Special Events to Prince Rupert - Loudly calling for board members and volunteers

Seafest is back on for the weekend of June 11 but needs help to be successful after a two-year in-person hiatus.

Prince Rupert Special Events Society (PRSES) is making a loud community call out for board members, volunteers and business organizations to support revitalizing the festival spirit in the city.

“We would like to have a little bit more in the way of idea people, manpower people, people joining our board who want to see these community events continue on because the way it’s going they could be gone. There’s only so much we can do,” Bev Killbery, president of PRSES, said.

Community members and representatives of organizations are invited to attend the AGM on April 25 at 7 p.m. in the Eagle room on the upper floor of the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre. Community attractions such as Kids Fest, Seafest, Hallowe’en Fest and Winter Fest are all planned and organized by the group.

The current Special Events Board is a “working board” with everyone holding outside employment, except Killbery who is retired. Board members have dropped since the pandemic, with some moving away or focusing on family commitments. It is currently down to seven members.

She said that there is no way so few members can pull off a community event like Seafest as large as in past years. The board has sometimes had as many as 14 members with additional volunteers.

Additional to looking for new board blood and volunteers, the Special Events Society would like to hear from businesses and organizations with ideas for activities that they want to just ‘run’ with them to make the summer weekend a special one.

People may be hesitant to reach out or contribute because the pandemic restrictions were lifted so late and close to the festive weekend date, Killbery said. To offset that, PRSES has scheduled Seafest as a one-day event this year with a smaller parade.

“Our big [priority] for the AGM is we want to build partnerships with organizations and big business. You know, maybe there’s somebody who forgot they had so much fun doing a chilli cook-off or participating in activities.”

Seafest in pre-covid days was a huge community event attracting people from all down the Highway 16 corridor, Killbery said.

“On a Friday night, we had music in Mariners Park, but it takes bands that want to do that and volunteers to organize that,” she said. “We won’t really have the waterfront events because we don’t have waterfront unless you include Mariners Park.”

The adage of many hands making light work is true, she said, with the AGM being the opportunity for the community to see how the Special Events committee works, how things are planned and to share ideas.

The group wants to generate some new categories of events and blend residents’ cooperation into community camaraderie.

The Special Events Society does have some plans already for this year, and the Seafest theme has been set as “Surfs Up,” which is a good segue Killbery believes from the 2020 theme of “Tide is Turning” and “Here Comes the Sun” from last year.

“So the AGM is to try and bring people to the table and say ‘yeah, we’d like to see things the way they were’ and yes, we want to be involved,” she said.

The Special Events committee has tried to keep Children’s Fest, Seafest and Winterfest alive by using the Internet and “Zoom” for the past two years. However, while some events were successful for the societal challenges of the day, others were not, she said.

“We need other organizations and businesses to help us recreate the community festivals and spirit we all enjoyed previously,” Killbery said. “We need we need people that want to see events happen again, and it’s a great boon for the city.”