Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
ARVIAT - The hamlet of Arviat is gearing up for a huge birthday bash to celebrate its 30th anniversary this coming September.
Local rec co-ordinator Damian MacInnis said his department is working to make the milestone celebration as big as possible.
He said a committee has been struck to plan the event and meetings began in earnest this past week.
"We're bringing an aboriginal band up from Manitoba to be, kind of, the highlight of the celebration," said MacInnis.
"We'll also be hosting a lot of games and activities throughout the week, including a community feast and squaredance.
"There's a softball tournament planned and we're going to be raffling away a Honda and other prizes, so, hopefully, it will be a pretty memorable event if everything comes together for us."
The anniversary bash will run from Sept. 4-8 with most of the planned events focusing on physical activity and the enhancement of daily life within the community.
To that end, MacInnis said the vast majority of prizes will be items such as bicycles, baseball gloves, sneakers and grocery gift certificates rather than cash. He said people sometimes tend to forget what events are all about if there's too much money involved.
"Giving out cash prizes all the time is one thing I'm working to change because things can get too crazy when there's money involved.
"I'll deal with it if people don't like me for making the change, but these events are supposed to be fun.
"I want to see everybody having fun, not getting all competitive trying to win money.
"I'm sure we'll still have a few games with cash prizes, but we're not going to be offering money at every game throughout the week."
MacInnis said he has 10 people on staff in his department and, along with the committee formed to oversee the event, he doesn't see any problem with the number of available people he'll have to run the activities.
He said most people are looking forward to having a good time outdoors while celebrating their community's 30th anniversary.
"Word of mouth from people in the community seems to suggest that everybody's getting excited about the event.
"All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that everything will go well."
