A new committee has been formed, and it is looking to light up West Nipissing.
Sabrina Bradley, who owns and runs Steve`s Premiere Pizza with her husband, posted the idea of potentially giving out a prize to the best-decorated home in West Nipissing for Christmas on her Facebook page. She saw the idea on the Sturgeon Falls page and thought it was a great idea.
When she woke up the next morning, her phone had over 30 private messages, and many comments on the post itself from various local businesses looking to donate prizes to the contest.
“It blew up overnight,” she said. “It was just an idea and it turned into something much bigger.”
She reached out to Shirley Perrin, the author of the original post, and the two got the committee started.
“I had a few other people too who offered to help, so Renee-Anne Paquette and Alain Gingras are also onboard the committee,” said Bradley.
The four have been meeting once a week for the last three weeks, and the Facebook event page was created.
“We want to keep it old school. We want people to drive around, see all the lights, and it will give people something to look forward to. COVID’s been hard on everyone. This gives us something to look forward to. It also brings back an old tradition that is pandemic friendly. We want to see as many houses decorated houses as we possibly can,” she added.
The contest is open for everyone in West Nipissing and Garden Village. It includes four categories: home, apartment, barn, and businesses.
“We want it to be inclusive for everyone. We have a tonne of prizes available for everybody and want to encourage people to decorate. All the draws will be drawn at random and will be winning a prize that’s donated by one of the businesses,” she said.
Bradley is blown away by the response from West Nipissing’s business community.
“Everybody jumped on board and it was just my personal page. It’s just people I knew. Now that we launched the Facebook page for the event, we’re expecting more people to join up. It was important for us to not ask for anything, or to go knock on doors looking for donations. COVID has been hard on many businesses and we didn’t want anyone to feel obligated. It’s people that came to us, and it’s completely overwhelming. I would’ve never thought the post would blow up as it did. It speaks to this town. We always rally around people in need of a service, or clothing or food. Everyone jumps in together and does it. It’s been the same for this. It’s been incredible.”
The contest page can be found here.
To honour the fallen, photos will only be accepted after Remembrance Day. The contest will then run until 9 pm on December 13.
After the random draws are done, there will be online voting done for the best-decorated home in all four categories. The winners will get a professional picture of their home by Rivewolf Entertainment, which will then be mounted thanks to Sturgeon Falls Printing.