Organizers of the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Dinner really rose to the challenge this year.
The dinner is a major fundraiser for organizations in South Huron. But this year they couldn't host their traditional dinner because of COVID-19.
But ABCA Communication Specialist, Tim Cumming, says several groups found a way to be innovative and work with each other and put together an amazingly successful virtual dinner that ran from April 15th to April 22nd.
Cumming says a combination of things helped. That includes an online auction, which was new this year, the Exeter Lions Club's 50-50 Raffle Draw, also online and with the biggest prize ever, a new Dine for Your Community Restaurants program with participating local restaurants, donations, and testimonials and appeals through livestream cable TV and social media broadcasts. All these things helped the Conservation Dinner, of Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation and Exeter Lions Club, raise approximately forty-thousand dollars in projected total net proceeds for community projects that would not be possible otherwise.
Cumming adds, over the last thirty years, the Conservation Dinner has raised more than 1.25 million dollars for local community conservation projects such as parks, trails, conservation areas, job opportunities and bursaries for youth, conservation education, commemorative woods, turtle habitat enhancement and monitoring projects. The money has also gone towards recreation opportunities for the young and young at heart, and much more.