Community Days 2013 needs volunteer boost

By Becky Brooks

Man­ag­ing Editor

BVUnews@civitasmedia.com

The Belle­vue Com­mu­nity Days Com­mit­tee is look­ing for new vol­un­teers to aid in mul­ti­ple aspects of the 2013 event slated for June 27,28 and 29.

Marc Weisen­berger, direc­tor of the Com­mu­nity Cen­ter and city Recre­ation Depart­ment, said vol­un­teers are needed in two areas.

Vol­un­teers are needed now to plan the var­i­ous phases of the fes­ti­val and more vol­un­teers will be needed on the ground the week­end of the event. In total — the project takes nearly 50 peo­ple, he said.

“They don’t have to have a spe­cific still set,” com­mented Carol Marten, direc­tor the Belle­vue Area Tourism &Vis­i­tors Bureau. She is a mem­ber of the fes­ti­val committee.

There are many dif­fer­ent types of jobs to be com­pleted for the fes­ti­val and com­mit­tee mem­bers say there is some­thing for every­one to do.

“Peo­ple can help at the infor­ma­tion booth,” Weisen­berger said.

The com­mit­tee needs bod­ies to set up and tear down, sell fes­ti­val badges, 50–50 tick­ets and other fundrais­ers dur­ing the festival.

The com­mit­tee is also look­ing for clubs or groups which can take on the task of clean­ing up the fes­ti­val area each morn­ing – per­haps a youth group look­ing for a com­mu­nity ser­vice project.

Dur­ing the fire­works and prior to the fire­works, the fes­ti­val needs eyes on the ground to make sure peo­ple are not I the wrong areas, Weisen­berger said.

“There are all kinds of things,” he added about avail­able vol­un­teer positions.

The fes­ti­val oper­ates on a $30,000 annual bud­get with the major­ity of the funds com­ing from spon­sors and dona­tions, leav­ing much of the event depen­dent on vol­un­teer hours.

Some of the new or return­ing events and projects Weisen­berger would like to see this year include a Mr. Legs Con­test, a bas­ket­ball skills com­pe­ti­tion, a home-run derby and a corn­hole tournament.

Two other events that cur­rent com­mit­tee mem­bers are hop­ing to include are a tex­ting con­test and a photo contest.

“If there are ser­vice groups that are look­ing to raise some money or aware­ness,” he said, they should con­tact him to participate.

One area the com­mit­tee real­izes it needs to improve upon in 2013 is the sig­nage for the fes­ti­val – includ­ing direc­tional signs and spon­sor signs.

Weisen­berger pointed out that the fes­ti­val already relies heav­ily on the var­i­ous city depart­ments, which work well with the committee.

“With­out those guys, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” he added. The rec depart­ment direc­tor added that the Belle­vue City Schools also sup­ports the fes­ti­val as well by allow­ing use of facilities.

The key this month, how­ever, is to find vol­un­teer help to plan the many activ­i­ties com­ing up dur­ing the fes­ti­val this sum­mer, accord­ing to com­mit­tee members.

In 2003, the Com­mu­nity Days Fes­ti­val began as a one-year event. Weisen­berger said the Mayor then asked the Rec Depart­ment to keep it going.

“It’s still alive,” Weisen­berger said about it being 10 years later.

The local tourism bureau joined the fes­ti­val com­mit­tee in the past three years.

Like all con­tin­u­ing events, peo­ple have par­tic­i­pated on the com­mit­tee and after a time left.

Weisen­berger said as the fes­ti­val got big­ger, the com­mit­tee has seemed to get smaller.

“We have a vision of what we want to be,” he said as a half dozen of the other com­mit­tee mem­bers sat with him at a recent meet­ing in City Centre.

In the future, the com­mit­tee will be launch­ing social media to help the com­mu­nity stay in touch with event plan­ning includ­ing Face­book and Twitter.

For infor­ma­tion on events and raf­fles for this year’s fes­ti­val, visit www.bellevuerec.com, and www.bellevuetourism.org. To par­tic­i­pate on the fes­ti­val com­mit­tee, con­tact the City Rec Depart­ment at 419–483-5555.

Posted by Becky Brooks on Mar 19 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.