Fuchsia Dragon | [email protected]
Fresh blood is needed to keep Canada Day alive in Jasper.
The current committee has decided to step down after years of hard work putting the town鈥檚 annual celebrations together.
Volunteers from the community have been organizing the parade and activities since the 1980s, but with donations dropping, the event has become harder to organize each year and the committee is now burned out.
The Chamber of Commerce ran the event from 2014 to 2018, but the event took over their usual workload and the Chamber stepped back too.
Pattie Pavlov, general manager of the Chamber, remained on the committee.
She said: 鈥淭he community has been fantastic with supporting it but we have been seeing a bit of a downward tilt with the fireworks not happening and how many resources we can pool.
鈥淗opefully new volunteers will come forward or a business that can take it on. They need the staff, manpower and resources.鈥�
The official non-profit society will stay up-and-running, it just needs people to take it up.
And the current members are happy to give advice to the new team.
鈥淲e are in a national park and Canada Day here has seen many lifetimes,鈥� said Pavlov.
鈥淧eople want to really see this continue, it is really important.
鈥淵ou need three to four people really committed to see Canada Day stay and who are willing to take on things like the parade.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter what you do or where you work or if you are retired.鈥�
The core of the current committee is Anna Marie Couture, Warren Waxer and Angie Thom.
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 have done it without them,鈥� said Pavlov.
鈥淚 am proud to say that this is part of what Jasper does and what it is about. It is about our community and so many people come here and it definitely has an economic spin-off, everyone goes to the businesses, the restaurants.鈥�
There are some things that could continue without the committee, like the flag raising organised by Parks Canada and the pancake breakfast put on by the Municipality of Jasper.
But there would be no parade, no evening concert, no children鈥檚 activities.
And fireworks are probably a thing of the past due to environmental and fire hazard concerns.
鈥淚n my heart of hearts, as much as I want it to happen, we have probably seen our last fireworks,鈥� said Pavlov.
The Jasper Canada Day committee starts monthly meetings in January but grant applications have to be submitted for November 21.
The committee applies for grants, collects donations, organizes insurance, updates the website, organises permits, road closures, volunteers and parade marshalls, orchestrates advertising, information flyers, and books bands, entertainment, lights, sound systems, accommodation and security.
