Did you know?

• That Christmas @ Presqu’ile attracts 4,000 visitors to the Park? 
• That 70% of the visitors to our show came from outside the Brighton area?
• That the show supports the work of 130 local artisans?
• That this event is our largest single fundraiser?
• That over 100 volunteers contributed over 2,200 hours to make this event a success?

The 2017 Christmas @ Presqu’ile Arts and Craft Show was a huge success by any measure.  Visitors flocked to the five day show, the Tea Room and the Lighthouse Art Gallery.  All venues had near-record sales. This was particularly important to the Friends this year; since the month-long Park shut down impacted our other revenues.  This is our largest fund raiser, so its success gives a big boost to the revenues needed to support our educational and environmental initiatives.

Bev Cook and Linda Collins (by Henry Kole)

An event of this magnitude takes an army of volunteers to be successful.  Linda Collins, Chair of the Organizing Committee, has put together an amazing team.  The Tea Room was headed up by Joan Selwood and the Art Gallery was in the capable hands of Joyce and Don Boucher.  Nancy Sutton coordinated over 100 volunteers to make this event work.  Thousands of volunteer hours were willingly given to the cause – we owe everyone a huge debt of gratitude for a job well done!!

Joan Selwood (by Henry Kole)

This year, we decided to survey our guests to find out what brought them to the event.  Over 30% of all visitors knew about the event via word-of-mouth.  This year, we advertised on Facebook and that was a big help.  The local Newspapers did a great job of getting the word out and were very supportive. Thanks go to the many shops that displayed our brochures and posters.   Although our awareness level is high, we need to keep building on this particularly since over 30% of our visitors were first-timers.

Christmas @ Presqu’ile attracts visitors from all the communities in our area.  As might be expected, 30% of visitors are from the Brighton area.  Trenton and Belleville accounted for 23% of our guests; another 10% came from communities to the north and 14% from communities to the west of our town.  It is truly a regional event; one that we are proud to host each year.  Planning is already underway for the 2018 event; with your favourite vendors coming back and new products and vendors joining them.

Bev Cook