Masquerade dance cancelled

Share

By Kira Paterson

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

The masquerade dance planned by the Beautiful Plains Community Foundation (BPCF) has been cancelled. The dance was scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 7 and was planned as a special event to celebrate the foundation’s 20th anniversary. Tickets were meant to be sold in advance, but there wasn’t enough interest from the community to make hosting the event worthwhile. 

Jane Goudie, president of BPCF said that the aim was to sell at least 300 tickets, but they were only at about 10 per cent of that goal. The tickets they did sell were refunded. Goudie said that it was most likely due to the timing of the dance, because there is always so much going on in the fall. She said that they have had similar dances in the past around this time of year and they usually didn’t have a great turnout. 

The masquerade was meant to appeal to the younger adults in the community, being similar to a social. They want to generate awareness in that generation and this was one of their ideas to accomplish that. However, with the sports dinner, several socials and all the hockey games going on around this time, the community was too busy for another event. 

Goudie said that they will consider putting it on at a different time, but it’s difficult to say when would work best as there is so much to plan around. Coming up on Nov. 14 is the 24 Hour Giving Challenge, which is a day when the Winnipeg Foundation will match the donations by $1 for every $5 raised, up to a maximum of $2,000. They also have their NHL Hat Auction planned for March, so they do still have some things going on throughout the year. 

Goudie said they’re not sure when or if the masquerade dance will ever happen, but they still want to do something to raise awareness among the younger people in the community.