New Year's fireworks going quietly into the night
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New Year’s Eve 2012 may fizzle off into the night without a sound.
That’s because there will be no fireworks in Tillsonburg to ring in the new year, after the event at the clock tower downtown was cancelled by organizers.
For over ten years, the festive New Year’s Eve tradition has been presented by the Tillsonburg Rotary Club. This year, club president Frank Moore said the board of directors had to re-consider its options upon a thorough evaluation of annual programs in Tillsonburg.
“One of the things that has been some concern to the board is that with the New Year’s fireworks, the numbers in attendance have been declining year over year,” said Moore. “Secondly, the cost of the fireworks continues to escalate - we do not do any fundraising directly at the event and nor have we done that to my knowledge, so whatever we spend basically comes out of the Rotary Club’s fundraising activities during the year.”
Moore explained that the club wished to allocate funds to other events sponsored by the club that would benefit the community in various ways.
“We believe that we can have our funds utilized in a different way, and those funds for the year have been re-directed, re-focused,” he said. “This year we have provided a significant contribution to the TDMH digital mammography project and that was in the tune of $10,000 dollars. The other thing is that we felt very strongly in the continued or enhanced investment in our youth activities – which includes the upgrading of participation in the Glendale High School proficiency awards program, whereby we have increased the value of these awards or bursaries and have added three new bursaries to that program this year.”
“I think the under-riding thing here is to ensure that the funds that are raised are going to the best possible programs for the community.”
The decision to cancel the fireworks and New Year’s Eve event downtown came earlier in the year said Moore.
“The new rotary year starts July 1, so in actual fact, the new executive would make the decisions for the ensuing year and our rotary year runs from July 1 to June 30,” said Moore. “During that early part of that rotary year we would be looking at our expenditures and funding requirements in the rotary year.”
Tillsonburg mayor John Lessif said he appreciates the Rotary Club’s contribution to the community and respects its decision with regards to New Year’s Eve celebrations downtown.
“I respect that decision as mayor, they do many, many good things in the community. They do a lot of fundraising and if that’s the decision of the club, then I’ll certainly support it,” said Lessif noting the possible reaction from Tillsonburg residents. “Anytime there’s a change from tradition, it is upsetting to some people, but they have to understand the bigger picture of their decision and certainly the money that they’ve raised and the projects that they’ve identified that they want to support as a club.”
Moore admitted that there will be people disappointed by the decision to cancel the fireworks display this year on New Year’s Eve, but also hopes that the public can understand the significance of the contributions made in other areas of the community, as noted above.
“Our youth are a very important component and fabric of our community, and re-directing our funds in this nature, I think is an important step for rotary to do.”
Despite the cancellation of the fireworks and outdoor event this year, Moore said that the Tillsonburg Rotary Club would be willing to working with other local organizations or clubs to provide a traditional New Year’s Eve event in the future.
“We would be open to participating with other organizations in doing something. For one of the service clubs to do that is quite a significant project and from a cost point of view, it is pretty hard to undertake those costs as a separate entity but definitely, if there was interest in the community to have others participate, I’m positive rotary would be more than happy to join in.”