Billy Barker Days in Quesnel was lost in 2017 due to wildfires, in both 2019 and 2020 because of COVID, and now a lack of volunteers is putting it at risk.
Maureen Murray, the Past President of the Billy Barker Days Society and the current Souvenir Director, says they have lost a lot of Directors and they just don’t have enough people left to run it properly.
“I’d say actively attending every meeting or most meetings is a contingent of about 10, and we need at least 20.”
Murray says they need to know by their January meeting if they have enough help to hold the festival in 2023.
“I’ve got sort of a summary of the main director positions that we need some commitments from. Some of these directorships can be split in two, just as long as we have people come to the January meeting and say hey I’ll do it.”
Murray says they can’t wait any longer.
“If this is not started by January we’re not going to get the headliners that we’d like to get because we’ve usually already sent out contracts by that time. By February we’ve got a list of all our sponsors and which member is going to go to them and get them to agree to do something financially or provide a service or product, that has to be done by April. Billy Barker Days doesn’t start happening on July 1st.”
Murray says you don’t necessarily have to be at the festival in order to help out.
“Some directorships you don’t even have to be at the festival because they’re done before hand, like putting the program together, finding our entries, putting them together and having them sent to the printer, that’s all done by late May. But we’ve got to have those people on board by our January meeting or at least enough commitments that we feel encouraged to proceed and start putting out money towards having it occur in July.”
Murray says those interested in helping out can contact any Society Director, or leave a message at 250-992-1234, or send an e-mail to [email protected].
She says they can also text her at 250-316-6298 or email to [email protected].
Murray says this information will be part of the discussion at their November meeting.
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