Regina Wascana:  What a Year!

By Donna Peake
  

Imagine having your club’s major fundraiser immediately following a week of going Flat Out in Regina in November!  Well Regina Wascana did just that.  A good number of our members were major Grey Cup organizers and the rest of the members were certainly involved with major volunteering duty for the 2003 Grey Cup.

Festival of Trees, our club’s major fundraiser was scheduled to immediately follow the Grey Cup – arguably the most significant celebration in our nation during the month of November.  Believe me when I say it immediately followed the Grey Cup.  The boys from Newfoundland were put on the plane on Tuesday and the Festival of Trees began on Wednesday.

Did I mention it’s also a five-day event?

The City of Regina proclaimed the week as Festival of Trees Week and that was good news ... though we weren’t too sure who in our wonderful city would be eager and anxious to attend the Festival of Trees.

Well, our clever Festival planning team had a brilliant idea, they secured the auctioneering skills of many community celebrities – not least of whom included the 2003 Grey Cup Chairman Marty Kline, and certainly a VIP to all Rider fans, General Manager Roy Shivers.  Well that did it!  Festival was a hit and the Gala at night now referred to as the “best ever”.

It was a case of “working smarter not harder” as they say.  We removed from the Festival all the events that were very labour intensive, and kept the one event that is always a winner – the Gala Auction.  Just the other day, the Palliative Care Director was handed the proceeds; she almost needed immediate medical attention!

The $52,000 was donated to Regina Palliative Care and $3,000 to Hospitals of Regina Foundation – a 27% increase from last year.

In hindsight, perhaps it was our good fortune to immediately follow the frenzy from Flat Out Saskatchewan.  It sure seemed as though fun at the Festival of Trees was notched up quite a bit ... perhaps it was from all the practice the week before.