Can you imagine Canada Day in Osoyoos without the Cherry Fiesta?
Dread that thought.
The annual Canada Day celebration in Osoyoos has been taking place in this town since 1949 and continues to be one of the most popular and fun community annual events held in town every year.
Same thing goes with the annual Christmas Lite Up, which traditionally takes place three weeks before Christmas.
For many years, the Osoyoos Festival Society has been in charge of organizing Cherry Fiesta, Christmas Lite Up as well as the Easter Eggstravaganza event in April.
Unfortunately, events like this take a lot of time, effort and dedication to organize.
Longtime volunteers Shirley Baker and Jessie Smythe said they have no other choice but to go public to announce there needs to be an immediate and sudden surge in membership over the next few weeks or the Osoyoos Festival Society is in danger of folding.
That would simply be tragic.
There are currently only nine volunteer members with the festival society and many of them have been donating hundreds of hours each and every year stretching back more than a decade.
They are, quite literally, suffering from volunteer burnout.
Baker and Smythe are hopeful and confident that after going public about the lack of numbers, that several dedicated volunteers are going to step up and join the festival society moving forward.
The society’s annual general meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 7 at 7 p.m. in Room 1 at the Sonora Community Centre.
This would be the perfect opportunity for new members to step up and join an organization that has been responsible for organizing events that have become symbolic with the holiday season in Osoyoos.
As Baker says, the more the merrier when it comes to organizing major events like Cherry Fiesta and Christmas Lite Up.
The more people who join, the easier it will be to divvy up the responsibilities and ensure that these major events can continue to thrive in our community.
There’s nothing like Canada Day in Osoyoos and Cherry Fiesta is a big reason why.
The town attracts thousands of visitors for the annual Cherry Fiesta parade and our streets are filled to capacity with smiling faces of all ages.
Local small businesses, hotels and restaurants are packed to capacity during Cherry Fiesta and would suffer immensely if this event no longer took place.
It would simply be tragic to see these events cancelled because the festival society was forced to fold.
The nine current members deserve a tremendous round of applause from everyone who calls Osoyoos home for doing such a wonderful job in organizing these events.
It’s time for new people to step up to the plate, join the organization and do their part to ensure Cherry Fiesta, Christmas Lite Up and Easter Eggstravaganza remain popular annual events.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of any small community and Osoyoos has been blessed for having a dedicated core of volunteers who are committed to helping too many causes to count.
The Osoyoos Festival Society is one of this town’s most important non-profit organizations and we’re confident a few good men and women are going to step forward to help out in this desperate time of need.
