The Walkerton Homecoming committee made a presentation to Brockton council Monday night to reflect back on the homecoming weekend success last summer.
Mike Wagner and Bill Carroll told council they were able to host an excellent party celebrating the town, and are already planning for Walkerton’s 150th in 2021. Wagner says part of that is upgrading facades of the businesses in downtown Walkerton.
“We figure by 2021, and trust me, right now there’s a lot of businesses that are putting money into their facades and it’s looking great," says Wagner. "By 2021 we want to have the majority of the downtown, we’re hoping the majority of the downtown is upgraded or beautified.”
Wagner says 2016 was a big success, and that 2021 will hopefully be an even bigger party. He says they’ll begin looking for volunteers next spring. As far as last summer, Carroll thought it really brought the town together, and ended up being a big success. Carroll notes they felt it was time for Walkerton to have a party.
“The biggest thing for me for 2016 was the fact that the town was just ready for something that we produced," says Carroll. "There was an underlying current of ‘we need to celebrate something.’ Our town has been through an awful lot over the past decade or so, and it was just time to celebrate.”
Carroll says the committee was able to donate nearly $60,000 back into the community to a variety of organizations due to the success of the 2016 weekend.
“All service clubs received money, the cat scan received money, the soccer fields received money, as well as Victoria Jubilee Hall, and a number of smaller groups that we wouldn’t really have been aware of, we recognized that they needed to receive some funds," he says.
Carroll says he and the rest of the committee will now work with council and the town to look forward to the 2021 Homecoming.