Informal Newsletter

Informal Newsletter
October 8, 2009:	We had a great meeting last night, with some exciting brainstorming for next year's event. Dave Adamson has spoken with Mayor Miller and confirmed that he will attend in 2010. Further, he reported that he had met with a representative of Rouge Valley Health (Centennary Hospital), and they will organize a new bed race as part of the celebrations. Heather Moeser advised that West Hill Highland Creek Lions Club is prepared to organize the Children's events next year. Generally, the agenda was an ideas session. Wayne Erison and Lydia Manget are liaising with our Highland Creek businesses, who seem to like the idea of a Scavenger Hunt as part of the event. We welcomed a new committee member, Neil Jaikaran, an executive of the Highland Creek Community Association. Wayne Erison has also been working on a location for an evening dance, which is something we missed last year. The Legion is booked that day, so we'll probably have it at St. Dunstan's Anglican Church.
	There was general consensus that next year's Festival theme will be "Heritage", i.e. an emphasis on the history of the Highland Creek area. It was agreed that we'll circulate ideas by e-mail over the next month, have a further ideas session at our November 4 meeting, and then the Directors will make a firm decision for the December 2 meeting. Some brainstorming ideas were to contact Pickering Museum for a period schoolhouse display (Vicky Petrogiani, Bill O'Neill and Charlie Travers ), a Car Bash ( Wayne Erison ), a "Fashion Show, 1910" ( Clancy Delbarre and Lydia Manget ), antique bicycles ( Marshall Denny ), period costumes for committee members ( Greg McConnell ), a history display collage ( Lou Koutsaris ), antique police and fire department equipment ( Heather Moeser ). Carlo Vacca reminded us that St. Joseph's Church regularly has themes for its parade entry, and it had done a history theme in the 2004 parade celebrating the church's 150th year.

September 3, 2009:	At our AGM last night, David Adamson, Greg McConnell, and Clancy Delbarre were re-elected as Directors of the Festival by acclamation. They will take the roles of Chair, Vice Chair, and Treasurer respectively. Vesi Leal was elected as our new Secretary. Vicky Petrogiani and Vesi agreed to organize the Parade this year - THANKS, you two! Wayne Erison agreed to be our Operations guy, and also to organize an evening Dance, a special event for this Anniversary year. Wayne is also going to get us some support from some of his contacts..we need a large tent for the beer garden stage, for example, that might be sponsored. Lydia Manget will do our publicity. Although not a certainty yet, it looks like the West Hill Highland Creek Lions Club will step up again to the plate to organize Children's Activities. St. Joseph's Church, represented at the meeting by Carlo Vacca and Charlie Travers will again be a major participant. Our all-round good guy and transportation provider, Marshall Denny will assist us again this year, too.
	Our finances: Clancy reported that we took about a $5,000.00 bath this past year because of lower donations, and lack of profit from the rained-out beer garden. James of Kilt Pub did kindly donate $200 to us after we moved the Karaoke Funfest into his pub, out of the rain. See our list of donors and sponsors for better information - we are extremely grateful to all of them. But we cannot do this again in 2010. We'll need some significant fund-raising and donations this year to get back on track...we have usually earned a small surplus, which is meant to (and did) cover lean years like this past one.
	Ideas for next year: The meetings in the Fall are needed to generate ideas and obtain commitments for action. Dave Adamson is working on developing a Bed Race, which would be an ideal event in our context. We are hoping that U of T Scarborough and the Rouge Valley System (Centenary Hospital) will get involved this year. The Bed Race could be a fund raiser and publicity event for both.
	Next Meeting: We meet the first Wednesday of each month, 7:00 p.m. at the Legion, Br. 258 (45 Lawson Road). Next meeting Oct. 7, 2009. We'd love to welcome to our volunteer committee anyone who can bring some energy, a positive attitude, and can give us some time to help organize this community event. Vesi, for example, stepped into the breach last year to help with the Parade and has now agreed to be our new Secretary. We can find a role and job for you! -Greg McConnell