighting event on Market Square was cancelled due to the COVID-19 regulations and there was only a virtual event. As a result, there were some funds available that the City provided to the museum for the Festival of Minis. This made it possible for the museum to provide goodie bags for children visiting the festival.
“Nutters did the gift bags,” Rokochy said. “They usually do the gift bags for the Christmas tree lighting, but they were more than willing to transfer it over to us.”
There is also an opportunity for children to meet the Grinch, who will be at the festival at select times. This is a precautionary measure to avoid a line-up of visitors at one time and meetings with the Grinch can be prearranged by calling the museum at 306-778-2775.
The museum is planning to make the Festival of Minis an annual event that will expand to have more decorated items on display to benefit various non-profit organizations.
“We're hoping this will be the inaugural event and that it can grow each year and maybe in future years we'll be able to have some over at the Hockey Hall of Fame,” she said. “We're hoping that it will grow that we'll need a multi-venue space and we're going to challenge sports teams like the 57s and the Broncos and Legionnaires to participate in the future and hopefully we'll get over to the Hockey Hall of Fame too, because we'd like people to come.”
This year’s festival at the museum follows COVID-19 public health guidelines, and visitors are required to wear a mask. Admission to the museum is free, and it is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 1-5 p.m.