Kudos to Huron Feathers
Another wild and crazy Sandfest, and thanks and praises to the kids of the Huron Feathers for keeping the tradition alive for another summer's day of beach fun. Undaunted by any lack of stage, sounds system or promotion, the kids dug in and dished it out Sauble Style with Magical Mystery-Tourist's Three-legged race, the old-favourite Watermelon Wheel and Licorice-string Slurp races, a new chocolaty twist to the Free-Style Ice-cream Challenge, and for added fun, they opened all events to everyone, adding a new category for all those adults who'd been boasting "I coulda done that!" Their table also thoughtfully provided free juice for the kids (who were all remarkably thoughtful about their trash!) and in true HF tradition, no one got away without at least some small prize! You gotta love a game like that.
Bravo, HF, well done, it wouldn't have been a Sandfest without you. Kudos too to Kirklands for providing the kids with a cartload of watermelons (plenty for everyone and the gulls will thank you too :) and thanks too to the thoughtful kids over at the Superbus for shifting their show schedules so as not to conflict with the Huron Feathers races, and to one other Unknown Friend who showed up at the last minute with a megaphone and graciously wandered among the Family-Class Sand Sculptors announcing the next events.
An excellent time was had by all. Yes it was messy, yes it was tense and down to the wire winners by a nose, and yes, winners are often as lucky as skilled as they were inventive artful dodgers of the rules, but hey, its the beach, its the sand and the sun and it's the FUN that's the thing!
Oh, and one footnote: I was asking them about an RSS feed, and found out today that yes, they already have a 
Huron Feathers Youth-Program Blogspot, so check it out, subscribe to the feed and show them your support!
- garym's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 1263 reads
User login
Blogger Talkback
Latest Bloggings
The Crackerbarrel
New Crackers
Editorial Lint
| this is our story the sbp community portal is a not-for-profit volunteer community communications project giving a free internet voice to residents of the town of south bruce peninsula through an easy and open public forum. the framework for the sbp is ©2007 Gary Lawrence Murphy Sauble Beach, Ontario sbp @ teledyn.com |
|
      community plumbing for the web |
Local Weather
or visit our
environment canada forecast
and our
marine forecast
Sandfest Debriefing
Some follow-up news on the Sandfest, starting with the Sandcastle competition, and in a way, I'm happier with the way it turned out, as a community fun event, instead of it becoming yet another Extreme Sport Showdown the way it has out west. Maybe next year they can flip the prize process around, give everyone some prize, but be creative about the names of the awards!
And it's a better direction, if you ask me -- I ranted for years on how Groundhog Day wasn't a world-attracting tourism magnet Vegas Spectacular event, it was in reality a community event, a homecoming and neighbourly self-check, and had we taken it down a local-think strategy, the humanity of the breakfast-together idea would become globally infectious and that would be our export.
Like many before me, I gave up on the willie.com crew -- here's hoping this idea becomes the new Sandfest strategy!
One can hope. But then again, that's not the message we got from Bayshore, where the fest-day soundbyte was still framing Sandfest as a last grab at the brass ring ...
I'm tellin' ya, Mark, that's the wrong way down the wrong road; if everyone is happy and secure and feeling at home in their own home, trust me, it is elementary neuroscience, they will spend more money and thus it is a solid valid future-think strategy to focus on the community-building aspects of the festival and to especially avoid giving out any good for business vibes about it. "When you hold a bow, you don't hold two arrows." the proverb goes. Huron Feathers had exactly the right idea, everyone is welcome, everyone has fun, everyone wins, and much more more than that, everyone interacts with everyone in an atmosphere of Good Cheer. When that happens, community happens, and communities, well, they need basic goods, nearer the better because they are having fun and don't like to leave.
Sure it may be very true that Sandfest gives local business a boost, and it is true the local business are the ones asked to ante-up some dough and roll the dice on the gamble, but a gamble for cash vs a gamble for community spirit are two very different games, and even if you do actually just want the cash, I think we should stay mum about it, maybe even spend a bit more on the show to try and hide it ;)
And it was such a perfect day for a councilor dunk-tank, too.
How much did you spend>
Gary; how much did you spend on the dunk tank? It was probably (as you said) money that you wanted to spend in the community interest.
Dan O.
The No-Dunk Fest
We came prepared, but there was no dunk-tank to spend money on! In fact, there was very little happening down by the sign outside of the Huron Feathers kids doing their best to run their show out the back of a hatchback off two folding tables in the sand. I was a little disappointed at Saugeen Nation too, as we looked forward to some real tacos for lunch; instead, one lone trailer entrepreneur vending cigarettes. No street dance either, which was something else our younger kids (ok, and KeeMay too) have always looked forward to having.
In fact, y'know, maybe I just missed it, and we only hung around from about 9:30 until 2pm, but seems to me if you subtracted the sand castle crews and the HF games, there was nothing visibly festive at all about this business-as-usual day on the beach.
We didn't even see Sammy.
Who is Sammy? Is that a
Who is Sammy? Is that a cousin to Sunny? :)
And while leaving work that night, I saw two bands playing at sunset on the Main Drag - mind you, neither one appealed to me; but, they were there nevertheless.
Be sure to come to the "last day of summer fest." Mark's band is playing - they really are quite awesome - should be a good time.
Two Bands? Who'd know?
Really? Good news, but I did check the Chamber website, the chamber's new google calendar and we were down on the beach right at the sign solid from 9:30 until nearly 2 and saw no tell-tale flatbed truck preparing, or any value-mart posters, or marquees or anything to suggest any kind of dance scene was brewing. Come to think of it, I didn't check the big beachfront marquee ...
And I did know Dead By Dawn (the tightest band in the Beach) had some sort of unauthorized summertime gig lined up to play on the slab of concrete in front of the new tattoo parlour, but I don't know if that was for the Fest, and I can't really see how a street dance would work right at the lights. Once upon a time there might have been something engaging in front of the lumber yard, too, and that bit of flatspace where the Flea Market is shaping up would have been a great place for some old-style Jump-up BBQ!
And yeah, Sam, Son, Mike, Will, Jack or Ted, whatever kind of linebacker it is, I saw nar'y a feather of him the whole morning. In fact, we feared the worst so I do hope the bin-pickings were just better farther up the coast and he just got distracted. Hopefully he made it for the presentations, where ever they'd be. Nonetheless, I loved the Chamber's new "Events Truck", nice bit of vintage de-troit farm iron there, but it seemed kinda all alone marginalled and deserted.
look alike
hi mmockler ... all those seagulls look the same!
kltpzyxm