The Williams Lake Harvest Fair is a no-go for this year, but the organization is finding other ways to fundraise.
Harvest Fair President Tammy Tugnum says there isn’t enough time to plan the fair for this year. “We start working on the Fair in January of each year,” Tugnum says, “we’re down to a three-month window, and it’s just impossible to put an event together of that size in a three-month timespan.”
Even though the Fair isn’t happening, they still have expenses to pay for.
“We still have a substantial insurance policy to pay,” Tugnum explains, “We have two small red barns outside the curling club, so of course we have to insure our contents, we have to pay our liability, there was that to take care of. We had quite a bit of vandalism over the winter this year, and the city helped us with a small grant, but it didn’t cover all of the damage that was done. We did a bit of fundraising with the Rotary Club. They extremely were very generous and that helped us with an event last year, that fell short of the amount that we required for insurance even though they were extremely generous and we appreciate all their help.”
To raise funds this year, the Harvest Fair held an online auction, which Tugnum says was a success.
“This will bring us back to even through the generosity of local businesses and everyone who bid and purchased items from us.”
Tugnum says even though there will not be a Harvest Fair this year, the hope is to have an event in September.