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First annual North Island Christmas Festival

“If it’s a big success we can do it every year”
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SUBMITTED PHOTO Salvation Army Representative Michael Winter (far left) shows off the beautiful painting that Mehran “Raz” Razmpoosh donated to the company. Harvest Food Bank’s Andy Cornell, Raz, and Blair Hamilton stand next to a model of the food bank that has a mural on it that Raz would like to paint once the food bank’s new roof is installed.

Port Hardy resident Blair Hamilton is organizing a North Island Christmas Festival at the Civic Centre on the last weekend before Christmas (Dec. 21-22) to help raise money for the Harvest Food Bank’s ongoing fix-the-roof campaign.

“If the festival’s a big success we can do it every year,” he said, adding that the cost for the food bank’s new roof is actually quite expensive. “Because there’s no insulation in the roof and it leaks like a sieve, they’ve had an estimate of $80,000.”

Hamilton is hoping to raise a sizeable amount of money at the Christmas festival by having the food bank’s model piggy bank on display both days for people to donate to.

All the proceeds are going directly to the food bank’s fix-the-roof campaign, and Hamilton wants to make this a ‘true North Island’ festival by inviting everyone to come to Port Hardy to enjoy the entertainment.

“The food bank covers everything from Woss-north, so I’m hoping that musicians from all over will want to donate their talent to the event,” he said, adding that Christmas is “one time where we all kind of celebrate the same thing, and we’re hoping to open the piggy bank up on Christmas Day at the food bank, which will be Andy Cornell’s (Harvest Food Bank manager) Christmas present from the community.”

Contact Hamilton at hamiltonblair57@gmail.com if you’re interested in playing music during the Christmas festival.

Tentative schedule for the Christmas festival on Saturday

10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. - local music

12:20 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. - lunch

1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - local music

5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. - Senior’s Swing dance (live music by the Port Hardy Jazz Band)

7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. - Moonlight, Motown and Mistletoe (DJ Brookes Laidlaw)

Tentative schedule for the Christmas festival on Sunday

10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. - local music

12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. - lunch

1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - local music

5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. - Mass carling led by the Three Pastors

7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. - Alert Bay “blessing with the blues”


@NIGazette
editor@northislandgazette.com

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Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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