STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.
Summer Celebration

Town of Sexsmith beginning to plan for late summer community celebration

Jun 23, 2021 | 2:38 PM

Town of Sexsmith administration has been given the green light to begin planning a summer community celebration to be held later in August.

This after council voted Monday to help support a summer community celebration, after their annual summer event, Chautauqua Days, had been cancelled two years in a row because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mayor Kate Potter says it has been a tough 16 months for residents, and council felt it was important to show the community their gratitude.

“Council really wanted to not only thank the community for the efforts that they have put in but also give us the opportunity to come together as neighbours and friends and community,” said Potter. “We’re excited to really come back together as a community, in person, and celebrate together.”

Administration had presented other scenarios for a community celebration at Monday’s meeting, as they were aware two months is a short time to put together a community celebration.

Among those suggestions was holding off until they could put together a larger event in November, combined with Christmas in Sexsmith.

However, Potter said it was important to celebrate with the community sooner.

“We are (still) supporting our events that come later in the fall and winter, but we wanted to make sure that there was an opportunity, really, to gather in the summer and be a community together,” said Potter.

“In the end, administration was in total agreement with that.”

Potter acknowledged that the celebration will not equate to the same level of that of Chautauqua Days, but is hopeful community groups that are typically involved in helping put on the annual celebration may be able to be involved in the summer celebration.

She said she knows many volunteer organizations may be disbanding for the summer, but the Family and Community Support Services department, which is heavily involved in Chautauqua Days planning, will be reaching out to see who might be able to help put the event on.

“If there are groups that would like to do something like that, we are more than happy to have them join us. We just anticipate that there may be some that the timing is just not right.”

As for what might be a part of the celebration, Potter says there were many creative ideas brought forward at Monday’s meeting for administration to work with.

“We gave administration a ton of options, so we are really looking forward to what they bring back.”

No dates have been finalized for the August celebration.