Muskoka Earth Festival Report

Five Volunteers from the Northern Lakes Chapter participated in the first annual Muskoka Earth Festival. The event took place under bright sunny skies at the expansive fairgrounds in Bracebridge, Ontario on Saturday, May 28th. 

Our outdoor display included two full sized wood-canvas canoes. Chapter Head, Alex Guthro brought his 14' Bearwood Canoe and Al Witham brought along an restored 12' Peterborough that was once covered in orange fibreglass . Both drew plenty of attention from the crowds throughout the day.

Equally eye-catching were two sets of rare Factory Sample canoes from the personal collection of member, Roger Young. Roger also recently published a book on his vast model canoe collection, entitled Little Things that Matter: Collecting antique factory sample canoes available for sale through his his site as well as on Amazon.

Our volunteers spent some pleasant time working on hand-caning some canoe seats. This drew in some attendees who were curious as to what they were doing. We'll be featuring some seat caning again at the next outdoor event in Gravenhurst scheduled for June 26th.

We had lots of foot traffic admiring the boats and distributed complimentary back issues of Wooden Canoe Journal while informing them of the WCHA parent organisation as well as upcoming  Chapter Activities. 

 

Overall, the event was a success as we sold enough raffle tickets and other crafted items to more than adequately cover the expenses of attending the show. Also, we were able to network with other local organisations such as the Friends of Muskoka Watershed, Aspen Wildlife Sanctuary and the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve. Hopefully there will be some collaboration for future Chapter Events.