Volunteers needed for new Rose Festival events
Welland Rose Festival should have enough funding to cover running new events, like a bed race, cardboard boat regatta, skateboard/ BMX event and Run for the Roses in 2018, city council heard last week.
But to ensure those events run, it will need volunteers, said the festival vice- president Grant Grice, and second vice- president Erica Olsson during a presentation at council’s committee meeting.
“If we don’t get the number of volunteers to hold these events we need, that will put us back a bit,” said Olsson.
Grice said funding and manpower come hand- in- hand.
“Without the manpower, we can’t hold events, and without the funding, we can’t hold them,” he said.
He said the festival will look to Niagara College and see if it can produce volunteers from the paramedic and police foundations programs to help out. He said it would offset some costs.
Partnering with local businesses and seeking sponsorships are another way the festival will look to help cover expenses for the annual event, Grice said.
Ward 3 Coun. John Chiocchio asked the two if they felt the festival would be elevated in 2018, especially with the possible addition of new events.
“Can you give it more of a push, get more community engagement?” he asked.
Grice said whether anyone wanted to admit it or not, youths of today are becoming more technologically social and less community-, and outside, social.
He hoped the new events would draw in the youth crowd, get it working its imaginations and on teamwork and camaraderie.
“We definitely want to bring in more youth … and get them more involved outside, rather than inside,” he said.
Mayor Frank Campion said he liked what the pair were proposing.
He asked when the Rose Festival would finalize its 2018 program and know what new events are going to be part of the festival.
Olsson, who was second princess in the Rose Queen’s court in 2010, said all the annual events, such as Day in the Park, the art exhibit, coronation ball, baby show, children’s fishing derby and street dance, are already booked.
“We hope to have everything by Jan. 1 … it all depends on fitting it in the budget and manpower,” she said.
Campion said he’d love to see the new events happen, and said the sooner the festival board knows, the better. He said the festival would need various approvals from the city to be in place for newer events.
The mayor said the one new event he really wants to see happen is a cardboard boat regatta.
“If you have it, I’ll enter a team and may even issue a challenge to others,” he said.
Grice said the parade is tentatively set to start at the arena on King Street, head north to East Main Street, west to West Main Street, north on Prince Charles Drive to First Avenue and end in Chippawa Park.
Both he and Olsson said the parade would be somewhere between two and three kilometres in length.
Olsson said with construction around Memorial Park, Days in the Park will remain at Chippawa Park.
“It’s pretty much our only option right now. It’s a centralized location … and we can draw a larger crowd. I know parking was somewhat of an issue, but that didn’t stop people from coming out,” she said.
Couns. Leo Van Vliet ( Ward 1) and John Mastroianni ( Ward 3) suggested the festival make use of the outdoor TV at Welland Civic Square to advertise the bed race and parade — to attract attention, inquiries and volunteers.