Over 700 attend Cherry Blossom Festival
Thousands of dollars were raised at the fourth annual Cherry Blossom Festival held Sunday at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
Due to the pandemic and constraints on food service, this year’s festival featured a free walk-through attraction and raised funds through sponsorships and the sale of merchandise instead of a ticketed dinner.
Mary Zunick, executive director of the Hot Springs Sister City Program, said over 800 people registered to walk through the exhibit, with over 700 people actually attending.
Zunick said they normally averaged around 150 attendees at the earlier ticketed events.
“The difference was that this was a free event, and it was wonderful because the diversity of the attendees was all you could hope it to be,” she said.
Those who walked through the event were “all ages and backgrounds,” Zunick said.
One group that walked through was a family of three generations — a grandmother, a mother and a daughter, Zunick said, noting the mother was born in Japan, and this exhibit was “a way for her to show the daughter” where she was born.
“She could share with her child,” she said.
The reception from the attendees was positive, she said. “They were so excited. They were thrilled to have an event to go to” since many events over the past year have been canceled due to COVID-19.
Zunick said the event still raised between $8,000 and $10,000 which will be used to help send local students to Hana
maki, Japan, Hot Springs’ Sister City, when travel is possible again.
The amount raised is “a little bit less than last year,” but the event “was attended by so many people” that it was still a large success, she said.
In addition to sponsorships, Zunick said they sold merchandise that included T-shirts, masks and pins.
The event also raised money to help renovate areas of coastal Japan that were destroyed 10 years ago in the Great East Japan Earthquake. Zunick did not know how much was raised for that cause, but noted the money is being used to help plant cherry trees in the damaged area.
“It will be this beautiful place,” she said.
This was also the first time the event was held at the convention center. Zunick said it “was wonderful,” as there was ample parking, and the center was large enough for attendees to keep socially distant from each other.
Zunick praised the staff at the convention center, including Zach Tucker, audiovisual services manager at Visit Hot Springs, who pitched the idea of holding the event there.
“The staff was so good,” she said, noting they also had to work the state high school basketball championships over the weekend.
Michelle Roberts, the new chair of the event, also “did a wonderful job,” Zunick said.
As the festival saw a larger amount of visitors, Zunick said they are “already working out … we can grow it next year.”
She said she hopes the event was inspirational for those who attended it.
“Education and travel, it just makes the world a better place,” she said, noting the mission of the sister city program is to “encourage world peace.”