Quonset Days cancelled again

By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on June 5, 2021.

ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi

Too many uncertainties surrounding the event has forced Quonset Days to cancel for the second year in a row.

Janet Biemans, board member for the Quonset Days Foundation, says it was a tough decision and they went back and forth for a couple of weeks. The government’s re-opening plan took them by surprise, and they had an emergency board meeting where the decision to cancel the event was made.

“Our event actually takes a year to plan, so some of our stuff was planned. Our entertainment was in place, but that’s just a small portion of what goes on behind the scenes,” said Biemans.

“We actually would have had six months’ worth of work to do in six weeks and it wasn’t a guarantee that we did all the work, and the government could have turned around and said, ‘no you can’t have it.’ And the way we’re set up we can’t have social distancing, it’s just not feasible.”

With the decision to cancel, the Quonset Days Foundation immediately shifted to thinking of other ways they could raise funds for the ALS Society of Alberta – the foundation has raised $400,000 for ALS since Quonset days began in 2010.

“We’re coming up with small fundraisers to do this year that doesn’t involve social gatherings, plus we’re already working on next year’s event,” said Biemans.

Biemans says they are urging people to still donate to the ALS Society of Alberta if they can because it receives zero funding from the government and survives on donations.

“It’s something that’s near and dear to our heart and we want to make sure they can keep helping people,” she said. “Quonset days started 12 years ago, and it was because my husband had ALS and passed away and we wanted to make sure everybody had the support we did.”

The event usually has an outdoor concert, beer gardens and tractor races on little pedal tractors which Biemans says are mostly used by adults.

“It’s just a fun weekend. It’s three days of hardcore fun,” she said.

Anyone who wants to donate to the ALS Society of Alberta can do so at https://quonsetdays.com/donate/ or by sending an e-transfer to quonsetdays@gmail.com. Biemans says if people include their name and mailing address in the memo section of the transfer, they will send a tax receipt.

“ALS absolutely needs the support, and we appreciate anything people are willing to do. We have collector t-shirts and we’re hoping to have them again this year for a small donation and we’re working on a few other things to keep people involved and keep ALS in everybody’s mind because it’s a disease that’s not going anywhere anytime soon,” she said.

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