While you might not be able to taste virtual maple syrup, it sure does look good. So does the funding raised by the first-ever virtual Elmira Maple Syrup Festival.
Held April 9-10, the event raised some $30,000, with the proceeds now being distributed to 18 community organizations, led by Elmira Community District Living.
The total is in line with what the EMSF committee was able to donate last year. The 2020 festival was cancelled outright, scheduled to take place just at the COVID-19 pandemic was prompting lockdowns in the province. With sponsorships and other community supports already in place, the committee was able to disperse about $35,000 to 18 organizations.
This year, the event went virtual, with committee co-chair Doug McLean saying he was pleased with the outcome, and happily surprised by the amount of money raised.
“We did not know how successful we might be,” said McLean. “The fact that we have great organizations in Elmira that sponsored us, and the fact that we have a very definite need in the community when COVID is beating up on so many people … we were secretly hoping to be able to have some money to give out.”
McLean attributed the success to the hard working team keeping things up and running behind the scenes.
“It was very new and very uncharted. But we did have some young people on our committee that had worked on virtual events [in the past]… so they were of huge help to us,” he explained.
Organizers had to think outside of the box this year, noting that running a unique festival came with its own set of difficulties.
“Because of our uniqueness to the festival, it was a challenge,” explained McLean. “We didn’t know what we’re going to get or do right at first, and then things started falling into place.”
One of the things EMSF got right, he says, was the pre-sale of pancake boxes, allowing people to enjoy the taste – and smell – of the festival in their homes. The committee made up 500 boxes filled with pancake mix, local maple syrup, coffee and hot chocolate, a spatula and a festival toque, among other goodies. The packages quickly sold out at $50 apiece.
The fate of next year’s festival – virtual or in-person – remains up in the air, but the committee’s experience with this year’s event has brought some new ideas to the table, said McLean. There is a chance that the festival will balance both online and in-person activities in the future.
“I’m fairly sure there’s going to be a few pieces of what we did this year return online,” said McLean. “So it’s going to be an interesting challenge for us to figure out exactly what we’re going to do. But we do know, there were a few things that we did online this year that we really liked, and we’ll try, or think, about bringing that back.”
To date the festival has raised more than $1.7 million for both charitable and not-for-profit organizations in the region.
