Let the Fall Fair continue at Quality Farm & Garden

Quoted post


Guest

#4 Community Should Stand Up

2016-02-13 01:16

As the originator of the Gibsons Fall Fair, I am extremely distressed to hear this news. The Fall Fair is held every Thanksgiving weekend for 15 years and has always been a welcome and well received event to the community. In return, we welcomed not only paying vendors,  but the Lions Club,  the Hospital Auxilary, and other local non- profit groups to fundraiser for their organizations. The Fall Fair also took 100% of the profits from the Fall Fair and donated them back into the community to an assortment of non profit organizations such as Transition House, Arrowhead, The Salvation Army, Navy League & Sea Cadets, The Wildlife  Refuge, just to name a few. To date these donations total well over $20,000.00. This event has been a community staple that Dave & Betty Wells have supported at no charge to the community for 15 years! Shame on the SCRD for thinking that taking away an event like this is in any way good for our community. I do not think anyone should sit by idle and allow this to happen. 

 

Replies

Thanks for your comments! I'll make sure all the comments are brought to the SCRD as well!

#5 Re: Community Should Stand Up

2016-02-13 01:18:36

#4: - Community Should Stand Up 

 


Guest

#11 Re: Community Should Stand Up

2016-02-13 05:33:39

#4: - Community Should Stand Up 

Our family has attended the Fall Fair for most of the 15 years it has been held at Quality Farm.  It's a wonderful community event that showcases local artisans, craftspeople, farmers and charities, and has been a staple of our Thanksgiving weekend ever since we moved to the coast.  We buy our years supply of honey there, bring friends and family from off-coast there, and over the past few years have had our daughters play their fiddles to add some music to the event.  Just last year our daughters' fiddle group busked at the Fall Fair, and the proceeds they earned helped fund a trip for a small group of young sunshine coast fiddlers (one of the many non-profit groups who benefit from this event) to attend a fiddle workshop on Widbey Island. 

When I think of the hundreds of hours of volunteer effort, the tens of thousands of dollars raised for local charities and non-profits, and the exposure this event gives to local farmers, artisans, & craftspeople, I'm simply astounded that a bureaucratic decision such as this, that is blind to any benefits such events offer to our community can be allowed to stand.  Not only is this a blow to the organizers, participants and general community, it sets an awful precedent for anyone who is considering dedicating volunteer effort in the future to organize events such as this.  We need to hold our local governments to a higher standard, and speak up when overzealous decision making causes real damage to the events that make our community such a great place to live and raise a family.  I earnestly hope that the SCRD reconsiders its decision and allows the Gibsons Fall Fair to continue to be held at Quality Farm this year and for years to come!
ryhs

#54 Re: Community Should Stand Up

2016-02-17 01:14:19

#4: - Community Should Stand Up 

 and were you aware of the contravention of by laws?That being so there was no insurance coverage i am told