On Saturday, May 11, 524 special guests came to the Activity Fair at The Aud at the Norfolk County Fairgrounds. That’s 357 adults and 167 children! 41 activities were designed especially for them, including 10 free stores, 3 table shops, 9 personal services, 2 Mother’s Day gift activities, 13 game and prize tables, 2 restaurants, and 1 entertainment. 10 agencies, groups and organizations set up displays on our resource row. There were also administrative roles including the registration crew, survey team, security and event photographers. The Guest Luncheon, held upstairs at the Rec Centre, served pulled pork on a bun, Caesar salad, and kettle chips to 164 diners. Volunteers were treated to lunch, and the café served refreshments and snacks all afternoon. More than 75 prizes, treasures and gift baskets were won, gifted or delivered, along with six new instant-win-ticket special gift draws.
The Ride Norfolk bus offered free service to and from The Aud, and wherever passengers wanted to go en route. There were also two activities around town: an awesome garbage-cleanup crew of 10 filled litter bags downtown along the river, in parks and alleys, while another team visited residents at the Simcoe Heritage and Cedarwood Village Retirement Homes and gave them tulips.
All this happened because of 241 volunteers — 221 adults and 20 kids. Many more helped behind the scenes. Five volunteers gathered, sorted, cleaned and prepared donated items in the month prior; 16 volunteers drove in from outside the county to serve; and 17 friends of The Friendship Group served together running the WBIS Café.
On Sunday, May 19, the day began with lovely weather but turned windy and rainy later in the afternoon, and the fire marshal advised against the fireworks for safety reasons. Monday’s rain date was no better, and for the first time, The Fireworks Celebration was cancelled. The community and all those involved in planning and preparation were disappointed.
Twenty-five local churches supported WBIS that year by recruiting volunteers and collecting almost 2,200 items for the grocery store. Fifty-two businesses, groups and individuals gave food, prizes, supplies and other items. Forty-two local agencies, clubs and programs helped with promotion, services or products. Special thanks went to Norfolk County Council, Roulston’s Pharmacy, local farmers, and Calvary Church.
Our photographers worked hard to capture We Believe in Simcoe. Explore the photographs and video memoir elsewhere on this site.
Our warmest thank you to each and every volunteer for giving your time, energy and heart to make We Believe in Simcoe a marvellous expression of what really matters: people being with people, encouraging people, enjoying people, serving people and loving people.
We Believe in Simcoe is a project of Church Out Serving, whose vision is “a community that loves and is transformed by it.” We Believe in Simcoe plays a role in this vision.