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LETTER: Canada Day kudos

I’m writing to you to highlight the event that took place on Canada Day at the James Donaldson Park in Grand Forks, B.C.

Editor:

I’m writing to you to highlight the event that took place on Canada Day at the James Donaldson Park in Grand Forks.

It was a great event that was attended by too few people but those in attendance will attest that it was probably one of the finest such events to have ever occurred in the area.

With very little support or assistance from anyone beyond the city granting permission to use the public space, Zak and Pete Waterlow put on a spectacular event.

It was professionally staged, sounded fantastic and all of the performers observed their times and conditions and finished up mainly on time.

Events such as this do wonders to create and maintain community spirit and as a seasoned music-industry veteran who has attended many such events all over Canada and the U.S., I have to say that this was an outstanding evening and would have benefited greatly from a little more support from within and outside the community.

If, for instance, the city could provide a relaxation of the rules that would allow for beer to be served at such an event without thousands of dollars of liability insurance in place and local restaurants could pitch in to provide something in the way of food services, an event like this could be the start of something really great for Grand Forks.

Some friends and I traveled in from Calgary and were hugely impressed at the effort put forth by Pete and Zak and their small army of helpers and volunteers. The crowd in attendance was hugely appreciative of their efforts and behaved in a grown-up fashion throughout.

Please keep this in mind for the future as it would be a wonderful thing to develop this type of cultural event into an ongoing festival or annual event that would be valuable and appreciated by the citizens of Grand Forks and area for many years to come.

Efforts like this need to recognized and encouraged, and the dividends they can pay long-term are of benefit to all.

Greg Dinwoodie, Calgary, Alta