Tempo on Highway 3 was "the place to be" - as the citation read from the 2018 store decorating contest judges - after the location won first-place among retail stores in the annual contest. Managers Tracy Clarke (left) and Vanessa Jurasek pose in the station's cafe on Tuesday. The 2020 contest is encouraging people to decorate their homes.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
The Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede’s promotion committee is celebrating the 132nd Stampede with community spirit.
The Stampede is encouraging residents to decorate their homes with Western Spirit, and will pick a winner later in the year.
“This is a variation of what we’ve had in the past,” said general manager Jim MacArthur. “We have a very active and enthusiastic promotions committee that has made this a home decorating competition.
“People are invited to decorate their residences and celebrate the Stampede that way.”
Usually people decorate their businesses with the year’s Stampede theme, but due to COVID-19, organizers want to make sure people stay safe.
“This is a good way to ensure social distancing,” said MacArthur.
The theme this year was set to be Celebrating Local Achievement, and the decorating competition will carry that theme on.
“If the Stampede had happened this summer, we would have worked local achievement into it throughout the week,” he said. “We always try and show off our local achievement with local art displays and better living – we were hoping to build on that.
“We want people decorating their homes to be creative and to celebrate local achievement right in their front yard.”
MacArthur says volunteers make things like the contest happen year after year.
People are able to enter the contest now at http://www.mhstampede.com/summer-stampede/home-decorating-challenge
