Organizers are still tallying the proceeds, but said the 20th annual Festival of Giving (FoG) was epic.
The Festival, which took place June 3 at Sons of Kent, differed from its predecessors as, for the first time, it was not attached to the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent.
Past event co-chairs Chris McLeod and Tim Regan took up the torch after the treatment centre’s foundation opted to head in a new direction for its fundraising.
This time around, the funds raised are earmarked for Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario (YWHO) Chatham-Kent, formerly known as Access Open Minds. The organization offers mental health support for young people.
About 450 event patrons took part in FoG this year, Regan said.
“We took over the brewery. Sons of Kent were amazingly accommodating for us,” he said. “The community support for this event was phenomenal. We couldn’t be happier with the sponsors and the assistance.”
Regan said taking over FoG was important to he and McLeod. But it was a lot of work for the volunteering committee.
“It was great to bring it back for the 20th. That was one of our main goals,” he said. “We were trying to preserve the concept of Festival, but were kind of building it from the ground up. Thankfully, we had a ton of people step up to be on the (organizing) committee.”
As for working with YWHO, Regan said it made sense.
“We wanted to find an organization where we could bring awareness to. We thought YWHO met those needs,” he explained. “People kind of heard of Access Open Minds, but it changed to YWHO. We toured it and thought, ‘Wow, this place is amazing.’”
At FoG, Regan said three bands and duelling pianos performed, but one of the most enjoyable parts of the night was the Silent Disco at the end.
“Everyone had noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones on. They just popped on the headphones and danced away,” he said, adding the DJ spun tunes that only they could hear with the headphones. This allowed the party to continue, but in a much quieter manner.
“It was a highlight for many people. It was just so fun to watch people dancing and there was just dull singing going on,” Regan said. “It allowed us to quiet the party down but people still had a blast.”
FoG organizers ran three auctions as fundraising efforts, with a live auction that night, as well as a silent auction the same evening. An online auction continued through June 7, Regan said.
Regan is not sure what the future will bring for FoG.
“This event has gone one for 20 years. I would say something would survive. We just need a few days to digest and see where we head with it,” he said.
